“I love my job and I love Alaska,” Sarah Palin said.

And then the rookie governor quit.

The chatterers are wondering whether Palin’s sudden walk-away from her job portends a run for higher office in 2012.

Her previous incoherence has been eclipsed by what she said this past week. She didn’t want to become a “lame duck governor” and fall into the trap that ensnares lame ducks: you know, junkets and stuff. Well, who said she had to fall into that routine? She could have, well, just stayed on the job and governed.

None of this makes any sense.

Palin talked a bit the other day about the intense criticism she received since joining John McCain on the Republican presidential ticket in 2008. I’ll concede some of it has been unfair. But the governor epitomizes delusional qualities if she believes it would get easier for her if she is considering a run for the presidency.

She ought to pick up the phone and ask the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton: Madame Secretary, tell me about your eight years as first lady and your eight years as a senator from New York. Did your critics ever go soft on you — at any point? Do you think it was unfair? How did your daughter, Chelsea, like being pilloried when she was a good bit younger than my own teenager daughter?

I hope she makes that call — and I hope Secretary Clinton answers it.