It was always a strange idea.

I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics. This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world. These athletes overcome more challenges, discrimination and adversity than most of us ever will. By the way, these athletes can outperform many of us and we should be proud of them. I hope President Obama’s comments do not reflect how he truly feels about the special needs community.

Benjamin Sarlin adds the necessary context about Palin and special needs funding. I’d add that it’s surprising the statement took so long — it missed the news cycle and will be lost over the weekend — and that it doesn’t acknowledge Obama’s immediate apology, instead asking whether the comment reveals how the president “truly feels” about the mentally challenged.

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“We’re obviously disappointed,” said a CPAC official. A spokesman for the three-day confab, organized by the American Conservative Union Foundation and others, said that Palin, the popular former vice presidential nominee, had indicated she would be able to attend but cited “duties of governing” in bowing out. Instead, she will send in a taped message.

Next, her attorney general resigns for completely mysterious reasons. And finally, Julio Osegueda, who asked an emotional question at President Obama’s town hall in Florida, is already surpassing Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder as Random Citizen Celebrity du Jour.

The through-line of the Palin iconography that materialized on the campaign trail like some kind of Michael Crichton virus was that Sarah Palin was tough. She toted guns! She could field dress a moose! “I believe [McCain] will follow Bin Laden whether it’s to the caves of Afghanistan or to the gates of hell,” said Mike Huckabee, “and… Sarah Palin will be right behind him, carrying a couple hockey sticks.” What, indeed, was the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?

The Palin that shows up in the Ziegler interview, though, is … how to put this? A wimp.

Two months after losing the election, she’s still smarting and bitter and naming names. While I usually hate the “but what if X did this?” trope, imagine what the reaction would be if Sen. John Kerry, John Edwards or Al Gore sat for post-election interviews in which they griped about how mean and unfair the media was, and how it shouldn’t have gone after their personal lives. Heck, imagine if Sen. John McCain did that, calling Keith Olbermann “evil” (as Palin does). I’m not even getting to the hypocrisy of Palin kvetching post-facto about Saturday Night Live when she couldn’t sprint fast enough to New York to appear on the show.

Yes, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cried that one time in New Hampshire, but it’s equally hard to imagine her agreeing to do a name-calling interview about all the bad coverage she got. A decent politician would have grappled with the media on the spot, as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher frequently did, or just let the issue rest.

Bob Poe, a former state commissioner and past president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., is the first to announce for the race. Republican Gov. Sarah Palin hasn’t said for sure whether she plans to run for re-election.

Poe, asked why he’s announcing so early, said it gives him time to get out and meet voters. He cited a comment in the Alaska Ear, which, reporting on rumors he would run, suggested the first thing that people would ask is, “Who’s Bob Poe?”

Palin is still popular, mind you: Her approval rating is 60 percent, and as much as 51 percent of Alaska wants her to win a second term. That’s just way, way down from approval ratings that once topped 80 percent.

At the least, Poe might spur Palin to spend more time governing and less time belly-aching about how the media mistreated her.

But now, according to a poll released by CNN, it looks like she’s causing a 2-point drag on the ticket.

Palin’s popularity overall is down:

Fifty-seven percent of likely voters questioned in the poll say that Palin does not have the personal qualities a president should have. That’s up eight points since September. Fifty-three percent say that she does not agree with them on important issues. That’s also higher than in September.

Palin gave McCain a bump during the Republican National Covention and immediately after. Her speech at the convention had all the elements of an old-fashioned stemwinder.

But as we’re coming to the finish line, it’s less clear if the Alaska governor was a smart choice.

Palin was accused of firing the head of the Alaska safety commission, Walt Monegan, for not intervening in what amounted to a personal family feud. Evidence in the report suggests that Palin and her husband, Todd, pressured Monegan to fire their former brother-in-law, the state trooper Mike Wooten.

Though the report found that Palin was within the scope of the law in firing Monegan, that doesn’t mean she’s off the hook. The report says she knew “pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda..”

The report explains that Palin’s actions amount to a violation of the state Ethics Act. In fact, the case is “one of the very reasons the Ethics Act” was established.

The question now: what happens to Palin?

The chairman of the Legislative Council, Sen. Kim Elton (D-Juneau), told me in an interview shortly after the report was released that he has confidence in the integrity of the report. But he said that he is not prepared to start considering taking action against Palin.

“This is like ‘truth and consequences,”" Elton said, standing in a hallway of the Anchorage legislative offices where the report was released. “Today, I will say we got the truth. The facts are now in the public. I’m not prepared to go to consequences.”

The spokesman for the House Republicans, WIll Vandergriff, told me that nothing is likely to happen before the regular legislative session begins, on Jan. 20, 2009. He said it would take a supermajority of lawmakers, 45 House and Senate members, or an executive action from Palin’s office to hold a special session on this issue.

Update: Sen. Kim Elton (D-Juneau) was wrongly identified as a Republican when this post was published. We regret the error.