Reasons to not blog about something: 1. Everyone else is writing about it and we have nothing to add; 2. we don’t think it matters as much as everyone else does; 3. the main source is a New York Times article, where the book biz reporting is either way late or provided by one of the big houses; and 4. WRITING ABOUT IT IS JUMPING THROUGH THE HOOP OF SOME EVIL SLUG.

Oprah Winfrey deserting TV and the book biz is an example of the first (alright, we could add that no one has mentioned her ratings plummeted and she probably had little choice); just about any literary award is an example of the second; almost any time the Times spots a “trend,” or decides to cover the Google Book Search Settlement, is an example of the third; and writing about Sarah Palin‘s new book is an example of the fourth.

So imagine our consternation to discover yesterday that Frank Rich — you know of the New York Times — had written a column that more or less touches upon all our above-stated reasons, and in particular zeroes in — brilliantly — on the many perversities of so much as talking about Sarah Palin.

After making the distressing observation that critics of both the right and the left (Liz Cheney, Ana Marie Cox) are writing reviews wherein they mention they haven’t actually read the book, and noting that as a result they’re missing some juicy lunacies:

Easily the most startling passage in “Going Rogue,” running more than two pages, collates extended excerpts from a prayerful letter Palin wrote to mark the birth of Trig, her child with Down syndrome. This missive’s understandable goal was to reassert Palin’s faith and trust in God. But Palin did not write her letter to God; she wrote the letter from God, assuming His role and voice herself and signing it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.” If I may say so — Oy!

But the point of the column is that the book represents a genuine American phenomenon, one that rises up in our midst during times of economic collapse. Sarah Palin, truth be told, is a classic American demogogue-cum-fascist, in the spirit of Father Coughlin and Huey Long:

Culture is politics. Palin is at the red-hot center of age-old American resentments that have boiled up both from the ascent of our first black president and from the intractability of the Great Recession for those Americans who haven’t benefited from bailouts. As Palin thrives on the ire of the left, so she does from the disdain of Republican leaders who, with a condescension rivaling the sexism they decry in liberals, belittle her as a lightweight or instruct her to eat think-tank spinach.

The only person who can derail Palin is Palin herself. Should she not self-destruct, she will doom G.O.P. hopes of a 2012 comeback. But the rest of the country cannot rest easy. The rage out there is larger than Palin and defies partisan labeling. Her ever-present booster [Matthew] Continetti, writing in The Weekly Standard, suggested that she recast the century-old populist outrage of William Jennings Bryan by adopting the message “You shall not crucify mankind upon the cross of Goldman Sachs.” If Obama can’t tamp down that rage across the political map, Palin will at the very least pave the way for a demagogue with less baggage to pick up her torch.

Ergo, reason enough for MobyLives to break its own rules, no?