Less than a week after the presidential election, political pundits have already begun to discuss Sarah Palin’s future. Back to obscurity? A run for the U.S. Senate if Ted Stevens goes to jail? A run for the presidency in 2012?

So it may be instructive to examine what went so obviously wrong on the Palin express during her short time as a candidate for vice president.

For now, there is precious little insight available concerning why John McCain chose his running mate. Speculation centers on his penchant for throwing the long ball. Knowing little about the woman, and running out of time to make his choice, McCain may have just taken a chance. Some of his allies thought the strategy was brilliant. Others were less enchanted.

Even before Election Day, we began hearing about the sour atmosphere inside the Palin operation. Top staffers were quoted anonymously about her behavior. One adviser said she was “going rogue,” making remarks on the campaign trail that had not been approved by the campaign. Another insider called her a diva.

After the election results were in, further reports surfaced about a huge rift between McCain and Palin. The New York Times did a story. Carl Cameron, of Fox News, went on the air with specific, if still anonymous, revelations he said he had promised to withhold until the polls closed.

According to Cameron, McCain staffers assigned to prepare Palin for public appearances were stunned by her ignorance of basic public policy. She didn’t know which nations were part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. She thought Africa was a country. Things like that.

Cameron also reported that Palin was prone to temper tantrums, and that she refused to be prepped by staff for her famous interview with Katie Couric. A McCain adviser later denied that allegation to The New York Times. But it was fairly well understood what questions Couric would ask, because she had already interviewed Joe Biden. And Palin did not seem prepared. Asked which court rulings, other than Roe v. Wade, with which she disagreed, she said:

“Well, I could think of, of any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I’m so privileged to serve, wouldn’t be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.”

Also in that interview, Palin famously explained the economic crisis. Excerpts of her answer were then used verbatim by Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live,” to the great amusement of all concerned. The real Palin said:

“That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.”

At the time, this newspaper speculated that Palin simply must not be interested in world events and matters of public policy. But others wondered if she could understand the subjects if she tried. James Fallows wrote in The Atlantic that Palin’s answers to Couric suggest “a person whose previous two decades of adult life have not equipped her to absorb the briefings she is no doubt receiving about the big, obvious issues in the campaign: the market crash, health care proposals, tax plans.”

But now, if Carl Cameron is to be believed, she refused to attend such briefings — indicating her problems were attributable to willful, rather than inherent, ignorance.

Either way, the country dodged a bullet this week.

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