And you thought we'd get a break from gender politics

I've taken a few minutes off from pondering the Diophantine equation and Fermat's Last Theorem to devote some thought to something even more perplexing: The drama surrounding the Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who was called both Sarah Failin' and Sarah Pawlenty at the RNC yesterday.

The NaturalBlog has been a Palin fan ever since my one-and-done contest, "Governor Hot or Not," more than a year and a half ago.

Palin is the sort of VP I ought to love -- she was a beauty queen, was a former television sportscaster, and there are photos of her like the pair on the right.

But I get a sinking feeling that my infatuation will be short lived, maybe because she wanted the library in Wasilla, Alaska, to ban books she found morally or socially objectionable, as The New York Times reported today.

The thing that convinced me to write today was this announcement that the 18-year-old hockey player Levi Johnston ("Sex on Skates," opined in New York Magazine) who got Palin's 17-year-old daughter pregnant will attend the RNC tonight with the Palin family.

I was initially baffled by the idea that the GOP would do this, but it makes perfect sense. The teen couple's complete and total overexposure will certainly be a turnoff for voters, and it will be easy to direct that outrage first against the liberal media and second against the liberal presidential ticket. It's too bad they have to throw two teenagers to a horde of media jackals to make it happen.