How were they gonna keep her down in Wasilla after she'd seen D.C.? The answer, clearly, is they weren't — not the Alaska Republicans or anyone else after Sarah Palin got a taste of the big time.

Now that she has elected so dramatically and irrationally to quit the governorship in midstream, the only question is how she will manage to be the force for good for her state and country she boasted about in her quixotic exit.

After yet another clear demonstration that her ability to articulate where she's going leaves much to be desired — for instance, insisting she's "not a quitter" while quitting — Palin seems more overwhelmed than driven toward new challenges.

Like any relatively obscure public figure suddenly thrust into the national spotlight of an intense presidential election campaign, the stars in Sarah's eyes obviously blinded her to her need to address the gaps in her knowledge and experience, best filled by continuing on her job in Alaska.

Her quest to see completion of an Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline could have been one vehicle for upgrading her resume. But instead of her home folks having her back as she sought to capitalize on her new celebrity, many will be at her throat if she continues to abandon them.

According to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will succeed her as governor, Palin's decision "really had to do with the weight on her, the concern she had for the cost of all the ethics investigations and the like." Parnell said gathering records for the investigators alone was costing the state $2 million. On top of that, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News she had about a half-million dollars in legal debts herself in fighting the ethics allegations, most of which have since been dismissed.

There was also the toll taken on her family, with the focus on her unmarried daughter Bristol's pregnancy, broken engagement and the vicious "joke" by television's David Letterman regarding her other daughter. All this obviously made heading for her favorite fishing hole compelling.

But as Mr. Dooley famously said, "Politics ain't beanbag," and Palin seldom in the past avoided a good brawl. Most disappointing was her disingenuous contention that she was quitting for the good of Alaska rather than to clear away the debris of her erratic entree into national politics and somehow make a fresh start.

There's no doubt that Sarah Palin has star quality, not simply in her good looks and folksy style but in her ability to voice extemporaneously the litany of Republican conservatism that still fills the bloodstream of the depleted party of Ronald Reagan. She can readily tap into it as a major fundraiser for GOP congressional and gubernatorial candidates heading toward the 2010 elections, reassuring old allies and winning grateful new ones.

But the speculation of Palin as a prospective Republican presidential nominee three years from now, somewhat fanciful even before her slap at the voters of Alaska, now seems ever dimmer. Nevertheless, if she is able to address her glaring deficiencies as an informed political figure and put substantially more substance on her glitz, she could take advantage of a very thin Republican field for 2012.

It's been noted that two-time loser Richard Nixon, as a presidential nominee in 1960 and a California gubernatorial nominee in 1962, persevered and wound up in the Oval Office six years later. But Nixon didn't quit, and he worked tirelessly in the party vineyards all that time.

Palin risks the fate of another feisty long-shot Republican candidate with a silver tongue, Nixon speechwriter and newspaper columnist Pat Buchanan. In 1992, he ran a close second to the senior George Bush in the New Hampshire Republican primary and in 1996 beat Bob Dole there, but flamed out later and left the party.

Whether Sarah Palin stays in Alaska and becomes a footnote in the history of American politics, or ventures out onto the larger stage for further fame and/or profit, her roll of the dice at least gives the GOP and conservatism something to chew on during what is a dismal period for them.