We've seen the future, and it is Sarah Palin.
Well, actually it's the eight-episode series "Sarah Palin's Alaska," which debuts Sunday on TLC.
Once upon a time, the idea of a serious politician doing such a reality series would have been a ljoke in serious electoral circles. Climbing Mt. McKinley, complaining about prying neighbors, fending off daughter's boyfriends and watching Mama Grizzlies in action? That's no solution to the nation's problems of unemployment, terrorism and -- no but it's how you get elected Celebrity-in-Chief.
Maybe one day, basketball- and golf-loving Barack Obama will host his own trash-talking show on ESPN but until then, here's some on-air action we'd like to see from some other political players.
1. CHENEY: LIFE IN THE ER
After five heart attacks, various coronary and artery operations, a pacemaker and the 2010 implant of a left-ventricular assist device, who really knows more about health care in America than the former vice president?
And with that warm bedside manner the perpetually smirking Dick Cheney's so well known for, as well as a love of underground bunkers, who better to take America to the frontlines of the domestic political battle of our time?
2. THE AMAZING RACE: HANNITY VS. OLBERMANN
Admittedly much more sedate than past series of the global adventure competition, this version would show which team of MSNBC and Fox News hosts can crosses the ethics line first. The winner would give a donation to a campaigning guest on his respective show.
Sure, on paper it sounds like not a lot will happen, but trust us the fire-breathing Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann could prove explosive in media circles. Maybe not as big as “John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi -- Ultimate Cage Fighting,” but certainly bigger than Sean Penn and Naomi Watts playing Ambassador Joe Wilson and outed CIA agent Valerie Plame in "Fair Game."
Way bigger!
3. ARE YOU AS SMART AS MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD?
This surefire hit pits a mosaic of grade-school children, including descendents of victims of the Holocaust that the Iranian President says never happened, against the Iranian chief on matters of basic historical and scientific fact.
Some of the topics dealt with on the fast-moving, against-the-clock show would be how stealing an election with force and bloodshed isn't democracy, even if you say it is; how a uranium enrichment program and constant missile testing is a move towards having nuclear arms regardless if you sometimes say it isn't; and how there are gays and lesbians in the Islamic Republic even if you claim there aren't. 
Winners get a collector's edition Don Johnson Electric Razor for that perfect “Miami Vice”-look beard.
4. BILL CLINTON'S LAS VEGAS
Back when he was leader of the Free World, most of what happened on Air Force One stayed on Air Force One.
