Sarah Palin Resigns! Madness!

Steven Danis

The last week or two has demonstrated that for some reason prominent figures in the Republican Party seem to be in self-destruct mode. First it was Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who fancied himself as presidential timer, who took a hike on the Appalachian Trail only to end up in Argentina. Now it is Sarah Palin, who if McCain had won last November, would be only a heart beat away from the presidency. I suspect there is something going on in her personal life/political career which is very problematic which has triggered this bizarre move.

Conservative Cabbie

Alex

"But that campaign would have been more credible had she completed her term as governor"

Or barack Obama completed his term as Senator perhaps. He effectively quit that job to run for President. How much use as a Senator was he for the year and a half he was running for President?

"Is she a more serious, credible contender today than she was yesterday? No."

She is if she's free to support conservatives in the 2010 elections, something she wasn't able to do as Governor. She is if she's able to earn bucketloads of personal money that can help finance a Presidential bid. She is if she is able to attend conservative functions in the lower 48 which she can't right now. And she is if she isn't spending all her time fighting idiotic ethics violations and is in a better frame of mind to be the voice of conservativism.

Of course it could just be a scandal.

MattF

You must now offer a hecatomb to the Blog Gods for the gift of preceding this post with "Midget Wrestlers Murdered By Fake Hookers"

Benito

She cost McCain the election, her folkyness, accent and winking do not ring true, her intellect is below par (our vivid memory of the last one who delegates and follows because of their lack of intellect), but lets face it with the right type of marketing (vote folky, vote god) it can be sold to US, history tends to repeat itself. God help us!

Mike_s

MacArthur didn't say;"We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction". That was Major General O.P. Smith during the korean war. To describe MacArthur as a poor strategist is absurd.

THX1138

Quote of the day:

"THE GOP ANNOUNCES IT IS RESIGNING AS A POLITICAL PARTY, TO DEVOTE MORE TIME TO IT’S SCANDALS."

From Comrade Stuck

A commentor on Balloon Juice.

Steven Danis you're wrong first up was Senator John Ensign a "Promise Keeper" who was shagging a staffer.

Rhoda Klapp

"He had a record. Palin is trusting that her personality will sweep all before it"

Well, God forbid that Americans would ever vote for a Presidential candidate with no record and relying only on personality. Can't think of any recent example?

THX1138

Quote of the day:

"THE GOP ANNOUNCES IT IS RESIGNING AS A POLITICAL PARTY, TO DEVOTE MORE TIME TO IT’S SCANDALS."

From Comrade Stuck

A commentor on Balloon Juice.

Steven Danis you're wrong first up was Senator John Ensign a "Promise Keeper" who was shagging a staffer.

Jeremy

"...her career and personality exert a terrible, magnetic fascination..."

Not for me, they don't. For me Sarah Palin exerts a terrible, mundane boredom. She barely even registers...and there is something odd about a person stepping down as governor of "a small and strange state" only one year before she was due to complete her term anyway. Maybe they had vampires up there, or something. And it's all been hushed up. And the governor had to resign. You know...like in the comic books...^^

TrevorsDen

Mike s --- correct. If there is one thing MacArthur WAS it was a great strategist. He graduated first from West Point, was a former Chief of Staff of the US Army and would have commanded any invasion of Japan - and took its surrender.
Massie makes a fool of himself in being so dismissive.

In terms of temperament Monty was streets more loony than MacArthur.

howard

Obama's intellect is his teleprompter re G20 press conference where he could not construct a proper sentence. As his experience? zilch. His policies will bankrupt US, his Cairo speech reinvented history.

Thatcher was frequently attacked for being a shop keeper's daughter, for her strong personality. Yet she was the only PM in the last 50 years who acted in the UK's best interest.

Sarah will do the same for America.

Bill Rees

Palin may or may not have resigned to spend more time bringing up her family, and she may indeed by sick of politics. Few politicians, other than Margaret Thatcher, have had so much vitriol thrown in their direction, so we could hardly blame her for believing it isn't worth the candle.
On the other hand, she probably realises that she could hardly prepare a bid for office on the national stage while doing justice to her job as Alaska governor, so it's perfectly plausible that she has resigned for that reason.
Rather than writing garbage about her, it would be more sensible to wait and see what her intentions are.

logdon

"Rhoda Klapp
July 4th, 2009 9:24am
Well, God forbid that Americans would ever vote for a Presidential candidate with no record and relying only on personality. Can't think of any recent example?"

If the ultimate gold standard record starts with a birth certificate, the US may just as well have elected a Martian.

Or a Kenyan Muslim, perhaps? His Mother seems to think so.

Despite all the efforts and all the lawyers money in blindsiding this issue, it is not going away.

That pesky Constitution, eh?

Carl

What a mad rambling speech! I guess that she has been caught with her fingers in the till.

Kennybhoy

How many hundred words in this post and absolutely no mention of the possibility that Governor Palin might simply wish to protect her minor children from any further obscene abuse by the left-liberal mainstream media....?

Beneath contempt.

Verity

Kennyboy and Howard (and, of course, Conservative Cabbie) seem to be the only men around here who aren't frightened of Sarah Palin and understand what she stands for. Women don't have this toxic, vitriolic attitude. What are you afraid of, boys?

There are an awful lot of lefty shrews, and that's just the men, are wet their knickers at the strength of this woman's character and prefer what Mark Steyn refers to as "the complacent emirs of Incumbistan", like Joe Biden and John McCain.

Sarah Palin is the only one with any real achievement to point to. She negotiated the 1,790 mile pipeline with the government of Canada, and thus was the only candidate who had lessened American dependence on desert oil sheikdoms.

Your own post was quite vicious, Alec. Why?

Verity

Alex writes: "no-one should ever be surprised by anything Sarah Palin does because we should know that anything can, and probably will happen, no matter how little sense it may make."

And you're privy to the discussions the Governor has had with her husband and family, are you?

I commend everyone to go and read Mark Steyn's very short piece, so not too taxing for the men whose blood is boiling out of their ears, on Nationalreview.com on The Corner.

Verity

Carl opines: "I guess that she has been caught with her fingers in the till."

Do you, Carl? What a dreary little world you live in.

James Hodson

Two countries separated by the same language ... I think.

James Hodson

Carl: "What a mad rambling speech! I guess that she has been caught with her fingers in the till."

How dare you say that. It was her tongue that was stuck in the dictionary.

Lydia P Troyer

It's July 4th here and with fuller than full bellies, and before the torpid turn to stupid, the conversation turns to what next in our lives. The viewpoint I heard from various different peeps was that Palin is a whole lot more like the working middle class than politicians from either side of the aisle. And that, not her religiosity, is her broad appeal. As for experience and incompleted terms in office, professional pols do that all the time, quit a House seat to run for Governor, quit a State Senator seat to run for Federal Congresshuman, so that's irrelevant. Her plain-talking and her lack of finesse, indeed her rambling resignation statement, resonates with the vast majority of people who are too busy running a business/family/job to mix much in politics, and would sound as amateurish themselves if they did. The best thing David Letterman could do for his party of elitist better-than-thous would be to beg Palin to come on his show and politely but shrewdly expose her naivety, but he won't, he'll continue to alienate Democrat & Republican women by castigating her with scorn and tawdry jokes - he can't help it. I believe Palin will spend the next year or so campaigning for other politicians, not herself, for the 2010 mid-term elections, which the Repubs must win, in order to stem the current march toward ruin and servitude.

Guy herbert

You don't suppose she has a well-paid job with Fox to take up shortly?

Carl

Really Verity dear? how do you reach that conclusion?

Pat

logdon (3.05)- I don't suppose you have a reference for Obama's mother's opinion?

Verity

Jeremy notes that Alaska is "a small and strange state". Didn't look that small last time I flew over it. It looked endless, in fact. I believe that that one state is around six times the size of the United Kingdom. Someone will know.

Steven Danis - the Reps are in self-destruct mode, eh? Has it crossed your mind that the Governor may know exactly what she is doing? You don't get to be elected chief executive of the largest state in the union by being naive.

Carl, who for some reason chooses to address me with an over-familiarity, "Really Verity dear? how do you reach that conclusion?", I reached the conclusion by noting how limited and uncomplicated your experience of life appears to be. Sweet thang.

Michael B

Sarah Palin, with her family, has endured and endured the vipers, venomists and nosepicks among the adults on the near and far left for the past ten (10) months now, though that's "adults" in chronological terms - and we're now a full eight (8) months past the election. The vitriol has ranged from childish snarls and snipes on through to hate-filled venom.

Palin, at no point whatsoever, descended to the same level, decidedly to the contrary.

These wouldbe adults on the left, engorged though never sated, sneer yet again as Palin, wisely, decides to leave the formal political stage. She's prudently left the door open to return at a later point, though most likely this reflects a permanent decision, one that is largely family based.

Her parting speech rambled but all in all her parting reflects a real and substantial grace, both as measured against itself and certainly so as measured against the careers and partings of other politians.

Presently, in this parting, the left will evidence literally no grace whatsoever. To the contrary, they will continue to reflect what they are. Telling.

Conservative Cabbie

Carl

"What a mad rambling speech!"

And in that speech she said "only dead fish go with the flow". As that comment just "goes with the flow" of the liberal commentariat (in other words is virtually a direct repetition), does that make you a dead fish?

Jeremy

Alex...the thought has occurred to me...maybe it was attention-seeking. I mean, if she had just completed her term and then left in the normal way, would we even be commenting upon it? By "resigning" a year early, she attracts the attention of the media...savvy? Our Mrs Palin wants to be noticed...

D. G. McCarthy

I expect Andrea Mitchell will be proven correct. The thought of a politician actually tossing her career and ambition aside to pursue other less criminal activities is something policy wonks, journalists, and embedded lifelong politicians simply cannot fathom. For them it is nothing less than insanity to voluntarily give up power, even the small amount wielded by the governor of Alaska. Three cheers for Sarah who seems to have life's priorities in order and will no doubt do more good on the outside than on the inside.

Benito

When she accepted the VP nomination, she knew she needed to bring her professional game up to another level, she never did. She knew that her family would get attacked as did Hilary and Chelsea before her (by even her twin maverick brother McCain in 1998), let face it she knew her family affairs would come out. But now she plays the victim card again, a card she played after those comical first extended interviews that we all enjoyed and SNL immortalized. But for the icing on the cake, she quits, because she does not want to be a lame duck governor, because the lawsuits keep coming, because it was the media’s fault, because seeing Russia from her house finally got to her, because its not fair that Alaskan’s paid her salary while she was running for the VP position, take your pick. So what does she tells us? Dear Mr. President, when things get tough, quit. Dear military men and women, if you are not having fun, quit. Dear son or daughter, if things are not going your way, quit. Sure, I agree when she first was introduced and gave a descent speech, sure the polls went up, but after the extended interviews, they went where they ended, down. She showed her true character, I real hope the book deal, Radio/ TV shows and the speech circuits make up for what her party has lost by her actions. She may go down in history as the quitter that twittered.

Paul

Who would you chose to get a surgery from a person who worked hard and received an Ivy League education, or one who does not care about education (especially science) and drifts and somehow manages to get a degree. She showed her true character, by quitting (cut and run) just like her college years. She couldn’t even give a decent exit speech (her railing against the media was sweet until she ask them to go with her on a fishing trip to clarify her “Rambling Rose” comments). She was right for Alaska (with a population of less than 700,000), and her education matches it (journalism degree from the University of Idaho in 1987). But if you think and anyone who wants to get our country back on track after the fiasco of the last administration with our economy and the fabricated two wars then you along with the republican party are completely lost (are you surprise about the election results?). For the previous eight years we put up with a dullard president, but no more, you may try in 2012 but our eyes are open. I have heard that Republicans lost because God was against them, I can only say look at the candidates the Republican party put forward on their national ticket and don’t make the same mistake again. Mavericks, please, more like flash over substance (she quit and he fumbled) and the majority of voters saw it. We both know that she is cashing out, book deal, a show (Radio/TV), speaking engagements, she will keep her followers as long as she keeps the possibility open for running in 2012.

Paul

Can anyone real tell me that you were impressed by her exit speech? You can’t real believe that she is the only person that can win in 2012. You know, if she can’t take a joke, don’t get in the game, its politics, they all get kicked around. Let me paint you a picture, in my opinion, for the last eight years where the mantra was no regulation and no oversight and spread to all federal agencies and the justice department was filled by unqualified religious types and the dullard (ex-drunk) religious president started two wars of choice with extreme tax dollar spending, is anyone surprised with our current economic situation because of those choices. Sure “W” sucker the religious right to vote for him and that’s why he placed unqualified people in positions of responsibility and they failed (almost a “plan to fail”), do you forget Katrina, where the Director of FEMA Michael D. Brown, was relieved of his duties because of incompetence? Or can you forget disgraced White House correspondent James Guckert, AKA Jeff Gannon, the male escort, why was a male escort getting into the Whitehouse, hmmm? I know it was Barney Frank’s fault, he controls the county and republicans had their hands tied (even though 7 of the last 8 years they had the majority and the presidency to do something (fact or fiction?), but not the will to act). Oh, by the way I read that God blog, very funny, it reminds me of those TV evangelists who claim the talk to God and want so and so foreign country leader to be killed or such and such a us state to be punished by God for a court ruling that intelligent design is just another word for religion. We had enough of religious dullards in our government. If you believe that the USA has strayed from God then go out to your communities and preach to your neighbors, the sick, the shut ins, the poor and invite them to take part in your church, build a community. But I know that’s hard work we want a government official to do that for us, well they tried that and look where it left us, in the gutter, but our country does not quit and we will rise again. Do you remember how Ronald Reagan got us out of a recession? By spending and we will do the same. But she is just another “W” in heels and she is stringing the religious right along, she will sell you her books, her radio/TV shows and speaking engagements. Lastly, I do not want you to believe what I believe, so please keep writing, feel free, I am starting to enjoy this.

Stephanie Leuthold

KxrG3Z Thank you! I liked the article! I love how you write beautifully.,