Sarah Palin must wonder what happened to her political glamour. Coming out of the 2008 election campaign, she had a bright future. Even a year ago, she still had a shot at the GOP presidential nomination. Now she's almost an afterthought, as the Labor Day weekend showed.

Dick Cheney, the former vice president, wondered on a radio talk show on Friday why Ms. Palin had quit as Alaska governor two years before her term expired. "Well I've never gotten around the question of her having left the governorship of Alaska midterm. I've never heard that adequately explained so that I could understand why, how she decided in her first term to step down and still be—I'd like to know more about that," Mr. Cheney said. Good question.

Meanwhile, on her Labor Day bus tour, public frustration with her will-she-or-won't-she-be-a-candidate pose was palpable. "If she had done it right she could be popular here [in New Hampshire]," Kevin Smith, executive director of a conservative think tank, told AP. "But I don't feel a lot of energy or enthusiasm here about a Palin run. Voters here in this state, who frankly have been taking this primary seriously since the beginning of the year, are indifferent."

Ms. Palin may still decide to run, but if she does she will have a hard time winning even in Iowa. Her approval ratings have fallen sharply among Republicans, who doubt she can defeat President Obama. The polls show she fares worse against the president than nearly every other GOP candidate.

Ms. Palin might have been a contender. Had she finished her job as governor, devoted a year or two to learning what she didn't know about the world and economics, built a network of support around the country, and developed a thicker skin about the media, she might now be a formidable candidate. Instead, she chose to be a media celebrity and to play hard-to-get as a candidate. The best thing she could do for her reputation at this point would be to declare once and for all that she isn't running, and then work to support whoever is the GOP nominee.
