Palin is back among us not only as a God-loving runner (is that a strange shot with the flag , or what?) but also as a hard-charging mama bear. In Todd Purdham's Vanity Fair profile, which Dayo and Jess dissected earlier this week, are new tidbits about Troopergate, Palin's corrupt-seeming axing of Walt Monegan, who was Alaska's head of the Department of Public Safety. My favorite: Twelve days before he was fired, Monegan sent Palin an e-mail telling her that a state legislator had reported that she'd been seen driving with her baby Trig not in an "approved car seat." "I have never driven Trig anywhere without a new, approved car seat," Palin wrote back. "I want to know who said otherwise - pls. provide me that info now." For me, the most interesting thing about Palin (and yes there is lots to choose from) is her success in forthrightly making sexy motherhood the core of her image. The Runner's World spread misfires because it makes her seem ever more lightweight, and also vain. But the car seat story resonates. Oh, the shame of ever driving a child anywhere without one. What mother accused of such sin wouldn't want revenge on the tale-bearer?

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