Sarah Palin to join Fox News, gains official wingnut status

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will join Fox News as a contributor, according to Howard Kurtz at The Washington Post. Sarah Palin, who was the GOP vice presidential candidate in the 2008 Election Race, will be used on various Fox shows and will join 2008 GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on Fox News.

This officially solidifies Sarah Palin as a television pundit and moves her further away from being considered a serious candidate for the 2012 Presidential Race. Governor Palin joins Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity, thus she risks being considered only a Right-wingnut and not a politician.

If Palin does run, when 2012 approaches every ill-considered comment or quip will be gathered, blasted on television and online, and used against her again and again, wrecking any chance she has of being considered electable.

On a positive note, Kurtz reports that Palin will also host an occasional program that will examine inspirational tales involving ordinary Americans.

For Fox News, the move is genius.  It takes CNN away from the habit of using a Sarah Palin comment as news without feeding Fox News' ratings machine.

No official word on compensation or if Palin will eventually get her own show (and not an "occasional program") as of this writing. After she appeared on The Oprah Show, Palin said she would like to have a talk show of her own.

Stay tuned.