Tired after another long, depressing week of following the news?  Well, in non-news today, I can report that Sarah Palin’s descent from ambitious politician to crazed media stalker is continuing to pick up speed.

In the wake of her hastily scheduled PR-stunt visit to the Iowa State Fair last week, Palin’s promotional PAC released an ad today apparently to remind the media (which, unsurprisingly, is spending more time covering actual candidates for the Republican nomination) that she was there.  At the end, the video hamfistedly promotes her planned — um, okay, “planned” may be too strong a word for anything involving Palin, so instead let’s say “previously announced” — return visit to the state for a speech on September 3rd, the start of Labor Day weekend.

Among the usual word-saladized Americanisms about ordinary people “who want the exceptionalism put back into our country” (uh, WTF?), what struck me about the ad was the heavy emphasis on how much attention the media paid to Palin’s visit (as if to say, “Hey, c’mon, look!  She’s important, really!”)… and Palin’s tenser, angrier stage presence, with more than a hint of desperation.  The “doggones” and “heck, yeahs” are still there in her speech, but the relaxed fake-Reaganesque cheerfulness is gone, replaced by a determination to stir up some kind of transient excitement any way she can.

What will Palin do as the pretenses continue to slip away, as it becomes obvious she’s no more serious about running for president than Newt Gingrich is?  Will she, like Newt, officially announce a candidacy that exists almost nowhere except inside her mind?  Will she linger at the fringes of the political arena like a traumatized and rejected Cinderella, wandering the outskirts of the palace muttering to herself and dressed in rags, with a broken glass shoe in her hand?

Or will she retreat to whatever comfortable home all her grifting has enabled her to afford, nursing her bitterness and privately complaining like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard that “I’m still big; it’s the political process that got small”?