When Palin's cheerleader-in-chief left the op-ed pages of The New York Times, I hoped that the new conservative columnist might make my Monday mornings a little less full of indignation, but now I'm starting to wonder.

In Monday's column, Ross Douthat looks at Palin's high unfavorable ratings (44 percent in a recent Pew poll) and manages to tease out a silver lining:...