Bye Sarah; see you in 4 years

The votes have been cast, the dust has settled and the issues are resolved for the next four years.

Sarah Palin can hang up her hat and return to Alaska for a while.

Since being plucked from obscurity three months ago, the Governor of Alaska has single-handedly turned procrastination into preponderance, ignorance into insight, political silence into political science.

United States politics can never be the same; the view of Russia across the Bering Sea has never been as famous; the rose-coloured glasses of a candidate so infamous.

There's no doubt Palin will cast her lot into the race in 2012. Until then, Sarah, all the best: We're going to miss you, and we're looking forward to having you back then. We all need a little humour to cheer up the dreary science of governing.