A trio of Sarah Palin lookalikes, along with a Bristol Palin lookalike, posed at the corner of Castro and Market in San Francisco yesterday.

The younger of the two female Palins seen here had issued a public call for a mass gathering of Palin lookalikes for Halloween — but only two other Palins showed up (along with 25 disappointed media members). A complete washout!

Even so, I predict that “Sarah Palin” will be the popular costume for this year’s Halloween.

Politically speaking, whatever the outcome of the election, I think the Democrats’ biggest mistake this campaign was to keep Palin in the headlines for the last two months. She now is easily the most famous woman in America. And name recognition leads to popularity, which leads to votes — no matter what the reason for your fame. If they had simply ignored her, the McCain ticket would have faded into obscurity. As they say: All publicity is good publicity!

There was actually one other participant: A guy dressed as a moose showed up, so the Palins could hunt him. But he was too emabarrassed to stand with the lookalikes, so instead he hovered at the back of the crowd.