Opinion: Sarah Palin resigns.

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Wow. I didn’t see that coming. But I have to say I think it’s a great chess move on her part. Honestly, if only Palin’s intellectual abilities matched her political instincts she would be truly formidable.

Here’s how I read it:

There’s a huge void in the Republican Party and she’s moving to fill it. So watch out Rush! Sarah Palin vs. Rush Limbaugh. What can this resignation mean except a frontal assault on talk radio? Because she can’t seriously be thinking she can one day win the Republican Party nomination and maybe take on Barack Obama.

Before that happens, Newt Gingrich will savage her. Yes, I know he defended her during the election, but that’s when she didn’t have a chance of winning. He fully expected her to go back to Alaska and become irrelevant. Psyche! She’s making a power play. Bobby Jindal will talk her into a coma (like he did the rest of us) and Mitt Romney will go toe to toe with her on the issue of who is prettier. And his family is photogenic as all get-out. If she thinks she can out-folksy Mike Huckabee, well, he’ll teach her the meaning of ‘gosh darn.’’ I just don’t see her surviving the gantlet.

But it’s still a smart move. She got a ton of money with that book deal, so she doesn’t need the job. And now she avoids the charge of shirking her duties every time she flees the state to attend a fancy dinner in the lower 48. I bet Alaska didn’t have a chance of keeping her after floods forced her to stay home and be gubernatorial while Todd had a ball at the White House Correspondents’ dinner. You know she just hated missing that.

While I simply cannot believe Palin would make a serious run at the presidency, I’m certainly hoping she will. And if she’s resigning to start her presidential campaign, then I’m more than pleased. It brings us one step closer to my dream ticket for 2012:

SARAH PALIN/MICHELE (Obama is going to put us all in re-education camps) BACHMANN!

Seriously. I can think of nothing that would yield more hilarity.

And speaking of humor, I hope Tina Fey’s contract -- the moral one she has with the entire country -- links automatic SNL appearances with Sarah Palin gaffes. I’ve really missed her.