Over the weekend, Sarah Palin spoke at the Iowa Freedom Summit, a place for Republican presidential candidates to preen and pose for Iowa voters. The Palin speech was supposed to inspire the media to wonder about a possible Palin 2016 presidential run, but it did not do that. To put it lightly, Palin delivered an incredibly disjointed speech. More to the point, it was the kind of speech that made me wonder if Palin is suffering from some sort of debilitating ailment. Palin can't seem to form a coherent sentence anymore. Or could she ever? In any case, this speech crosses the line from funny to sad very quickly.

Let's be clear about this: Sarah Palin is not running for president. Donald Trump is not running for president. Let's not pretend that they're actual contenders. They're walking jokes, sideshow freaks. They feed on attention and then they go away when it comes time for the actual politicians to do their thing.

It was a big weekend for Republican presidential candidates. Brain surgeon Ben Carson made a "joke" about Christian bakers poisoning cakes for gay weddings that reportedly went over very well with his staff. Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina seemed to make the biggest impression on Teabaggy audiences, according to the right-wing Washington Times. If all that stupid isn't enough for you, senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio bowed to the Koch brothers at a presidential forum on foreign policy over the weekend, too. Cruz reportedly made the biggest splash, and Paul's approval of President Obama's Cuba and Iran policies seemed to make the room very uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Politico is reporting that Hillary Clinton will likely announce her presidential campaign in early April. The 2016 race is on. It's happening, people, whether you're ready or not.