In the course of defending Sarah Palin from such critics as Chuck Grassley and Lisa Murkowski, and declaring the governor's resignation a "crucial 'learning moment' for D.C. Republicans," The Weekly Standard's Jim Prevor speculates regarding her future:
Will she write a thoughtful book? Become a syndicated columnist whose ideas make her a “must read” for everyone? Will she found an important new think tank? An important journal? Spearhead an effort to help the unemployed? Decide to launch a business? Or maybe she will start a new political party?
I don't think Prevor meant the quote marks he placed around "must read" to denote irony, but the sentence reads a little more clearly if one assumes he did. It helps, too, if one imagines that the words "thoughtful," "ideas," "important" (twice), "effort," and "business" were similarly bracketed.
That said, if I were, say, Mitt Romney, I would be a tad concerned about the final possibility Prevor mentions. If one believes, as I do, a) that Palin has every intention of running for president, barring the emergence a scandal that makes this impossible; b) that she will not win the GOP nomination; and c) that the bitter grudge-holding that has characterized her career will continue; she seems an unusually plausible risk to launch a base-shattering third-party candidacy.
--Christopher Orr