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Breaking: Sarah Palin Resigning as Governor of Alaska |
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In what an Alaska television station describes as a “stunning development”, Sarah Palin announced today that she will step down as governor in a few weeks, resigning her office with about a year and a half left in her term. Palin didn’t exactly give a clear explanation as to why she is stepping down–she said she had decided not to run for re-election, but it’s not clear why that led her to resign now, with a year and a half left in her term. Republican consultant Mike Murphy described her actions as setting new standards in erratic behavior. MSNBC is reporting that other Republicans are describing the announcement she made today as “bewildering”.
We’ll have to see if there is more to come in terms of an explanation as to why Palin is stepping down. It strikes me that this is further evidence that John McCain took an enormous gamble on behalf of the American people when he selected Palin as a running mate. During the campaign, she demonstrated she was woefully unprepared to be first in line to succeed the president, should that be required. Her decision today, described by Murphy as incredibly erratic, provides another reason to be thankful she and McCain were defeated last November.
Does she run for anything after this? My guess is no.
yeah, I am watching the speech right now…a disaster. Hard to see how she runs again, but it makes me think about Nixon’s speech when he said the media won’t have Nixon to kick around any more (after he lost a governor’s race in CA, I believe). He came back from the political dead, so I guess there’s always theoretically a chance, but right now it’s hard to see her doing anything on the national level (or anywhere) politically
I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with Joe Scarborough, who just said on MSNBC that he didn’t hear Palin give any compelling reason for stepping down as Governor. Quite true–it’s really hard to understand her reasoning. This is really bizarre and hard to understand unless more information is forthcoming.
I think that Palin didn’t resign because of a scandal because her preemptive resignation would only inflame the situation.
Palin is going to embark on the world’s longest run for President and thanks to this, she will land on the front page every time she says something because she has all but announced that she will be on the ballot in three years.
I wrote an article about what I think the deal with Palin is at Policy Wonk
I’m not sure I agree, though time will tell. As Chris said, there was no compelling reason for her resignation, and not finishing out your term isn’t exactly Presidential. I mean really, what can she claim as experience now? A couple terms as mayor of a small town and not even one term as governor? Not ready for prime time…
I find my self in strange agreement with Chris for a change. As a quasi Palin supporter I find this is unexplainable and disqualifies her from any future political aspirations. What hurts is that it was her selection for VP that made McCain somewhat more palatable as a candidate for conservatives. That is now gone. It is for that reason (with current information) that I believe it was a personal decision to withdraw from the political life to avoid the continuing savaging of she and her family. Add to that the spears being thrown by McCain staffers blaming her for the defeat, she%u2019d had enough. I did not realize that she and her family accumulated half a million dollars in debt in defending herself against bogus ethics charges. All of this is a heavy weight to be carried by anyone and maybe she said enough is enough %u2013 I can%u2019t take it any more.
More information on %u201Cgrassroots%u201D supporters gathering across the nation to support Sarah Palin for President in 2012 can be found online at http://www.palin4pres2012.com
Note, the website is in danger of crashing due to the flood of readers and supporters signing up to show their interest in a Palin Candidacy. The GOP establishment had better watch out, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul combined with the power of the internet will remove the stranglehold of GOP special interests and the elites who have brought the party to its knees in defeat in the 2008 elections.
My guess is that Palin feels that she cannot represent the state of Alaska if she is going to give her all to running for president. I didn’t watch her speech, but she seems deluded in thinking that she is way more popular than she really is. I think her vice president candidacy was cynical at best and the more she stays in the news, the worse it gets (both for her and for us).
maybe..though she felt she could represent AK while running for VP last year…I agree with you about her staying in the news. I hope she fades away a bit (from media focus), but I’m afraid that may not happen. I’m trying to check my own impulses to write more about her–I thought the announcement was worth noting, but am trying to rein in further pieces