Obama in Asia? Healthcare reform? Nope. It's Sarah Palin week.

Peter Wehner, a former policy aide in the George W. Bush White House, writes on Commentary magazine’s blog: “For someone who is closely involved in politics, I guess I am a rarity: I don’t find Sarah Palin to be particularly interesting.”

Wehner doesn’t think Palin is the future of the GOP, and nominates folks like Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) of Indiana, and former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) of Florida for that job -- men who are “conservative and principled, who radiate intellectual depth and calmness of purpose.”

“Palinism, as I understand it, is less a coherent philosophy or set of ideas and more an attitude and spirit,” he writes. “In that sense, she is a cultural figure much more than political one.”

But she is a cultural figure who sells books and magazines and air time -- and knows how to speak to “tea-partiers,” an important center of conservative energy.

It’s even conceivable, writes PoliticsDaily.com columnist Walter Shapiro, that she could win the Republican nomination in 2012. Because of the Republicans’ “winner take all” primary system, she doesn’t need a majority of voters to come out on top.

“If Palin can maintain, say, 35-percent support in a multi-candidate presidential field, then she is the odds-on favorite for the GOP nomination,” Shapiro writes.

Watch to see if major states start changing their nomination rules, as a manifestation of a “top-down Stop Palin movement,” he says.

And if that happens, watch to see if Palin’s supporters fight back.

See also:

Obama on critical trip to Asia – but will he read Sarah Palin’s new book?

Is Sarah Palin Newsweek cover sexist? Palin says yes.

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