Add an exotic vacation in Hawaii to the list of things partial first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can’t finish.

Claiming she was doing it for the benefit of fellow travelers, Palin ended her Christmas Hawaii trip prematurely when reporters noticed she used a Sharpie to black out the McCain/Palin ‘08 logo on a visor she wore.

“In an attempt to ‘go incognito,’ I Sharpied the logo out on my sun visor so photographers would be less likely to recognize me and bother my kids or other vacationers,” she said in a statement. “Todd and I have since cut our vacation short because the incognito attempts didn’t work and fellow vacationers were bothered for the two days we spent in the sun.”

Did you get that? They only got to spend two lousy days in the sun, thanks to those damn reporters, from whom Sarah recently welcomed as much attention as she and her book could get. In fact, the one thing Palin, who changed colleges six times in six years, showed an ability to stick with was her recent, seemingly never-ending sales promotion.

There is something about this whole visor story that bothers me more than the rest of it: Like this woman can’t afford a new visor? She has to use the free one the campaign gave away to supporters? And if she really did keep it all this time, wouldn’t you think she’d put it in a box with other campaign mementos? I would say this whole episode was as calculated as everything else Palin does.

Update: I thought it was witty for the people at Credo, who published an online Sarah Palin holiday letter originator to cross through the word “Governor” on the fake “From the Desk of…” letterhead. Looks like they called that one.