Watching Sarah Palin give her big 'outta here' speech in her yard in Alaska with Lake Lucille wildfowl honking in the background was certainly entertaining.

She spoke with the gushy up-and-down inflections of a grade school student. Like many kids who confuse speed-of-delivery with effectiveness, Palin set a blistering pace while the wildlife punctuated her lines with honks that sounded a lot like derision.

We learned that despite the evil designs of detractors, everything is under control as she 'progresses the state.' She's loving the job... everything's on track... you betcha! Oh and by the way... 'I'm outta here'... because 'only dead fish go with the flow.'

Lousy metaphor aside, the muddled message got through. Palin is special and doesn't do 'business as usual.' A higher calling beckons.

Sarah Palin is a sham. A narcissist with an a act that is wearing thin. Bizarre though it is, this second rate actor remains a big fave of a sizable minority of Americans - some of them so-called 'conservative' Democrats.

Palin is barely competent when it comes to use of language. She struggles with concepts off-script that any politician worth his or her salt should be able to handle with ease at that level. In more obvious ways, the woman is clearly coming unhinged.

Maureen Dowd performed a service to reality with a New York Times article that tells it like it is. Caribou Barbie is indeed "one nutty puppy."

Ms Dowd's article includes this insight:

And so it was, Todd Purdum learned, as he traveled Alaska reporting on Palin for Vanity Fair, that the governor’s erratic and egoistic behavior has been a source of concern for people there.

“Several told me, independently of one another,” Purdum writes, “that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ — and thought it fit her perfectly.”

Narcissism and an out-of-control ego haven't stopped politicians from making it into high office. For many of her supporters, Palin's personal idiosyncrasies aren't viewed as deficits so much as evidence of a 'raw' politician with passion and conviction. As long as she can garner support she can't be written off.

Behind the politics is an ego that is self-serving, no matter how seemingly altruistic or high minded the cause. In the end it's not finally about Alaska... or America... or Trig... or Joe six-pack... it's mainly about Caribou Barbie.