Apparently "there's talk in GOP circles" that Sarah Palin should replace Michael Steele as RNC chair, after Steele made the terrible mistake of calling the Afghanistan war stupid. This will not happen, because Sarah Palin is a terribly unpopular person!

CBS News' Bill Plante hears this GOP chatter and lays out the logic:

John McCain's one-time running mate and former Alaska governor is, as Plante puts it, "the star of the Republican Party. She's the top endorser, top fundraiser — and now could be the party's top dog. Some members of the GOP base are calling for her" to take Steele's place.

Sure, she could max-out a few more base donors before the midterms. But, as Plante notes, she would be "the party's top dog." This would not be good! Only 37% of American look at her favorably, and the rest *hate* her. The Democrats would love, love, love to exploit "Sarah Palin as official head of the Republican party" to jack up their own donations, far beyond those of the RNC.

And why would she abandon her lucrative multimedia career in the flourishing misinformation industry?

Besides, Michael Steele won't resign.

Still, says The Associated Press, Steele is likely to stay put. "Even his GOP critics," says the AP, citing interviews with more than a dozen party operatives, "want to avoid a drawn-out fight over the party's most prominent African-American just four months before midterm elections."

You bet! It's not even the African-American part, just that there are four months until the midterms and the Republicans (smartly) see no need to make a protracted fuss by firing their party leader right now. They'll just dump him after the midterms, which has been the plan for about a year, and then replace him with some insider hack (who is not Sarah Palin).

[Image via AP]