Sarah Palin came to Boston yesterday with her Party-of-Hell-No Roadshow (my title, not hers). For over a year now she has been a headline-grabbing national distraction. We hate her, and we love her. She’s unpopular and yet a guilty pleasure. But the real shocker lately is this: Of the two members of the 2008 Republican Party ticket, she is the less disturbing sideshow.

That distinction goes to the debacle of the McCain Senate reelection bid. In fending off a primary challenge from former congressman J.D. Hayworth, a man that represents all that is wrong with the right wing of the GOP, John McCain has made those of us that wanted him to be president question our support.

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Tonight at five o’clock two thousand students across the globe receive word of their acceptance to the world’s most prestigious university. Many will literally jump for joy. Most will celebrate. All will feel an odd, sudden—possibly dumbstruck—sense of surprise accomplishment.

Remember that feeling?

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The end is near. The dizzying debate over healthcare that has left us in a nauseous national malaise is ending. So says the president. If he has his way, the most transformative social reform of our lifetime will be enacted by the time we recover from spring break.

The White House hopes that by setting a “finish line” that is within reach, lawmakers will rediscover the sense of urgency they’ve lost. “We are very close” to the end of “our journey,” announced the president Saturday. “Now is the time!” he exhorted. (Apparently even more so than the last time that was also “the time.”) We must finish this, the line goes, if for no reason other than we are so close to finishing. One more step, and we can solve this crisis. Or, in the words of this newspaper’s Monday staff editorial, “solve a pressing national issue.”

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