A June editorial regarding rumors that Sarah Palin would not run for re-election next year said that if the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee had national ambitions, she best would promote them by winning re-election and governing effectively. To say she did not take our advice is to set a record for understatement. Her departure from Alaska’s governorship proved as dramatic as her introduction as John McCain’s running mate. If this marks a permanent withdrawal from electoral politics, then Palin’s career will have its own chapter in “Believe It or Not.“ If it is a first step in a presidential run, then it rates as one of the greatest gambles ever. She may be a genius, or inept. Her competitors—Republican and Democrat alike—would blast her for walking away from a tough job, for betraying constituents who entrusted her with a four-year term. It is not as though she is leaving to join a presidential Cabinet or to accept a diplomatic position, either.

The next presidential election will not occur until 2012, but potential candidates already are committing consequential news. Republicans have lost two potential contenders, for instance. The admission of an affair dooms Nevada Sen. John Ensign. The news that he had been sweating around with an associate (who was the wife of an aide) broke soon after he had made one of those toe-dipping trips to a state with an early date on the nomination calendar. Support for Ensign in Nevada immediately collapsed. Although politicians have recovered from scandal before, Ensign’s career lies in ruins.