Get involved or get ready for an Irish Palin

THE announcement by Sarah Palin that she will not seek the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in America’s presidential election next year, will provoke relief and disappointment in equal measure.

Relief in that someone so obviously unsuited to that office will not demean it, demean American civic life or the idea of participatory democracy as a representation of the very best a society has to offer.

The disappointment is rooted in the fact that her candidacy would have led to, as it so memorably did when she stood as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, many moments of great but unintended hilarity. Though that amusement soon turned to concern at the prospect of someone who could not name even two or three newspapers having real influence in the world’s greatest superpower.