I’ve said this many times: Sarah Palin will be the GOP nominee in 2012. New York Times columnist Frank Rich agrees with me.

While she only has a 39-percent favorability rating and 67-percent of Americans view her as unqualified to be President (ABC News/Washington Post poll), 80-percent of Republicans like her. This is more than enough to give her the nomination over Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Her only true competition would be Jeb Bush, if he decided to run.

On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine had a cover-story on the author, politician, FOX News commentator, and reality TV star. Here are ten things we learned about Sarah Palin from the interview:

  • She works hard and keeps long hours. Thus, she is not lazy like former President George W. Bush
  • She is not a total idiot. In the New Hampshire Senate race, Palin endorsed the establishment candidate, Kelly Ayotte, rather than a Tea Bagger favorite who sent her a photograph of himself alongside the carcass of a deer he had just shot. I would have totally thought she would have swooned over the guy who just whacked Bambi.
  • Palin is kind of a hypocrite. She avoids professional campaign operatives who she considers, “these unprincipled people who are in it for power, money and job titles.”  Yet, she has done nothing but cash out, self-promote, and strive for the job title of president since the McCain campaign ended. Pot calling the kettle black?
  • Palin is disorganized and surrounded by chaos. She does little forward planning and, like Bush, makes decisions from her gut. One of her chief strategists admits that, “there is no uber-strategy”.
  • The former Alaska governor is paranoid and obsessed with loyalty. She is still wounded by her perceived treatment in her VP run.
  • Surprisingly, Palin began her career as somewhat moderate, trying to work with Democrats to solve problems. She veered hard right during her foray with McCain on the national stage and has not looked back.
  • Palin’s liaison to the evangelical community is Pam Pryor. It is worth looking into her background to see what her views are on LGBT people.
  • Palin may be able to move to the center in a general election. During the McCain campaign, she edited out a disparaging reference to liberals, telling an aide, “We want liberals to vote for us too.” I can’t imagine she will have too much luck with that. But, it does suggest that she might be more flexible politically that we had thought.
  • Palin had previously believed in the Separation of Church and State. When running for governor of Alaska in in 2006, Palin said, “I do not wear my faith on my sleeve.” She also promised not to let her religious beliefs “bleed into policy.” Now that she is pandering to extremists, she applauds those, “proudly clinging to your guns and religion.”
  • Palin tends to poll 5 or more points better among men

Fun quotes from the article:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Ct.): “My impression is that she and Todd are the kind of people that I’d like to have as my next door neighbors. That’s a separate question of whether she’s capable of being president.”

Geraldine Ferraro: “…when you get down to substance, it wasn’t there.”

TWO Reader Joshua Paxton via Facebook: “It’s not so bad… can’t we just all vote for her and swap her out for Tina Fey when nobody’s looking?”