Palin Resigns

[Pangloss]

In a surprise move, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has announced her resignation, giving her state's citizens three weeks' notice. Palin was elected in 2006, and will have held office for a bit over two and a half years. Her term would have ended in 2010.

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20090704/NEWS07/907040425/Palin+quits++fueling+talk+of+run+in+2012

 

Some of the articles flying around suggest that this is a move aimed at the presidency, but it seems really odd to me because that's still quite a long ways off. I agree with Newt Gingrich, which is why I linked the article above, who said "This hardly seems like a well thought-out strategy." Still, the drawn-out schedule of presidential runs is such that she would have had to run for re-election as Alakasan governor after having already announced a decision to run for US president, which effectively means that she would not have run for governor again. So there is some fuel for that fire.

 

I could be wrong but I think she's throwing in the towel on politics. Call it a hunch. What do you all think?

[Sisyphus]

Weird. If it was about running for President, why wouldn't she just not seek re-election as governor, instead of resigning 3 1/2 years in advance? I guess it's pointless to speculate with this little information.

[ydoaPs]

I don't think she's dumb enough to think she could get elected to the presidency.

[Sayonara]

"This hardly seems like a well thought-out strategy."

That'll make an appropriate epitaph for her.

[D H]

I could be wrong but I think she's throwing in the towel on politics. Call it a hunch. What do you all think?

Whether that was her intent, it most certainly is the end result. Quitting when things stop being fun is a career killer. Doesn't she know that the proper way to advance in politics is to keep the present title while pursuing higher office?

 

Even though Palin has nice legs, I predict that this story doesn't. CNN can safely return to being the 24/7 Michael Jackson channel.

[GutZ]

There is no way in hell Palin ever get elected. Even if she offered to preform oral sex on every single American (fi they choose), and have a way of carrying it out, she still would not be elected.

 

She has to be giving up.

 

C6urw_PWHYk

 

I like his use of the world absurd.

 

 

I am starting to get sick CNN and MJ. I go there to read some worldly news first page is covered with MJ. "In other news: Half of civilization is dead"

[Pangloss]

Article in the New York Times today, drawing an interesting comparison with Richard Nixon.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05palin.html?ref=global-home

 

For some Republicans, the comparison that came to mind was Richard M. Nixon, when he announced in 1962 that he was leaving politics for good after losing the governor’s race in California, two years after a failed White House bid.

 

In fact, Nixon used the next four years to quietly refurbish his image, building ties with the conservative wing that was becoming ascendant in the Republican Party, ingratiating himself with Republican senators and candidates for governor by campaigning on their behalf, and becoming better schooled in issues. (He did not bother trying to fix his difficult relationship with the news media.)

 

Pretty hard to see Palin as the next Nixon -- Nixon was a brilliant strategist. But I can see the comparison in terms of direction.

[Kyrisch]

"This hardly seems like a well thought-out strategy."

 

That's the first clue that it's precisely what she had in mind.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

She's just resigning in advance of the news of her affair with Jenny Sanford.

[D H]

Pretty hard to see Palin as the next Nixon -- Nixon was a brilliant strategist. But I can see the comparison in terms of direction.

I can't. Nixon said he would quit politics after losing an election. He was, at the time, sick of the BS. He didn't let the public down; he had no obligations to the public at the time. Palin did let the public who voted her into office down. She betrayed a trust.

 

I tend to vote Republican (but I need a clothes pin to hold my nose shut). If the Republicans stupidly manage to go with Palin in 2012 (or 2040) and the Democrats go with Mickey Mouse, my vote is for Mickey Mouse.

[bascule]

Fox Noise seems to think that Palin just threw the left a brilliant curveball! Didn't see that one coming, did you lefties? (Huh?)

 

I think this is far more likely a preemptive response to a scandal than it is some "brilliant" political maneuvering. Not that I have any evidence of a scandal, but as Talking Points Memo pointed out this happened so abruptly she didn't have a coherent story for the reasons of her resignation.

 

I've seen a lot of speculation about her resignation being tied to the "Iceberg Scandal", in which Palin allegedly used materials purchased for the Wasilla Sports Complex in the construction of her own home.

 

However, it could just simply be she's tired of ongoing negative publicity and wants to get out of the public eye.

Edited July 4, 2009 by bascule

[Pangloss]

She's just resigning in advance of the news of her affair with Jenny Sanford.

 

Classic.

[Severian]

Even if she offered to preform oral sex on every single American (fi they choose), and have a way of carrying it out, she still would not be elected.

 

I don't know about that. Free ******** sounds like a vote winner to me.

 

Edit: Weird. You censor ******** but not blowjob?

Edited July 6, 2009 by Severian

[GutZ]

I don't know about that. Free ******** sounds like a vote winner to me.

 

Sarah Palin for 4 years....It better be for 15 mins. As a side bonus after she's done it's going to be while before she can speak properly again.

[Pangloss]

"President Obama traveled to Russia because from there you can see Sarah Palin packing in her office in Alaska."

 

- Conan O'Brien

[AzurePhoenix]

after she's done it's going to be while before she can speak properly again.

When was she ever able to?

[CharonY]

What is kind of frightening is that apparently some consider her to be presidential material. I mean, really? Really really? Guess I will never understand US politics.

[bascule]

This article in the Huffington Post reads like it's straight out of the Onion:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanham/palin-holds-press-confere_b_226638.html

 

"Sometimes, I prefer making speeches without breathing at all. I'm an avid runner and depriving my brain of oxygen sorta feels like having a runner's high. Plus, I know the First Dude will catch me should I get too dizzy. He's a deacon at our family's Pentecostal church and has lots of practice catching fainters who have had demons exorcised."

 

This interview is just surreal:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8016906&page=1

Edited July 7, 2009 by bascule

[CharonY]

Surreal, yes.

 

As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between the White House and what she had experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

 

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

 

There is no "Department of Law" at the White House.

[GutZ]

When was she ever able to?

 

Sorry I meant make noise...

[iNow]

So, the reasons offered during her resignation speech were scattershot and pretty incoherent. She spoke of not wanting to govern as a lame duck, not wanting to harm the country, nor the state of Alaska, wanting to support our troops, and all manner of strange (and inconsistent) reasons.

 

However, a view seems to be emerging that she was not able to govern due to the investigations into her past and alleged ethics violations. The claim is that, not only did she have too little power to get anything done, but that it was costing the state too much in legal fees for her to remain in office.

 

Do you guys buy it? Do you think these reasons are valid and suggest she made the right move? Do you think she'd have earned more respect had she stayed and fought... proving she was capable of leading despite attack? Or, were her actions noble and appropriate?

 

I haven't made up my mind yet, so am curious to hear from you.

 

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124700261179807839.html

Contrary to most reports, her decision had been in the works for months, accelerating recently as it became clear that controversies and endless ethics investigations were threatening to overshadow her legislative agenda. "Attacks inside Alaska and largely invisible to the national media had paralyzed her administration," someone close to the governor told me.

 

<...>

 

Similarly, ethics investigations are easily triggered and can drag on for months even if the initial complaint is flimsy. Since Ms. Palin returned to Alaska after the 2008 campaign, some 150 FOIA requests have been filed and her office has been targeted for investigation by everyone from the FBI to the Alaska legislature. Most have centered on Ms. Palin's use of government resources, and to date have turned up little save for a few state trips that she agreed to reimburse the state for because her children had accompanied her. In the process, though, she accumulated $500,000 in legal fees in just the last nine months, and knew the bill would grow ever larger in the future.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/us/politics/08nagourney.html

So in the end, this could simply be one of those it-is-what-it-is moments. Ms. Palin was weary of being governor, and, facing constant ethics complaints, she saw her family being chewed up by bad publicity and decided to trade those things for the opportunity to work on her book (for which she received a lucrative contract), tour the country giving paid speeches and consider offers from television or radio to become a highly paid commentator.

 

As one friend remarked, Ms. Palin is facing potentially high legal bills because of the ethics and other investigations — all frivolous, she said — that were one product of being thrust into the national spotlight.

 

From this perspective, the decision was simple and sensible: Less stress, and more national attention and money. A year from now, perhaps, she will find herself in a position where she wants to run, or is being pressed to run, and may do it. Or she may find that being a big player in her party and the conservative movement — you could see candidates making a pilgrimage to her doorstep for her endorsement — might be satisfying enough.

 

Yes, she might have some grand plan to make her way into the White House, as so many people have speculated. But maybe, for now at least, there is less there than meets the eye.

[Severian]

If these news reports are true and her administration has been crippled by frivolous ethics allegations, costing her half a million in legal fees and prompting her resignation, it is a bit of a sorry statement on American democracy.

 

I may disagree with her politics, but she was the democratically elected governor, and should only be removed from office by the will of the people at an election or by impeachment in cases of serious misconduct.

[Sisyphus]

She says they're frivolous. The truth is a bit shadier. It's still not clear to me that that is the main reason she was trying to put forth, though.

[john5746]

However, a view seems to be emerging that she was not able to govern due to the investigations into her past and alleged ethics violations. The claim is that, not only did she have too little power to get anything done, but that it was costing the state too much in legal fees for her to remain in office.

 

Do you guys buy it? Do you think these reasons are valid and suggest she made the right move? Do you think she'd have earned more respect had she stayed and fought... proving she was capable of leading despite attack? Or, were her actions noble and appropriate?

 

I haven't made up my mind yet, so am curious to hear from you.

 

I think this explanation makes sense. I think she is an unusual politician, she has much less to lose by quitting than trying to keep her job. She doesn't have a spouse who has devoted their whole life to her public persona. In contrast, Sanford probably feels he loses everything if he cannot redeem himself with the rest of his term. What is usual politics is her spin to try and put a selfless face on it.

 

I also agree with Severian

[iNow]

I may disagree with her politics, but she was the democratically elected governor, and should only be removed from office by the will of the people at an election or by impeachment in cases of serious misconduct.

Are you suggesting it is not within her rights to resign the position voluntarily?