KD: No, but I deduced your ideas about prominence from your comments, hence my use of the phrase ‘appear to’. You appear to confuse prominence with fame. GEN David Petraeus was prominent before he was known to most Americans – ask his peers, subordinates and the Pentagon. Mrs Palin has been elected a state governor: that is a prominent post, and one at which she has excelled. Greater prominence than that is hard to achieve, unless you value the imprimatur of the national news networks and the society pages above the endorsement of American voters.