Here's a notable example. On June 30, 2008, Leo Von Scheben from the Alaska Department of Transportation wrote to Palin for approval of a transaction with a deadline of July 3rd. Her response? "Why must this be done in the next day or two?" To which he replied as patiently as anyone could that the deadline was um, July 3rd.

That style is characteristic. In the nightmare where she is elected President, I can imagine her texting and tweeting everyone in the White House with "where are we on this or that" over and over but having no clue what they're actually doing, because that's how she ran Alaska. It's one thing to manage things and another to hire staff, sit back and hound them via Blackberry followups about where they are on things.

The other picture the emails paint is one where she's pretty obsessed with her public image. She stomps her feet at mean bloggers and reporters, while playing up the PR wherever possible for the friendly ones. The term that came to mind for me was "spokesmodel". It's what she did best -- the public events and the bells and whistles, but I don't really see where she ever climbed down in the weeds far enough to actually know what it was she was cheering for half the time.

Oh, and she just loves Sean Hannity to death. Nothing but good things, so there's that. But Hannity is completely off base when he says liberals are afraid of Palin. It isn't liberals. It's the true conservatives who actually understand policy that should be afraid of what she can do, given enough populist momentum.