We elected Reagan. Then we elected George W Bush. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility we could elect Palin. Right now she’s seen as clueless even by a lot of Republicans but if they spend a few years drumming basic points into her and have her repeat them on a regular basis on her TV show perceptions can change. There’s a good chance we have a lost decade economically or worse and she’s got the ability to profit from a wave of resentment in 2016. She already has a core of people who’d form the basis of the kind of social networking thing Obama benefitted from, there are a lot of motivated folks out there who’d run through a brick wall for her. If Obama scrapes a win in 2012 and the economy and fiscal picture are still in trouble all Palin needs to do is persuade the GOP base she’s electable. She’s got a few years on their TV channel to do that. 
I used to watch that when I was growing up. I was living in Britain for a year or two then back to America. I used to get PAL VHS video tapes of it mailed to me when I was in the States.
She would most likely quit between election day and inauguration day, claiming that she was already a lame duck, or a dead salmon or something witty like that. Besides, who knew there were so damn many cabinet positions to fill?
Clothes would be half off at Bloomingdales…
Congress would run the country for four years or however long she were to be in office. The US would be a laughing stock worldwide but I’m not sure that we’d notice the difference.
Thousands of people (myself included) said that they would move if Bush got a second term. I’ve yet to see a mass exodus.
Thousands of people doesn’t qualify as a mass exodus in a country of 300 million. But yes, most people were blowing smoke when they made promises of this type. No matter how little they think of the president, most people won’t uproot themselves to get away from him (or her). You’ll notice birthers aren’t leaving in droves either.
Where the heck would they go? To a country that is further to the right of the USA, but is fully committed to Christian values? There is no such place.
ETA: At least the empty promises of the left to leave the country made sense - they had Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe to choose from.
President Palin?
Gloom ,despair, agony on me. Deep dark depression ,excessive misery.
She’d be the first female President, and her inauguration would be a historic watershed in American politics. She’s probably also be a bit of a patsy - much like the popular image of the W/Cheney administration, or the later years of the Reagan administration.
Whether or not anything really bad would happen would likely depend on her political capital- if the Obama presidency ended disastrously, or she had a 9/11, she might really do some damage.
Oh, and she’d resign to focus on true leadership halfway through her term. 
I think the world would close it’s minds and doors to America, in some ways.
I think world leaders would find better things to do than meet with someone so lacking in substance. I think the world, in general, would cease to care about the American presidency and the American political system, believing you deserve what you got and that you clearly learned nothing from the Bush years.
I think American would find itself left off the world stage, in many ways. Your nation would become a joke in the international community.
All of your points are amply supported by her actions as governor. One of the lesser known problems she had in that job was her nominations of people without bothering to check qualifications or bothering to check with her party to see if the Republican legislators could choke down a shit sandwich. There was bipartisan rejection of some of her choices, and she was stupid enough to nominate one person twice for the same position, after he had been rejected in the first go-round.
Seeing her win the GOP nomination in 2012 appears to be more and more plausible. :eek:
Let’s hope.
I kind of doubt she’ll do it, though. She would have to eventually actually do some interviews and answer questions from peope who aren’t conservative media toadies.
No matter how bad that goes, it will be the fault of the “gotcha media” asking impossible questions like “which magazines do you read?”.
Yeah, that mean old gotcha media. How dare they fact-check?
Obama’s big social networking gains were made on the Internet by a bunch of motivated 20somethings. Palin’s biggest supporters are 60+ year old men. Which I believe is the smallest Internet demographic in the country.
Can you just imagine the Presidential Debates between Palin and Obama? :eek:
Exactly. These days, the president is only as good, or as bad, as his party’s selection of candidates for the many other posts that are filled by a new president - cabinet, advisors, astrologer (in Reagan’s case), etc. Bush got through 8 years as a figurehead for Cheney, Palin could be the patsy for some other power broker and it wouldn’t really matter if she was good at any other job. She could meet and greet as well as anyone else I suppose and Cheney or his clone could take care of the rest. Not saying I’d like it but the President doesn’t make all of the decisions that come out of his, or her, office.
Frankly, I would be very tempted to vote for her if there was any chance she would visit Saudi Arabia in a bikini.
I’ve seen one or two incompetent bosses. One of their characteristics is the desire to appoint people dumber than they are to staff positions. Palin comes across as so sure of herself that I doubt she’d want anyone who would contradict her in Cabinet meetings in a position of power.
Presidents have to meet with foreign leaders one on one. She’d get taken like a hick from Iowa in the old Times Square. “Own the Brooklyn Bridge? Really?” She apparently still doesn’t realize how stupid she is.
As for looks - I started out thinking she was attractive, but she has gotten uglier every time she has opened her mouth and expelled a nugget of ignorance, and now she is somewhere south of Medusa on my scale.