It's All About Trig

William Jacobson has a well-founded theory about why the left hates Sarah Palin so much: It's all about Trig:

I waited a whole day before posting about the Sarah Palin resignation. Well, not a whole day, but longer than almost everyone else in the blogosphere. Here's my take as of this moment in time, subject to change:

I don't know why Sarah Palin resigned, what her plans are, or whether she has or wants a political future.

I do know why the left hates her so much. And it keeps coming back to Trig.

Yes, some people hate Sarah Palin because she doesn't have the traditional pedigree, she isn't one of them, she is too good looking to be taken seriously, etc. And yes, some hate her because they hate her religion, politics, blah blah blah. But that doesn't explain the Sarah Palin hatred. It is so deep as to be pathological.

But it keeps coming back to Trig.

From the moment Palin was nominated for V.P., the attacks on Trig began. First there were the rumors, spread by Andrew Sullivan and others, that Sarah Palin was not Trig's mother, that there was a grand conspiracy of hundreds if not thousands of people to cover up that Bristol Palin was Trig's real mother. Those Trig truther conspiracy theories have been pushed hard by Sullivan and the others continuously to this day.

Read the whole thing. He includes lots of examples of lefty Trig-hating.

Palin-haters think they've won now that she's resigned and made a move that's being portrayed as "erratic" or "bizarre" or "abandoning Alaska". Maybe yes, maybe no.

One thing for sure, and this should scare the left to death - after July 26th she's free. Free to speak wherever and whenever she wants, free to write, free to see where her popularity within the party may take her.

I have my doubts that she has 2012 on her mind. She would not only be facing a GOP field that will be quick to remind everyone that she quit her governor's job early, but would be facing an incumbent president. My guess is that if she has White House ambitions she's got 2016 on her mind.

Her kids will be seven years older - most of them gone from home. Traveling will not be as big a burden on her family, and her time will be even more flexible. She'll only be 52, still pretty young for a presidential candidate and assuming that Obama hasn't changed the constitution, he won't be running.

The other benefit of waiting until 2016 is that even though Palin hatred might linger, it can't keep up the intensity that long. The Andrew Sullivans of the world will have faded into obscurity.

And by 2016 she'll be ready. Anyone who thinks she'll just disappear is probably vastly underestimating her. After all, can anyone name the last Vice Presidential losing candidate that was able to dominate the news cycle 8 months after the election?

Stay tuned.