Since she burst onto the national stage in August 2008, Sarah Palin has captivated the nation, either by adoration or condemnation.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s election, or as I like to call it, Jimmy Carter’s re-election, Palin has announced the near release of her book, Going Rogue: An American Life.

The announcement of the book alone shot it to the top of the Amazon and Barnes & Noble online bestseller lists, a fact that has baffled the country’s elite and intelligentsia.

Yet, what they ignore is that Palin was the most electrifying thing to happen to McCain’s campaign in the final months of the election.

There was something about Palin that inspired love or hate among the American public.

Amidst the toxic political atmosphere that has permeated her presence in American politics, I have found myself squarely in the middle (ironic, I know).

As an intensive political nerd, I don’t know if I should be proud or embarrassed for having known about Palin since her election as governor in 2006.

In 2006, Palin ran an insurgent campaign against the incumbent, Republican Governor Frank Murkowski.  Saddled by charges of corruption, Murkowski was trounced by Palin in the Republican Primary, and she went on to win handily in the general election.

After watching her victory, I knew Alaska would never be able to contain this feisty former Ms. Alaska runner-up.  I saw a Republican that I genuinely would want to vote for on a national ticket one day.

Here was a Republican I could agree with; someone who was willing to stand up for ethics and against corruption, regardless of who was in office.  Here was a Republican who talked the talk and walked the walk about conservative values.

Here, here, was a Republican who ran as a conservative, was elected as a conservative and who governed as a conservative.  It was no surprise that she consistently had approval ratings over 70 percent before she was tapped as McCain’s running mate, even holding an unimaginable 93 percent approval rating in the infancy of her governorship.

She was elected on issues of good ethics, good government and fiscal responsibility.  She was also a committed social conservative who, as far as I could tell, did not pursue policies that alienated more socially liberal voters.

As a known politico, I had people begin to ask me after the 2008 Republican Primary who I thought McCain would ask to be his vice presidential candidate.  I would throw around the common names such as Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty, or even McCain’s longtime friend Joe Lieberman.

I would always include Palin in the mix, baffling everyone who had almost unanimously never heard of her before.

Then, out of nowhere, national political commentator Bill Kristol wrote an editorial in the New York Times encouraging McCain to pick none other than Governor Sarah Palin.  I, of course, thought it would be a brilliant move, pairing the two mavericks of American politics, and in the process encouraging the Republican Party to actually stand up for its beliefs and ideals by electing two of the most ethical politicians our country had to offer.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I learned that McCain had selected her, confirming my own analysis of the election.  The initial boost McCain got from the selection also confirmed in my mind that it was finally Palin’s time for the national spotlight.

Finally, Republicans were beginning to actually be excited about the election for the first time since the primary.

She spent much of her first national speech and her nomination speech talking about her experience as governor and her belief in America and its people.  She electrified the base and, at the time, intrigued independents.

Then came the Katie Couric interview.  I watched it painfully, cringing as her answers become increasingly less coherent.

I heard in her answers McCain’s talking points, but she was trying so hard to stick to these that she started piecing together completely unrelated parts of McCain’s platform.  This tactic left her without an opportunity to discuss her best topic, herself.

It was in this moment I knew I had been wrong.  Palin simply wasn’t ready for national politics.

This is not to say that she is unintelligent or that she could never be a national politician.

However, remember even Barack Obama did poorly when he first began his primary challenge to Hillary Clinton.

This was because he had to adjust from being a statewide politician to being a national presence, much in the same way that Sarah Palin did.  But he had the advantage of over a year of national campaign experience before the election that Sarah Palin did not have.

Do I think that she will emerge as a significant contender in 2012?  I don’t.

While exceptionally talented, and likely more prepared for a national run, I don’t see a Palin candidacy gaining much steam.

I will continue to respect her as a politician and as a reformer, but her time has come and gone.  That’s not to say that she won’t sell a mess load of books.

That’s not to say that she won’t stay in the limelight.  But it is to say that her credibility was damaged, fairly or not, by the 2008 election, and it is unlikely that she will be able to ascend to the top of the Republican ticket in 2012.  But who am I kidding?

If John McCain could win the nomination in 2008 after everything that happened to his campaign, anything is possible.

Seth Williford is a junior political science major from Wilson, N.C.