She's so over!

The first time I ever remember hearing of Sarah Palin was when John McCain selected her as his vice-presidential candidate in 2008, because he thought the Republican ticket needed some sex appeal. For that alone, he deserves to be cast into the dustbin of history, never mind his erratic flip-flops on policy and his abandonment of principles that he had previously claimed to hold dear. But back to Sarah.

I may have heard of her in passing when she was elected governor of Alaska, but frankly, I don't remember it, and she certainly never did anything in her brief stint as governor to bring herself to my, or the nation's, attention. But once she had an opportunity to step onto the national stage, courtesy of McCain's all-consuming desire to be president and the good of the country be damned, she certainly has taken advantage of the spotlight.

She has become a multi-media extravaganza. Unless you are willing to shut down your computer, turn off your television and radio, and stop reading newspapers and magazines, it is almost impossible to avoid her image, her voice, her words. Believe me, I have tried.

With her books, her appearances on Fox "News" Network, her "reality" TV show, her family psycho-dramas, as well as her constant Facebooking and tweeting, she is ever with us. Now, I haven't read her books, or watched her TV show, and I certainly haven't seen her on FNN - in the scroll of TV channels that are available for watching on my television, Fox is hidden. And you can bet that I'm not her Facebook friend, nor do I follow the fractured language of her tweets. Even so, I can't escape her!

I can manage not to read anything relating to her, but the television opinion and comedy shows that I watch cover her every word assiduously. I think that when Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert, and Keith Olbermann wake up in the morning, the first thing they do, even before the first cup of coffee, is to rush to see what outrageous thing Sarah has done overnight. They are almost never disappointed. As soon as they've learned of her latest narcissistic rant, they've got material for their shows for that evening, and they can breathe a sigh of relief.

Lately though, I think the Sarah schtick has been wearing a bit thin on America's nerves. Maybe her tone-deaf response to the murders and attempted murders in Tucson, where it was all about Sarah's victimhood, was the last straw, but even before that, people in general were beginning to get distinctly tired of her. Overexposure, negativity, and constant whining about how people just don't appreciate you will do that to a public figure.

So now we hear that a CNN poll shows that 56 percent of Americans view her unfavorably, and among independent voters that rate is even higher - 59 percent. There is a loyal core of fanatical Sarah supporters - in the teens in most polls - and they will not be swayed in their opinion by anything that she says or does, but for the vast majority of the rest of us, she is so over!

It couldn't happen to a more deserving personality.