Here’s a fresh take on Sarah Palin, in an editorial written by Ernest Dumas for the Arkansas Leader. He cuts no slack to John Ensign or Mark Sanford. And he notes that Mike Huckabee likely profits most — divine intervention? — from the backward march of potential presidential opponents in his party. But for Palin, the editorial finds sympathy.

Her incoherent and irrational explanation for resigning only a little more than two years in office dismayed even her ardent supporters, but we found some grudging admiration for the woman for the first time. She did not demonstrate the resilience and toughness that she had boasted about and that are the requisites for a president, but we found the humanity of her act understandable and touching.

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She can’t take it anymore — the strife and pressures of political contention — and she wants it to stop, for herself as well as for her family.

… The ordinary wizened politician — Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, John Kerry, John McCain and, yes, Mike Huckabee — can handle those pressures and thrive on them. But not many of us, and not Sarah Palin. Her 18-minute farewell (though she may not have intended it to be) was not impressive, but it was human.

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