How Palin Lost Her Grip On English

Pareene compiled several clips from Palin's speaking career and concluded:

Twenty years ago she could competently describe a dog race, three years ago she could articulate a position on the abortion issue, and this weekend she composed a resignation speech by throwing culture war stock phrases into a hat and dumping it upside down on a copy of The Paranoid Style in American Politics. [...] It's like Peggy Noonan, Jack London, and William Faulkner wandered into the woods with three buttons of peyote and one typewriter, and only this speech emerged.

A YouTube that made the rounds a few years back made similar past-present comparisons with Bush. Whether it's panic at the prospect of saying something stupid in public or the stress of incessant condescension I cannot say. In Palin's case, she's clearly bonkers and always has been. If I were telling as many lies as she is, my speech might get a little mangled - it's remembering all the lies that's tough. You can blurt out the truth in public if you're not careful.