Nate Silver on Palin's role in the forthcoming Republican nomination process:
I don’t think much is accomplished by comparing Ms. Palin to Charlie Sheen, but it seems entirely fair to compare Ms. Palin to someone like Pat Buchanan, a factional candidate who had his impact on the Republican primaries but ultimately had limited upside.
The difference, of course, was that Pat Buchanan had some political heft. Palin has nothing beyond some very broad ideological positions and reality show celebrity status. That said, we're talking about the Republican Party here. They no longer require any heft. Just loudness and the ability to repeat nonsensical far-right, jingoistic word salads. Palin has that x1000.