The best line in the article:

No one is saying Sarah Palin should be viewed as an accomplice to murder. Many are merely saying that her recklessly violent and inflammatory rhetoric has poisoned the discourse and has long run the risk of empowering the deranged. We are saying it's about time someone took responsibility for this kind of rhetorical extremism, because it can and has led to violence and murder.

I think she bears more responsibility than Sullivan does, but regardless, her political career is finished...isn't it?

Canuck, in asking whether this may be the end of Sarah Palin you've put your finger on why so many feel guilty for failing to adequately suppress their glee at this terrible moment.

"No one is saying Sarah Palin should be viewed as an accomplice to murder."

Andrew Sullivan clearly hasn't read my facebook.

If you think her career is finished you have no idea the level of ignorance / stupidity in this country. I hope I'm wrong.

@2 I'm really not sure, Canuck. It all depends on how she and Fox decide to spin this. A traditional sensible politician would know when to throw in their cards, but Palin isn't a sensible politician. Plus, her biggest cheerleader & platform, Fox, is notoriously shameless, and her base is a collection of the lowest IQs this country has to offer. With enough decent spin, a good chunk of this country could still be lead to hold Palin and her ilk entirely blameless in this. If they decide to claim that Palin still has a legitimate place in American politics, it will be up to the rest of us, media, power players, and citizens alike to collectively shun her out of the spotlight, & I doubt we have the cohesion or the staying power to force Fox into retreat on a property they have so much invested in.

Well, I'm saying that Sarah Palin is an accomplice to murder (also guilty of sedition), but my opinion [fortunately?] doesn't amount to a fart in a hurricane.

The end of Sarah Palin's political career?

There have been, and will be calls for her to take responsibility, resign from Fox, retreat from public life, etc.

Fox et all, will take the most hysterical calls, and the calls from the usual suspects, and package the up as proof that The Lamestream Media and Beltway Insiders have it out for poor dear Sarah. After all, no one could have foreseen that something like this could have happened from her cute little map with the clever little surveyor marks. Sarah, to her handlers and those naive enough to buy her schmaltz, will be a victim, and Conservatism is all about being a victim.

Once that message is out, The Lamestream Media (or at least the editors and publishers) will be chagrined. How could they possibly accuse Sarah of such a horrible thing? After all, she's just a hockey mom. She's just like us. Or what they think we're like. After all, in their view, we're all a bunch of morons who eat at Applebees, shop at Wal-Mart, and spend all our free time watching pro sports, "Dancing With The Stars" and "American Idol"

And four months from now, the whole thing will be forgotten. Willow will be pregnant, or Todd will have a new snowmobile. The odd little Palin world will continue on.....

(and I'm not saying this as a Seattle Big Thinker. I'd love to be wrong.)

Exactly, gus, I even felt guilty writing it, thinking, "well, there's this at least..."

As for her career, you guys make good points (about the gullibility of the average WalMartian), but my hope is that for the mainstream republicans, this will be the last nail in the coffin. I think they've been looking for any reason to wash their hands of her, and this will give them that opportunity. The question, I guess, is whether the Teabaggers have what it takes to put forth a viable presidential candidate on their own, which I seriously doubt. At least I seriously HOPE they can't. God.

@2

Palin's political career was finished the day she resigned early from her job as Alaskan governor.

She has no interest running for president, or for any other elected office. That would require hard work and low pay.

She will continue to "write" books, give paid speeches and work for the likes of Fox News -- she is making a shit ton of money right now and she is smart enough not to mess that up.

Anyone pick up on the Heart of Darkness reference in the article title? I lol'd

Mistah Kurtz, he nutz.

Howard Kurtz is one of those journalists that fit in well at CNN. "The Republican says his Democratic opponent wants to send Grandma before a death panel and make abortion mandatory. The Democrat says his Republican's opponent's budget estimates w/r/t tax cuts are unsustainable and will blow a hole in the deficit. Both sides are guilty of slinging mud."

Mr. Kurtz isn't a moron. He writes banal sounding false equivalences and and republishes the worst sorts of right wing rhetoric, mainstreaming it and laundering it for mass consumption. He does it as a job.

It's a mistake to call these people dumb.

It's wishful thinking to think that Palin's political career is dead. You are thinking like a logical, sane person. There are, however, a large number of voters in this country that don't think logically. They base their choices on Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush, their pastor, and many other less than truthful sources.

I hope her career isn't over.

I'm pretty sure that Tea Party-endorsed candidates did less well than other Republicans in the recent elections. And all the people who think she can become President seem to have forgotten how nobody wanted her to be *Vice* President last time.

So I don't see any evidence that she's an asset to the Right. Quite the opposite.