Sarah Palin's sudden announcement that she is resigning as Alaska's governor surprised the media, her constituents, most Republicans and members of her own family.

This should surprise nobody.

If Palin has demonstrated anything in the past year, it's her willingness to do whatever it takes to get attention. For all the bemoaning and snickering — from Republicans and Democrats alike — Palin has staked out center stage yet again in the theater of political one-upmanship.

Give the woman her due; she knows how to change a conversation and make it all about her.

I am no fan of Palin's, which I made clear during the 2008 presidential campaign. My objections had nothing to do with all those winks and "you betchas" and everything to do with her clear inability to lead this country.

But the latest round of jokes swarming around her now distract from the real reasons she never again should be considered a serious candidate. And if you think she's gone for good, check out her Facebook page, with nearly 620,000 fans as of this writing. One click and they can donate to her new political action committee, SarahPAC.

Last fall, Palin stoked a lot of ugliness in Ohio, where I live. All those rally signs declaring Obama a terrorist, the bile that erupted on blogs and in chain e-mails echoing her shouts that Obama had "palled around with terrorists" and was a danger to our country.

I also remember how Palin sputtered and stumbled in the rare television interviews she granted. It was astonishing how much she did not know.

One incident sears: Katie Couric pressed Palin for examples to support her argument that John McCain was the guy to bring reform to Wall Street after his 26 years of nearly always siding with less regulation. Palin's response: "I'll try to find you some, and I'll bring them to you."

Many said it was hypocritical to support Hillary Rodham Clinton and not Palin. Pointing out the substantive differences between the two candidates — and the absurdity of suggesting they were interchangeable — only invited derision. Palin incited a passion in voters that John McCain could only pray for.

A recent poll by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicates that Palin still has a following, especially among those who are not college-educated. Palin was going to be the public school kid who would outrun and outwit the arrogant Ivy Leaguers.

But Palin's sloppy grammar was an embarrassment to many of us who share her background. During a discussion of Palin's so-called folksy ways on public radio's WCPN in Cleveland, I said parents didn't send kids like me to college so that we'd come out talking like Palin. Some listeners cried elitism, but I spoke from the memory of my parents, who insisted that our speech and behavior reflect their investments.

Palin insists that in stepping down, she is putting her family first. She has been rightfully outraged at the tasteless jokes and outright cruelty aimed at her children. But Palin refuses to acknowledge that trotting them out time and again during the campaign made them vulnerable to attacks, which indicates an enormous lapse in parental responsibility or an astounding lack of political savvy.

Still, many women support her, and future candidates ignore them at their peril. Consider this thoughtful post from one of Palin's Facebook fans, Mary Colligan:

"I just couldn't watch a fellow 'sister' get slowly roasted to death in this media witch hunt. I've chosen to support Sarah Palin for her humanity, her femininity, and her struggle to figure out who she is with children in tow, her career being publicly contested, and with a not-too-friendly world just waiting for her to drop a ball.

"There are a lot of women on this site, and that, to me, is a good sign. Lord yes, it's hard to be a woman. I felt bad about what the media did to Hillary, but I guess they were just warming up for bigger kill."

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "... and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz ([email protected]) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.