Is Palin confusing celebrity with stature?

Give her a break, even after last week’s rambling announcement that she will resign as governor of Alaska. She had a tough year. In 2008, she gave birth to her fifth child, a son with Down syndrome. She had to reconcile her abstinence-only political position with Palin family reality: an unwed teenage daughter. Along with those two cataclysmic personal events came a cataclysmic immersion into national politics.

Like most voters, I heard her name for the first time as I left Denver and the Democrats at their covention for Minneapolis and the Republicans. When news broke that Palin was McCain’s pick, a female Democratic delegate waiting for the same airport shuttle as I mused out loud, “She’s going to give us trouble.’’ Quickly, Democratic operatives started pumping out anti-Palin information. I took one such call at the Denver airport.

The start of the Republican convention was delayed because of Hurricane Gustav. The weather-induced lull presented opportunity for a political storm to gather around Palin. Rumors about her family whipped through the media work space. There was blogger-brewed speculation that the son with Down syndrome was actually her daughter’s child. Then came the announcement that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. Palin took the edge off that negative information with a powerful convention speech. For a short time, McCain’s unconventional choice seemed inspired.

But it was soon obvious that this first-term governor and one-time mayor of Wasilla, population 7028, was in way over her up-do.

The media, while unsympathetic to her candidacy, did not do her in. She did herself in. She couldn’t answer questions that any national candidate - and especially one who would be standing a heartbeat away from a septuagenarian president - should be able to handle. As Palin became better known, this much became clear. She is not an ideologically conservative Hillary Clinton. She is younger, sexier, much less disciplined and nowhere near as brainy. While the political right focused on her charisma, the broader electorate focused on Tina Fey’s biting parody of McCain’s runningmate. It was funny because it rang true, just as earlier “Saturday Night Live’’ spoofs of Clinton rang true.

A recent Vanity Fair piece by Todd S. Purdum quotes Barack Obama, then the Democratic presidential nominee, telling his aides, “I don’t care how talented she is, this is really a leap.’’ His assessment proved correct. Palin was unprepared for the national spotlight, and quickly looked unqualified. In the same article, Purdum also writes, “There is virtually nothing about Palin’s performance in the fall campaign that should have come as a surprise to McCain. Had he really attempted to learn something about her before the fateful day of August 29, 2008 when he announced that she was his choice for running mate, he would easily have discerned all the traits that he belatedly came to know.’’

McCain was apparently swayed by advisers who convinced him he needed to shake up the ticket with an untested, little-known female governor. By going with Palin, the McCain campaign was after a two-fer: disaffected Clinton supporters and evangelicals Christians. In the end, evangelical Christians voted 3-to-1 for the McCain-Palin ticket. But Obama won 56 percent of the female vote.

Picking Palin was a wild, crazy and cynical gamble by McCain. While he often said he would rather lose the presidency than a war, he was willing to capitulate to the religious right in the effort to win the presidency. It’s sad, especially since McCain was the Republican, who back in 2000 said of the role of their role within the GOP, “They are corrupting influences on religion and politics . . .’’

As for Palin, it’s hard to imagine how she can improve her image enough to appeal to a broad swathe of voters. She is confusing celebrity with stature. But the country is teeming with governors and ex-governors who look in the mirror and see a president. So, why is it so crazy for her to operate under a similar delusion?

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.