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Last week’s stunning double dose of Sarah Palin – her Tea Party stump speech and her FOX News interview with Chris Wallace – was enough to make a grown Mr. W. cry. (And as I commented elsewhere, it’s usually the boy shooting his pet deer in The Yearling that gets Mr. wOw’s waterworks gushing.)

The woman is running for president in 2012. She’s gonna take her capacious handbag of tricks and she is going to seek this country’s highest office. It’s going to happen. So, in a way, it’s a relief. Like you always feel so much better after vomiting, you know?

There’s no point in criticizing Palin’s recent appearances – for one thing, the estimable Margo Howard said it all right here on wOw. Sarah is Sarah; equally loved and loathed by millions with an almost terrifying fervor. She’s like the Grand Canyon or poverty – here for the ages.

But what made Mr. wOw cry today? Why is he more convinced than ever that the Democrats just don’t know what the hell they are doing, cannot handle themselves when they win, and will likely lose everything in three years?

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs at the podium, mocking Sarah Palin’s hand notes to herself. Gibbs, one of the most inarticulate press secretaries to ever hold this position, wrote up a grocery list on his hand and read it. Hil-ar-i-ous! Of all the things to pay attention to, making fun of Mrs. Palin’s inky palm is way down there. Childish, pointless, the perfect opening for more “look-how-they-beat-up-on-poor-Sarah” responses.

If Gibbs, or the president, felt they had to say something about Mrs. Palin’s latest tumble down the rabbit hole, perhaps mention might have been made of her grotesque suggestion that the only way for Obama be re-elected is to, you know … kinda declare war on somebody. To prove he is a real-life true-blue American patriot.

This from a woman whose son serves in Iraq. Of course, who knows? Maybe Sarah is a true-blue Spartan gal from Alaska — “return either with your shield or on it.”

Gibbs is an idiot. His vaudeville turn was not funny. I bet it’s backfiring as Mr. wOw scribbles. This is so typical. If I was in Mr. Gibbs’s position nothing short of bamboo shoots under the fingernails could have prompted me to even mention Mrs. Palin’s name, to give her power and validation by recognizing her. “The president and his staff are too busy with health care and the economy to pay attention to doodles. Next!”

There’s a phrase I’d love to use to describe what I think of Mr. Gibbs and whoever else thought this Palin pokin’ was funny. But … Rahm Emanuel said it first.