McFeatters: Palin still isn't ready for political prime time

"Don't you say anything bad about Sarah Palin," admonished one of my sisters. "We love her. Be nice to her."

"What is this infatuation about Sarah Palin all about?!" said another sibling. "I can't understand it. She has no real solutions. All she does is criticize and look hot."

This love-hate relationship we have with Palin says more about us than it does about her.

As thousands line up to buy the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate's book, they sport "Palin in 2012" T shirts and vow undying affection for her. The airwaves are saturated with speculation about the motivations and political future of the former Alaska governor.

She even overshadowed the debate on health care insurance as she got back into her trademark uniform - black skirt, high heels and red jacket - to sign copies of her ghost-written book, "Going Rogue." Martinet aides controlled the crowds, who obediently stood in line for hours, pushed books at her for signing and gushed like excited schoolchildren when in front of her.

Her most avid supporters seem unable to articulate why they are fans. Several told MSNBC they admire her devotion to the Constitution but could not explain how that distinguishes her from other politicians. They adore her eagerness for candor but can't explain why she frequently changes her mind on such things as federal bailouts and bridges to nowhere.

They tell her "right on!" when she defends profiling members of a class or ethnic background, even while touting the virtues of political correctness when it comes to Newsweek's inexplicable decision to put a sexy picture of her wearing shorts on its cover.

On the other hand, the negativity against her is also puzzling. She has no political podium at the moment. She is making oodles of boodle giving speeches and hawking a book with factual errors, but that's certainly also been done often enough by many others. Even ardent conservatives say her base is too small ever to give her the presidency should she seek it. Nonetheless, her naysayers get visceral.

It seems to me there are several reasons for the adulation/condemnation reaction to Palin.

She is a beautiful populist at a time when government seems to have failed us. We yearn for somebody new, preferably a maverick, to come in from the cold and fix things in Washington. And she is adept at voicing our anger at how badly so many institutions are serving us right now.

But there is a great deal of disappointment with Palin. She seemed to come from nowhere last year, with her beauty-pageant good looks and freewheeling style and John McCain's trust. But she flamed out badly when given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Many who were ready to support her - including women excited about her gender - still resent her inadequacies and propensity for attacking without regard for truth. When the going got tough, she quit the governor's job in Alaska. In her book, she blames everybody else for the 2008 defeat.

Intellectually, she was not ready for prime time, and she still isn't. But she won't admit it. We have seen this past year that being president is an even more overwhelming job than we thought. She is not qualified to be president but instead of trying to rectify that by preparing and developing gravitas and well-thought-out policies, she complains about past treatment. She speaks in catchy sound bites, but doesn't seem to care about serious policy and won't do the hard work of mastering it.

What she is doing - and doing brilliantly - is being a celebrity and making money. And, let's be honest, if she weren't attractive and pleasant as well as providing quips that delight journalists and if there were other exciting Republicans in view, she would be largely yesterday.

Palin's story is an only-in-America tale. We admire beauty and youth and celebrity and insouciance. But all those fade, and then we forget. In the end, we admire competence and substance and hard work and perseverance.

Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986. E-mail amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.