New York Times's columnist David Brooks -- never a huge fan of Sarah Palin -- laced into the former vice presidential candidate on Sunday, calling her a "joke" and a "potential talk show host."
Speaking the day before Palin's new book, "Going Rogue," is slated to be officially released, Brooks scoffed at the notion that the ex-governor was somehow ready to be the face of the GOP.
"She's a joke," he told ABC's "This Week." "I mean, I just can't take her seriously. We have got serious problems in the country. Barack Obama is trying to handle war. We just had a guy elected Virginia governor who is probably the model for future of the Republican Party, Bob McDonnell: Pretty serious guy, pragmatic, calm, kind of boring. The idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the Republican nomination, believe me, it will never happen. Republican primary voters are just not going to elect a talk show host."
Brooks has never been a big Palin believer. Back in October of 2008, he said that Palin "represents a fatal cancer to the Republican Party" and insisted that she was "absolutely not" ready to be president.
On Sunday, Brooks did get a bit of pushback to his Palin skepticism. Speaking right after him on the "This Week" panel, PBS' Gwen Ifill urged her compatriots not to "underestimate the degree to which women will be drawn to her story."
"And that is who she is speaking to," she added. "These are people who are ignored, who nobody counts into their thinking."