I already ranted about Sarah Palin's appearance on SNL.

Let me throw some ponderous thoughts into the mix.

There's quite a lengthy article today at The New Yorker which explains how Palin got into the halls of Capitol Hill by way of their back doors. In "The Insiders : How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin", we have a shrewd and ambitious woman using every little stepping stone she can to get herself out of her "small town state" and into the big scene of Washington DC.

A feat that would have been all but impossible without the power the internet has in generating buzz.

It is interesting to see Sarah Palin the opportunist harnessing what some would flippantly call, "the power of the blogs". The story seems to suggest that the stars all aligned in Palin's favor. Meaning, once a so-called random blogger named Adam Brickley started a movement to draft her as Vice-President, blogging stars like Instapundit and Michelle Malkin noticed which in turn brought the attention of people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill Krystol and others.

All by the grace of god, as Adam Brickley would suggest.

Right. Because there could be no possibility of, you know, a little bit of astroturfing on the part of the PR agency Sarah Palin had hired to raise her visibility among the East Coast elite media.

In the end though it doesn't matter whether Palin was an active creator of the internet buzz that brought her into McCain's VP position. What's relevant is her flair for not just marketing herself as a "new improved" brand of the GOP. You have to give it to Sarah Palin : She has a knack for creating and aura of celebrity buzz around her.

She knew she needed image consultants and a PR machine. She wasn't beneath capturing an opportunity presented by an blogging nobody and Heritage Foundation alum like Brickley in order to fulfill her ambition.

Most importantly, she knew exactly how to act as the chosen one for the Republican party.

John Bitney, a top policy adviser on Palin’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign, said, “Sarah’s very conscientious about crafting the story of Sarah. She’s all about the hockey mom and Mrs. Palin Goes to Washington—the anti-politician politician.”

She knows how to walk, talk and be the exotic conservative bird the republican Washington elite have been dreaming for since the days of Reagan. Yet she lacks, unfortunately, his intellect; making her a good mime instead of a character actor.

Actually, John Cleese, in talking about Sarah Palin, described her as a well-trained parrot. She is not so much acting as she is mimicking the character she has been told to be; following a script but without understanding what she is saying.

It's this idea of Sarah Palin as a parrot that actually made me feel disappointed when I saw her on SNL. Palin spoke bits and pieces, but her voice was completely coopted and taken away from her, especially in the Amy Pohler piece.

I can understand her choosing not to rap, but it's beyond me that the McCain campaign acquiesced to her not just not doing much during her appearance. She had to endure being ridiculed by Pohler while being glacially ignored by Fey's Palin.

It's amazng to me that there was no possibility for her to, for example, read a "right wing version" of the news. As in, to come in an "correct" the liberal media bias from the anchors.

It may well be all of SNL's fault. It may be the writer's and performers contempt clouded their imagination.

Yet I get the sinking feeling it was a lack of courage from Palin and the McCain campaign that had her there, barbie'ing her appearance. It may well be that, in the urge to completely control her "blank slateness" and her parrotting ways, they didn't want her to veer off their script. And since she has no improv skills, they couldn't take the chance of approving a skit that could have been changed at the last minute by any of the actors or the producers of the show.

That's what's so mind boggling.

Just as I thought she'd shatter my opinion of her, she goes on to prove exactly what I think of her. That the woman is a very willing and ambitious parrot. That she "empty vessels" herself to become the reflection of other people's desires so long as it gets her to where she wants to go. This is, am afraid to say, taking politics to the darkest depths of beauty pageantry.

She will be your hockey mom if you give her fame.

She will be your pit bull with lipstick if you give her riches.

She will be your well-trained parrot if she gets to be called Madame President.

Or in this case, Madame Puppet.

The SNL skit seemed to confirm the cynicism that propelled Palin to such a high profile position. No wonder she couldn't look at Fey's parody in the eye.  It would have been like looking into her own soul.