BUT WHAT IF SHE SHOWS UP ANYWAY?

Apparently there are Republicans who aren't clinically delusional:

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's campaign has no interest in help from Sarah Palin after the former vice presidential candidate stepped down as governor of Alaska, in part to help Republican candidates across the country....

Palin is getting a lukewarm response in Virginia, the other high-profile governor's race this year. Republican candidate Bob McDonnell said Tuesday his campaign had conversations with the Palin camp, but stopped short of saying whether he wanted her help....

Dan Riehl fumes that this is "idiocy" from "squish Republicans" -- but apparently "squish Republicans" is a euphemism for "Republicans who can read a poll." Last October, Quinnipiac reported that Palin's favorable-unfavorable numbers in New Jersey were a horrific 33%-50%, while in Virginia there was this from Public Policy Polling:

We polled voters in the state after Palin had been on the ticket for a month last fall and 46% of them said her presence on the ticket made them less likely to vote for John McCain, while only 37% said it made them more likely to do so. From the time she was selected to the time we conducted that poll we showed Barack Obama's lead in the state rising from two points to eight.

Ouch. (And yes, in both states she polled poorly among independents.)

But is that going to be the last word? Think about it: We know Palin resigned to spend more time with us here in the Lower 48 -- especially the parts that have movers, shakers, money, and TV cameras. Virginia is right next to D.C.; New Jersey is right next to New York. Can't you just imagine Palin just happening to be in the Northeast Corridor and and, univited, leading a rally of loyalists (to herself) , ostensibly on a GOP candidate's behalf but really on her own, in the heat of one of these races?

I can. Remember how she all but demanded to campaign in Michigan after the McCain campaign wrote off the state, then all but demanded to again the next day? Remember her various moments of "going rogue"?

Really, New Jersey and Virginia Republicans, watch it -- you don't want her around, but she may have ideas of her own.