Posted on 07/05/2009 10:40:17 AM PDT by AmericaTalks
Sarah Palin's abrupt decision to step down as governor of Alaska has left many people on both sides of the aisle scratching their heads.
Palin has successfully survived fifteen ethics complaints. Her Lt. Governor, Sean Parnell who will succeed her at the end of this month, said Sunday that "she has plenty of time now within which to define how she will further her core values."
Her announcement leaves open the possibility that she will run for higher office. Some on the right, such as William Kristol of the Weekly Standard, have said her move was 'crazy like a fox', and that this will be the launching pad for a GOP presidential bid.
The reasoning that putting the distractions of her current office behind her to concentrate on a higher calling doesn't wash with some, however, who believe that she will be viewed as a quitter. Others have said that if she believes that resigning the governorship will help her to avoid further scrutiny, she is sadlymistaken. Mike Huckabee, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said "it could be a brilliant strategy. The point is we don't know. It's risky in that there's no forgone conclusion as to whether it will play out."
Palin is a polarizing figure in American politics. She has a huge fan base, who like her spunk, her down-to-earth attitude and her common sense approach to the issues.
But she has her detractors who view her as less than competent. Quin Hillyer, in a piece in the American Spectator, wrote that "Sarah Palin's resignation is an appalling dereliction of duty and a highly cynical move to set herself up for a presidential run for which she is manifestly unqualified."
It is highly doubtful that Palin's resignation means that she is retiring from public life. More than likely, it is probably a move meant to keep her popularity as a national figure high, even as her popularity within her own state continues to decline.
The issue of whether she should have finished out her term as governor before launching a campaign for higher office is the one that has people talking. If she was afraid that running for a second term as governor and losing would make her damaged goods as a presidential candidate, she could have simply chosen to sit out the next gubernatorial election. But why quit in the middle of here first term? We don't know the answer to that question yet. But if indeed she has aspirations for higher office, her move may prove to be a risky one.
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How have Americans come to the place where it is absolutely inconceivable that any politician would voluntarily lay aside their office for the good of their party and their country? We have created a system that is so far removed from what the founders designed, and peopled it with greedy, power-mad thugs, that I see no possibility of recovery. The derision heaped on Sarah Palin from all sides simply for demonstrating that power and ambition do not motivate her is yet another proof that America as we once knew it is gone for good.
True. But predictably, she will be a draw in conservative to moderate districts.
I posted parts of this earlier to another thread....
In another odd twist to the whole shebeen - (As seen on TV!)
Sara has left, so now the Lt Gov, Sean Parnell, is the new (or will soon be) Gov. Even that is not the end of strange-ness.
Alaska’s constitutional framers left to the Legislature the task of penciling in the line of succession for the top executive posts and determining when the top office can been deemed vacant by absence or disability. In 1959, the Legislature set the mechanism for succession, but even by today, has yet to address the vacancy determination issue, and now this lack has come back to haunt us.
Lawmakers decided the best thing was to allow governors — back then, they wanted the strongest chief executive possible — to “appoint, from among the officers who head the principal departments of the state government or otherwise, a person to succeed to the office of lieutenant governor if the office of lieutenant governor becomes vacant.”
The appointment requires a majority confirmation vote of a joint session of the Legislature and the appointee serves at the “pleasure of the governor.”
The new Lt Gov (required) is NOT the Chief of the Dept of Corrections as was Ssara first choice - new Lt Gov will be the Commander, Alaska Nat’l Guard - Major General Craig Campbell.
A very good choice. As an ex-Tower Flower, he understands Aviation, key to Alaska’s future. See his bio (http://www.ngb.army.mil/ngbgomo/library/bio/1040.htm)
But this is another odd twist.
Why? The current head of the Dept of Corrections is an old time Palin chum. His appointment to the DoC rasied quite a fuss. Charges of croynism were in the press. He seems to have done a good enough job to date - at least the Union has shut up.
He declined the Lt Gov job, no doubt knowing he would be the center of another firestorm of accusations of cronyism within the State Governors offices.
So, now we have Sean and his #2, Craig.
Get the popcorn kiddies, come this falls Legislative session - there is going to be a be knife fight over the budget.
I am not so sure about the moderate districts, but yes, absolutely, in the conservative districts.
Rational thinking is also not a characteristic to borrow part of your phrase of some people on here when it comes to Sarah Palin which is cracking me up with some of their anti comments.
Her announcement has rearranged the chairs on the deck and am enjoying every minute of seeing people squirm and wondering what is next while trying to put her down for resigning. She has scared people from both sides of aisle which means it was a smart move.
If I was a candidate for office, I would have been sending her a message immediately that I would love for her to come in my district or state to campaign for me. Now that would be a smart move IMO.
My, my, they are scratching their heads? You mean they could not understand what Sarah explained so very well in her resignation speech?>P>
The poor media, DEMS, and RINOS! They continue to scratch their heads. Guess they wonder what Sarah will do as she points out their lies, and stupidity for all to see! Keep scratching, guys!! Looks like some of you will be scratching your heads as you go for your court date to face a liable suit! GO SARAH!
If Sarah's indeed preparing a bid for the presidency, then at least she had the integrity to step down from the governorship to do so, unlike Zero, who was elected to the US Senate, and promptly began running for higher office, once there.
Which one of these looks more like dereliction of duty to you?
Life is risky. And without risk nothing happens.
Much like Alice the Goon On Popeye the Sailor and the adults on Charlie Brown... all I hear from these anti Palin pukes is “Waha wa wawha wa wha wa wa wha wha wa”.
LLS
Yeah, but Bristol is just a kid. It's her mom the rest of us were listening to.
It's pretty obvious that you missed what millions of other Americans heard and saw. If you want to think that Sarah Palin is little more than some sort of cardboard cut-out, go right ahead. Just don't expect too many people to agree with you.
Heh.... yeah, the libs are scared to death of a cardboard cut-out. Right.
I'm still here.
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2009/07/talk-radio-hosts-react-to-palins.html
I missed his show because of a fire at the Seattle broadcasting radio station - but caught it in the archives Saturday. After listening to the Great One, I feel excited now about what could happen in the coming months.
Who would have ever imagined that a once-in-a-lifetime gift to conservatism like Sarah Palin would engender so much negative commentary from the right? And on this very forum?
This surprises me more than anything else surrounding her saga.
There is a little thing called destiny.
Actually makes perfect sense...it explains why we have this Marxist clown in the WH....people in this country are just plain naive and ignorant....they wouldn't know a gift if it ran over them...
Quin Hillyer (on left)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XDLnpGlOHFU/SY8Lmlnho3I/AAAAAAAACmw/WH45dIOJdQI/s400/100_3301.JPG
served for five years as press secretary for U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston of New Orleans. He was an original executive board member of the internationally acclaimed Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, formed to halt the then-meteoric political rise of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
vice presidential selections mean a great deal,” said Hillyer. “Without a good one in the hand, you can end up with two Bushes”
Following graduation, Hillyer returned to New Orleans, serving as research/issues director for the gubernatorial campaign of Robert Livingston in 1987. He served as a correspondent for the New Orleans Times-Picayune
In 1997, Hillyer joined the editorial staff of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, focusing on both local and national issues during the term of then-governor Mike Huckabee, who Hillyer sharply criticized at the onset of Huckabee’s 2008 presidential run.
In 1998, Hillyer joined the editorial desk at the Mobile Register
He returned to the Nation’s Capital in 2006, serving as a managing director at Qorvis Communications and executive editor of the American Spectator before assuming the post of Associate Editorial Page Editor at the Washington Examiner in 2008. In 2009, he joined the Washington Times as senior editorial writer. He remains a senior editor and columnist at the Spectator.
His writings distance itself from the single-issue focus of some religious conservatives, and is especially distrustful of big government conservatives, particularly over taxation and deficit spending policies.
offered grudging support for John McCain, with whom he had grown disenchanted since supporting him in print in 2000 over George W. Bush.
“John McCain is an American exceptionalist, and an exceptional American.”
In January 2008 he wrote: “The Bush administration seems intent on Nixonesque attempts to use fiscal policy to somehow, some way push off a recession until after this Fall’s elections. Not only will its efforts amount merely to an attempt to dump the problems into its successor’s lap, but it will almost assuredly be an attempt in vain”
Have been chuckling as they out themselves. You would think they would at least come up with original material instead of regurgitating what the lamestream media reports. :)
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