When Trump was going on for what felt like weeks about that birth certificate, I thought he couldn't possibly be for real. What's disturbing, though, is not that Trump might have been serious -- after all, he's just one guy. It's disturbing that so many people took him seriously, and he got an awful lot of legitimate press coverage out of it, and not on Access Hollywood either.

She's so ridiculous that others just appear more substantial as a result so that's why the party keeps her around?

I believe there's something to this -- more "serious" candidates like Newt Gingrich are already starting to roll their eyes over her. But she's also a wonderfully useful idiot, whipping up the conservative base into a frenzy. The entire summer of 2009 turned into an endless fugue state about health care reform with more than a little help from Palin and her "death panel" bullshit. Regardless of what role she will ultimately play in American politics, she has already done a vast amount of damage to the country, and she's had a lot of help from both mainstream Republicans and of course, the conservative media, without which she would have totally disappeared after the 2008 election.

Is it all hairspray?

She might have something under there. It is a little too high to be all natural.