PALIN'S FIRST DEBATE BOYCOTT?

I've been saying for months that it's silly to think that Sarah Palin's inability to master policy issues will hurt her in the endless series of debates that are going to take place during the 2012 GOP nomination fight -- if she feels she's going to do poorly in debates, she's just going to boycott them, offering some excuse (personal insult, liberal bias) that her rabid fan base will readily accept and embrace. Various forms of media boycott worked just fine for right-wing candidates this year -- Rand Paul, Jan Brewer, Rick Perry.

Well, now Palin gets a golden opportunity to put this into practice if she chooses:

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan today announced plans to invite all of the leading contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination to two debates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The Reagan Presidential Foundation plans to play host to both the first GOP presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle in spring 2011 and a second GOP debate on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries.

The Reagan Foundation has confirmed NBC News as the television partner and POLITICO as the online partner of the first debate....

NBC? You mean that evil, horrible company that employs the vile Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and Leg-Tingle Matthews and Larry the Socialist O'Donnell? Can ya get more biased? (Even if none of those people are actually on the NBC broadcast network, and the moderator is certainly not going to be one of them?)

And Politico? Biased? No, that's not a harder sell to the Palinbots. Just last week Palin was calling Politico sexist for running a photo of Michele Bachmann having makeup applied, and a couple of days before that she was denouncing Politico for "yellow journalism" after it ran the story "Next for GOP Leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin." Oh, and we smug lefties think Politico is overly obsessed with getting Matt Drudge links, but Fox Nation has taken to calling it "Left-Wing Politico" in headlines.

So she can blow this debate off and win favor with her crowd if she chooses. Obviously, of course, she can probably do that with any non-Fox debate, but this one will be easy.

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UPDATE: Like clockwork, Fox Nation chimes in:

Left-Wing Website Partners With Left Wing News Organization for 1st Republican Debate from Reagan Library.

There ya go.

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ON THE OTHER HAND: Betty Cracker may be right -- it's Reagan we're talking about, so maybe she can't duck. We'll see.