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Steve Schmidt is the guy everyone blames -- himself included -- for convincing Sen. John McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008. And yet, miraculously, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney writes, Schmidt has been rehabilitated, having "settled into a lucrative and prominent existence that suggests he is the beneficiary of the kind of political resurrection Mr. Schmidt might have orchestrated for a beleaguered public figure." Even so, it feels like Schmidt will never be completely untangled from Palin. Both may have failed in 2008, but who has been better at failing upwards since then?
Sarah Palin
Cable paycheck: Palin has a Fox News contract worth $1 million a year, though Roger Ailes has hinted it might not be renewed when it's up in 2013.
Palatial hideaway: Palin's lakeside house in Wasilla is pictured at left. (Photo via Associated Press.)
Post-2008 style update: Palin is still wearing her signature bangs and glasses. But she's developed an unsettling taste for art teacher-style enormous earrings, as seen above.
Celebrity friends: There aren't many conservative celebrities in Hollywood, and it's hard winning over the liberal ones if you don't show a little ambivalence toward the Republican party. For a while, Palin was pals with The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But no more, Popeater reported a year ago. A Hasselbeck pal told the site, "I think Elisabeth is a good friend. She remembers birthdays and even with a busy schedule always takes time to stay in touch with her girlfriends… But Sarah has let her down. Elisabeth has reached out to her several times but she never responds."