IS GEORGE W. BUSH THE NEW SARAH PALIN?

George W. Bush is really, really good at throwing ceremonial first pitches at baseball games. These pitches don't actually accomplish anything in either statecraft or baseball, but, as Scott Lemieux and Steve Benen have noted, right-wingers are mightily impressed. Steve:

One prominent conservative wrote about the former president throwing a baseball, "What a moment! ... What a wonderful moment." Another called the joint appearance on the field [by Bush and his father], "What a moving study in dignity and class. What a great example." Another writer on the same site wrote, "God, I miss the man. I disagreed with him on a number of issues ... but no one ever doubted where his loyalties lay or what country he thought he was President of.... It's good to see that he still throws a baseball like a man, which is how he governed."

Another wrote, "Miss them yet, America? What a moment in Texas. Father, son and baseball -- it does not get any more American than that.... Remember Barack Hussein Obama's pathetic first pitches? Who could forget the lameness."

DougJ at Balloon Juice says, "yes, wingers still have a crush on George W. Bush." That seems to be true -- and the evidence isn't just in their public appearances.

Bush has a book coming out next week. Sarah Palin has a book coming out two weeks after that. Based on advance orders Bush's book is #5 at Amazon right now. Sarah Palin's book? It's #468. Now, presumably Palin's book will go higher on the list as the publication date approaches. But that date is 22 days away, and Palin's book is nowhere near Amazon's top 100 -- whereas Bush's book has spent 63 days in the top 100 at Amazon.

What the hell happened to Palin?

Now, maybe people are less interested in this Palin book because it's an odds-and-sods collection of patriotic readings. Or maybe she's sent out word that her fans shouldn't buy it at any lamestream online retailers. But still, I would have expected her to be doing a lot better than this by now.

Is it really possible that the one politician in the GOP with as much star power as Palin -- or more -- is George W. Bush?

Maybe. Or maybe it's just that, well, he was defeated (UPDATE: well, effectively, in '06 and '08), and by elitist limp-wristed liberals, for heaven's sake. (And when I'm talking about how righties see us, I do mean "limp-wristed" literally.) Losing is intolerable for the right; every loss, from the Civil War to the present day, must be endlessly re-litigated, until right-wingers win.

I think that's a big part of what's going on. I don't know if they even care about George W. Bush; they just hate us. They really, really want to erase that loss from the board.