Sarah Palin dropped by the Tonight Show Friday night (eat your heart out, David Letterman) to read a few choice excerpts from William Shatner's autobiography — a counterpoint to Shatner's earlier reading from her new book.

She performed nicely. In fact, it may have been the best public presentation we have ever seen her give — polished, each line perfectly timed and delivered with panache.

Here's the clip:

        

The goods are out on Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue: An American Life, and guess what? She didn't get along all that well with John McCain's campaign staff. Let's hope there's newer, juicier stuff in it than that. Otherwise, you'd have no reason to buy Palin's memoir from my Sarah Palin Sex Tapes Online Store, where it is on sale for the outrageously low price of $9.

We can't have that.

There are a few interesting tidbits in the parts of Palin's book that have leaked. For instance, she says she granted Katie Couric the famous interview that helped define Palin to the voting public as a dimwit because she felt sorry for...

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This is a crappy, sleazy interview, and I feel dirty for printing a link to it. But, hey, it's my job.

Bristol Palin's babydaddy (I suppose I should say ex-fiance or something but Levi Johnston, with his possum grin and laid-back manner, strikes me as more the babydaddy type)...

But anyway, Bristol's babydaddy says Sarah Palin stepped down from office because she was having marital problems. Well, first he says she's stepping down because she's "taking the money," an apparent reference to her plans to earn money to defray legal costs resulting from an ethics investigation.

But then, asked point-blank by the so-called reporter is the Palins were having marital problems he says "yeah, from day one" and goes on to say he thinks that was a factor in her decision to step down as governor.

        

Did Sarah Palin resign as Alaska's governor in order to spend full time preparing to run for President?

If so, the New York Times contends, it's a risky strategy.

In a story posted to its website Saturday, the Times recalls that Richard M. Nixon announced he was retiring from politics for good in 1962 after losing his campaign for reelection and failing to win the White House two years earlier.

"In fact," the story says, "Nixon used the next six years to quietly refurbish his image,building ties with the conservative wing that was becoming ascendant in the Republican Party, ingratiating himself with Republican senators and candidates forgovernor by campaigning on their behalf, and becoming better schooledin issues."

Palin, however, is at a different place in her career than was Nixon. While conservative Republicans adore her, she is viewed disparagingly by many of the Republican Party's elites, the paper says, and has grown increasingly unpopular both in her state and nationally.

And, unlike Nixon, who hadbeen a vice president, a senator and a member of the House, Palin's credentials are weak. She has been the mayor of a small town and, by resigning, she gives up the right to claim she has served even one whole term as governor.

"Without a positive record of accomplishment as governor, Ms. Palin may find she has little to run," the story says.

        

Much of the talk about Sarah Palin's decision to step down as governor of Alaska centers on the question: Why now? In her rambling announcement, Palin mentioned the "full-court press" of attacks aimed at her. It's hard to believe this extremely readable Todd Purdum story in the August issue of Vanity Fair wasn't one of the things she was talking about:

"What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that apublic official who often seems proud of what she does not know is notonly accepted but applauded?" he asks early on. "What does her prominence say about theimportance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in publiclife? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—longregarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyallyworking for her election even after they privately realized she wascasual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency?Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiestsurvivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’sinjustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and anoverdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked aperson whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job allbut disqualified him for his?

Purdum continues:

In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdomamong Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that sheshould go home, keep her head down, show that she could governeffectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domesticpolicy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has donenone of this.

Nope. Doesn't look like she'll be doing any of it now either.

It's a great read. Have a look.

        

What a shocker?

When John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, the only qualifications she could point to were being mayor of her hometown and serving part of one term as governor of Alaska.

She announced Friday that she will not finish that term. She's stepping down by the end of the month. Why? "No more politics as usual," she said. Over and over.(See the video after the jump.)  She also said lots of other stuff. She talked about basketball a lot. And a refrigerator magnet that says: "Don't explain - your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway."

The magnet should've added: "...unless you're governor and you're resigning in the middle of your first term."

The closest she came to an explanation: She's not going to run for reelection, so she's quitting now to avoid being a lame duck.

Since she did it at the start of the 4th of July weekend when everyone is tired of hearing about Michael Jackson, TV pundits will...

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Hey, we found this cool cartoon shooting game on Politico. Now we're addicted.

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is now a granny, People magazine reported Monday. Palin's unmarried 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, gave birth Sunday to a 7-pound, 7-ounce boy. The baby was named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, according to the magazine.

Bristol and Levi Johnston, her babydaddy, reportedly are considering a summer wedding.

The pregnancy became publicly known just as the Republican National Convention was beginning last September, when Bristol still was 17. The news caused Palin's critics to question her credentials as a social conservative as opposition started to build against John McCain's choice of Palin for vice president.

After the campaign announced that the couple planned to get married, Johnston — a former high school hockey player who dropped out of Wasilla High School to become an oil field apprentice electrician — attended the convention with Bristol.

The soap opera that is Palin's life took another turn earlier this month when Johnston's mother was arrested on felony drug charges after state troopers served a search warrant on her home. Authorities say she sent text messages to police informants discussing the illegal purchase of illegal pain killers.

        

You knew it wasn't over, didn't you?

It looks like the Republican National Committee paid more for Sarah Palin's fashion and grooming than has previously been disclosed.
A new report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows that $54,900 was paid to Palin's fashion stylis. At least, that's what the New York Times suggests in what appears to be a hastily thrown together blog report.

The money went to “Lisa Kline & Co.” for "Consulting-Campaign." Kline's name previously appeared on much of the $150,000 in charges that already have been reported. That money went for clothing and accessories from luxury stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Kline has never returned reporters' phone calls to discuss the matter.

The "campaign accessories" purchased in the new report again came from Saks and Neiman Marcus and other stores, including Victoria's Secret, Brook's Brothers, Ann Taylor, Macy's and Target.

        

Republicans in Georgia treated Sarah Palin like a rock star on Monday — what else is new? — but Democrats had Palin on their minds, too. That's because Maryline Blackburn, the woman who beat Palin in the 1984 Miss Alaska pagent, sang the national anthem at an event Monday night.

She was inroduced by Jim Martin, the Democratic senatorial candidate, as "Georgia's own Miss Alaska."

Georgians vote today in a runoff election between Martin and Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss.

Blackburn, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, is a singer who has recorded four albums in the pop, rock, R&B and gospel genres, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She's lived in Atlanta for 22 years, but she grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska. Palin was first runner up in the competition.

Blackburn's first impression of Palin (then Sarah Heath): "Oh my god, she’s gorgeous — she’ll probably be the one who wins."

Then she says she noticed something else, something the rest of the nation now knows:

“She had this look about her, this look in her eyes that tells you she’s calculating, figuring out ‘How am I going to win this competition,’ ” Blackburn said. “There was a determination there.”