1. The passing of John McCain got me thinking about Sarah Palin. And this led me to this eerily prescient piece that @frankrichny wrote in 2009. nytimes.com/2009/07/12/opi…
2. In 2009, Rich could see that Palin's meteoric rise in 2008 said something important about the @gop base. The leadership of the party, even as early as 2009, had no stomach for a fight against the atavistic impulses Palin embodied. 
3. The @gop politics of white rural grievance was clearly visible in 2009 as well, with Palin as its electoral standard bearer.
4. Palin also embodied the fact-free nature of @gop political rhetoric. Not a totally new thing...but something she certainly helped to amp up. A potential POTUS who knew almost nothing about domestic policy or foreign affairs?!? Who could ever imagine it?
5. In 2009 Rich also associated Palin with the narrative of "mainstream media is my enemy and is out to get me." The Fox News "don't trust the liberal media" line was old hat by that point, but hadn't been hammered quite as hard by top-of-the-ticket candidates (Agnew excepted).
6. in 2009, Rich predicted that if the GOP doubled down on Palin-esque politics it would be the death knell for the party. Interestingly, David Frum thought this too in 2009. I seem to remember similar things being said in 2015-16 (including, I must admit, by me).
7. Rich sensed in 2009 that Palin had unleashed some pretty unsavory emotions, a deep reactionary anger that was a response to the combination of demographic shifts and the first black president. Palin was the precursor to birtherism.
8. There's obviously no way Rich could have known this in 2009, but looking back from today, Palin sure looks like the gateway drug to Trumpism. I mean, read this paragraph and substitute "Trump" for Palin and you pretty much have the 2016 playbook.
9. There are many facets of John McCain's extensive record of public service that I respect, even though I disagreed with most of his political positions. As a private citizen, I offer my condolences to his grieving friends and family.
10. But as a citizen, it's hard for me to forgive him for validating what he must've known were the worst elements of the @gop when he chose Palin as his VP. This informed public servant chose a complete novice. This man who said he prized civility, chose a divisive race baiter.
11. And this man who took foreign affairs seriously, chose someone who thought Africa was a country, and who thought she could see Russia from her house. latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/200…
13. Perhaps that trajectory was overdetermined and there wasn't much he could have done. Perhaps he pushed back in ways that I'm simply unaware of. Only time will tell what direction the @gop ultimately takes, and how we'll come to see McCain's role in the party's (d)evolution.
14. [Coda] The current @gop is dominated by people like Trump & the Palin-esque AZ senate candidate Kelli Ward who glory in dissing John McCain as a RINO. Ironic if McCain's Palin pick helped build a party that would eventually define itself *against* him.
