New York Times: “She was, in many ways, undone by the same political currents she rode to national prominence, first as Senator John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008 and later as a Tea Party luminary and Fox News star. Along the way, she helped redefine the outer limits of what a politician could say as she made dark insinuations about Barack Obama’s background and false claims about government ‘death panels‘ that could deny health care to seniors and people with disabilities.”

“Now, a generation of Republican stars follows the template she helped create as a hybrid celebrity-politician who relished fighting with elements in her own party as much as fighting with Democrats — none more so than Mr. Trump, who watched her closely for years before deciding to run for president himself. He ensured this month that he would remain in the spotlight, announcing another bid for the White House in 2024.”

“But as the next generation rose up, Ms. Palin’s brand of politics no longer seemed as novel or as outrageous.”

Katie Couric told BuzzFeed News that says her 2008 interview with then-Gov. Sarah Palin during the presidential campaign would likely have been treated much differently if it happened today.

Palin was asked which newspapers and magazines reads and enthusiastically responded: “All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.” Her response led to widespread mocking by late night comedians.

Said Couric: “I think there’s such a reverse snobbery about intellectuals that I think it would almost be seen as a badge of honor. I think that’s really concerning.”

Former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt explained on the Words Matter podcast how Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) settled on Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Said Schmidt: “I have regret about that every day that I wake up. But what happened here was — that my idea, and McCain supported it, was that he was going to pick Joe Lieberman.”

He continued: “What happened though is Lindsey Graham went out, not maliciously, but he let the secrets spill, it leaked when he was talking to a group of activists in South Carolina, and within a very short period of time we had heard from Limbaugh from Hannity, directly from President Bush, from Karl Rove saying ‘you can’t do it.”

“Oh yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I woulda pushed back harder on some of those who were trying to mold me into something that I was not during the campaign. I would’ve pushed back and gotten more truth out there, but heck yeah.”

— Sarah Palin, quoted by TPM, on whether she would run for office again.