Sarah Palin meets the 'death panel'

Andrew Malcom:

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Palin appeared in a brand-new role for the possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate -- joke-teller as the GOP's representative at the annual winter Gridiron Dinner, a 124-year-old group of Washington writers and guests who hold such regular opportunities for political writers to mingle with the power people who really matter.

Speakers there -- past ones have included someone named Barack Obama -- are intentionally funny -- or trying to be, anyway -- and usually off the record.

But an exception allowing news coverage was made tonight given the intense interest in Palin, who attracted about twice the usual dinner crowd.

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Palin, whose intelligence has been widely challenged by many in her audience, said she was pleased to appear before an elite audience of intellectual heavyweights: "Or as I like to call it, a death panel."

If the 2008 presidential election had turned out differently, Palin deadpanned, "I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling his book, 'Going Rogaine.'"

Yup, she really said that about the nation's highest-ranking user of hairplugs.

Palin recounted that she was looking at a magazine cover of Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao during a recent airplane flight. According to Palin, a nearby passenger said, "Hu's the Communist."

Pause.

"I thought he was asking a question."

Palin will resume her book promotion bus tour tomorrow, but first she said, "The view is so much better from inside the bus than under it."

Palin revealed she actually considered a different title for her best-selling book: "How to Look Like a Million Bucks for Only $150,000."

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Good stuff. She has good timing on her delivery. I think that is why so many Democrats hate her. If she drew twice the normal crowd for this gathering, it appears she has star power in the capitol city too.