Whatever her political future, the emergence of Sarah Palin raises questions that will not soon go away.

What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life?

Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party

keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency?

Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?