Be definition, resignation can never be the antonym of quitting.
Yes, she quit her job. She explained in fairly detailed terms why she did so, for anyone who actually cared about the facts of the matter.
You either accept the reason for the resignation, or you don’t. If you don’t, that means that you are saying that Palin should have remained in a position where she would be responsible for an additional, unbudgeted outlay of a (reported) $2 million of state money to be spent on the processing of ethics defenses for herself and her administration, (not to mention the significant personal legal expenses required by the Alaska ethics laws from herself and members of her administration who were also targeted) because of the blizzard of specious and frivolous ethics complaints being filed by Democratic Party operatives.
People who claim to be both conservative and critical of Palin’s resignation need to reconcile their position with any reasonable definition of “fiscal conservative.” This position strikes me as being analogous (on a much different level, of course) to holding that Douglas MacArthur should have stayed in command of his forces in the Philippines until being captured by the Japanese and forced to participate in the Bataan Death March.
Criticizing Palin’s resignation simply shows that she cares more than you do about how public money is spent, I’m afraid. Spin it however you want. But that’s where you wind up.
Now, a more nuanced and meaningful criticism of Palin might involve the Alaska ethics laws themselves which were being abused by her political opponents—laws which I believe Palin was in favor of enacting when she was running for Governor.
It’s a situation of being hoist by one’s own petard, in a sense.
Palin’s biggest mistake as Alaska Governor, from my point of view, was exactly the overreach of her ethics reform. In that, she vastly underestimated the unscrupulousness and sheer malice of her political opponents.
I suspect she has corrected that problem in her worldview by now.
If you want to attack Palin’s record, make sure you know what the record is that you’re attacking. In my opinion, she’s more vulnerable on a substantive basis on her (arguably failed) ethics reforms themselves than on her resignation.
Your mileage may vary.