It is a generally accepted fact of politics that each party eventually eats its own, and most of the time it eats them alive.  At the moment, this is the notion that sustains me as I wrestle with both my curiosity about and confoundedness with Sarah Palin.

Last year, voters fell in love with the notion of Barack Obama in sufficient number to elect him President of the United States.  He didn’t have to engage the voters in substantive discussions about issues so much as he simply had to show up.  He promised a change we could believe in, and apparently that was enough to plug into people’s displeasure with George W. Bush’s eight year presidency.  Heck, even Republicans were displeased with that, and did everything they could to distance themselves from Bush during the election campaigns.

This year, the savior is Sarah Palin.  Just like candidate Obama, she only has to show up for queues to form, for placards to be displayed, and cheers to rise.  No substantive discussions are necessary, no position speeches required – - just pitch the old “Us vs. Them” theme, smile and wave.  Certainly no heavy intellectual lifting there on either side of the security details.

When one of the Palin supporters was asked at a recent book signing event why she favored her, the supporter cited Palin’s opposition to President Obama’s stimulus plan.  When the news reporter, Norah O’Donnell of NBC, told the lady that both Palin and Senator John McCain had supported the stimulus plan last year, and reminded her that it was former President George Bush who had originally proposed it, the lady said she was not aware of that.  It did not diminish her support of Palin in the least, she said – - or, in other words, don’t try to confuse me with the facts.  O’Donnell has been harshly criticized by the right for “demonizing” Palin and for being an intellectual elitist.  Thus, the confoundedness with Palin and her followers.

Every Republican at the moment is nothing but kind and encouraging to and about her when asked.  It’s hard to find a single one who will try to pitch issues and facts to contradict a single thing she says.  However, one need look no farther than the calendar to explain much of that faux kindness and kid glove treatment.

Next year is an off-year election, meaning the ballot has no candidate for president on it.  It’s just the entire House of Representatives, one third of the Senate, and some governorships up for grabs.  There are no long coattails to ride, and President Obama will not be welcomed by all Democrats running.  Those in tough re-election battles will probably want him to keep his distance.

Not so with Sarah Palin.  She’s a cash cow for the Republicans, and so no one is going to have anything but very nice things to say about her for now.  They’ll want her to help raise campaign funds for Republican candidates next year, and to make public appearances for them all over the country.

On the day after the November 2010 elections, though, and when she is jockeying for position as the party’s presidential nominee in 2012, publicly or otherwise, she’s just another gal named Josephine, although not a plumber.  Other candidates from within the party will take her to task for the least little things.

They’ll do so to distinguish their candidacy for the party’s nomination from hers, or to sell their better changes at victory against Obama, or anything it takes to win.  In essence, the party will turn vicious toward its own until the winner comes into focus, finally to coalesce behind that winner for the final sprint.

What might those distinctions be?  It’s too early to tell, of course, but still, let’s speculate.

She’s a former governor who resigned half way through her term and walked away from her job, and a published author of a vengeful fluff book; and he’s a highly successful business man who served his entire term as governor of one of the lower 48.

She’s still a former governor who resigned half way through her term and walked away from her job, and a published author of a vengeful fluff book; he’s a former Lt. Governor and two+-term Governor of another lower 48 state who completed not just his own terms but that of his predecessor, a published author of seven books, and the second highest vote getter in the 2008 Republican primaries.

She’s still a former governor who resigned half way through her term and walked away from her job, and a published author of a vengeful fluff book; he’s a former two-term Governor of another lower 48 state who completed his elected terms in office, and who previously served as a State Representative and that state’s House Majority Leader.

She’s still a former governor who resigned half way through her term and walked away from her job, a published author of a vengeful fluff book, and the single most divisive public figure of either party.  Her following represents a minority wing of Republicans,  and she has no significant following among independent voters in the country.

Everyone else is mainstream Republican who could make worthy and substantial inroads among independent voters whose support will be crucial for victory in 2012.  Everyone else, also, had the courtesy, let alone the respect of the electorate, to complete the terms to which they were elected.  Everyone else has far more government experience and conversant issue knowledge than does she.

Both parties do eat their young every four years or so, and Palin will not be spared that indignity. The prospect of that phenomenon is solace to those of us who are still confounded by her popularity.