Fade to black, you bet'cha

THE IRONY of Sarah Palin bowing out of the presidential race and the passing of Steve Jobs today must be providential. News of the two unrelated events, cultural earthquakes both, occurred virtually at the same moment. But Jobs will rightfully dominate the headlines tomorrow. Even the cable talk shows, each primed to feast on the huge Palin news like ravenous jackals, turned on a dime to cover Jobs instead. Nothing says you're irrelevant like being shoved out of the limelight without so much as a by your leave. Palin became the lead headline at every major news daily and political blog when she halted her presidential striptease in mid-act. When Jobs died, she became an instant page 2 story, even on POLITICO (which speaks volumes). Given her crass, over-the-top entrance at the GOP '08 convention (“You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick! You bet'cha!”), her unceremonious boot from the stage today is poetic. Though she's been showing leg on stage for some 1.6 million minutes since Sept. 2008 (time we'll never get back thanks to the media's obsession with her), Palin's 15 minutes are up. (You have no idea how good it feels to write that.) Mercifully, there now remain no real reasons to reward her crack-like addiction for attention. The fact that the media dropped Palin like a proverbial bad habit today is a good sign. The other irony is that this soap opera could only end this way. The idea of putting "Palin" and the "presidency" in the same sentence has been laughable from the start. The die was cast the moment Tina Fey perfectly captured the Wasilla hockey mom on Saturday Night Live. So, on behalf of a grateful (and relieved) nation, Ms. Fey, thank you.