Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday that she won’t be running for president next year.

That’s too bad.

Not because she’d be a particularly well-qualified president — though people would certainly differ about that.

But rather because a Palin candidacy would drive America’s perpetually dyspeptic left even more spittle-spewing nuts than normal — and there’s always good sport in that.

On the merits, Sarah Palin now strikes us as even less suited for the presidency than the fellow who now holds the job — and that’s saying something.

But the debate was rarely on the merits.

The left locked onto her like a laser — the hate vastly out of proportion to anything she had ever been, or aspired to become. Nothing was off-limits, not even her Down Syndrome son — and it would only have gotten worse had she decided to run this time around.

Why? Because Palin is conservative, pro-life and the mother of several children — her life an in-your-face rebuke to those who will concede political legitimacy only to those women and African-Americans who fit themselves into liberal pigeon-holes.

She’s not a doctrinaire Democrat?

Off with her head!

It’s been a disgusting display from Day One, debasing not only the civic conversation, but America itself.

Good luck to you, Gov. Palin.

We hope you remain a part of the public debate — but we’ll understand if you don’t.