Posted on 07/03/2009 5:24:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The news of Sarah Palin’s resignation as governor came during my show this afternoon, where we spent most of an hour discussing it with the chatizens and my co-host Duane Patterson. I’ve had a chance to watch the video of her announcement and read through dozens of Twitter messages back and forth attempting to rationalize this, and still, it simply can’t be rationalized on the basis of what Palin said today. It’s easily the most bizarre resignation I’ve seen, and just about senseless.
The lame-duck explanation was the most incoherent part of the entire statement:
“Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.”
Bear in mind that the election isn’t next month but about 16 months from now, in November 2010. Using this logic, Palin should never have run for the first term unless she was willing to run for the second, and not run for either if she wasn’t willing (or legally able) to run for a third. Politicians don’t enter lame-duck status until their successor has already been elected and they’re running out the rest of the term. And all politicians become lame ducks at some point — and none of them quit just to avoid it.
Also, how can Palin quit because she didn’t want to deal with being a lame duck and claim in the same breath that her administration would “continue without interruption”? She just interrupted it! If she thinks that being a “lame duck” would hamper her ability to push her agenda in the state’s capital, how does she think that an unelected Sean Parnell is going to get it done?
If it’s her duty to always “protect” Alaska, then that strongly implies not walking away from the responsibility of governing it — a responsibility she sought, and with which her constituents trusted her to execute. No one leads by quitting. No one leads by quitting. Palin’s abandoning her post, and at least from her own description, doing it because she doesn’t want to deal with the issues of being a “lame duck,” a status all politicians have to handle at some point.
I’ve seen a myriad of excuses on Twitter and e-mail for this bizarre resignation: her legal bills are too high, she’s putting her family first, she doesn’t want to distract Alaskans because of cheap-shot ethics complaints that are distracting everyone. None of those make any sense. If the spotlight was too much, then she shouldn’t have run for office in the first place. If she’s quitting because people are taking potshots at her, then she’s not the kind of political fighter we thought she was. The legal bills might be a rational reason, but thoroughly insufficient for betraying the people who put her in charge of Alaska — and her memoirs would have paid for her legal bills many times over, had she completed her term.
There’s really no excuse, and what Rich Lowry also calls her “terrible,” “rambling,” and “not at all persuasive” statement showed that. Unless there was a serious illness or a serious scandal, the resignation on the grounds Palin gave is simply incomprehensible. She has destroyed her own credibiity in a single day.
I liked Sarah Palin and supported her inclusion on the GOP ticket last fall. I thought she had more toughness than this. It’s a big disappointment, and it’s the end of any hope of Palin getting taken seriously as a politician on the national level in the future.
Update (AP): I was going to tuck this into one of my own posts but it fits better here. Quin Hillyer, senior editor at the Spectator, calls the resignation an “appalling dereliction of duty.”
What Sarah Palin did today was get out before the real challenges of the job (whatever challenges there are for such an easy job) really rear their heads. The going got tough in terms of spurious ethics charges against her, and she took off. That’s cowardly. That’s not sign of staying power. It’s a sign of wanting to get out while the getting is good, in order to become a full-time candidate for a presidential race that won’t culminate for 3 1/2 more years. It’s a little too calculating, by half — or more.
I just listened to her speech announcing her decision, and found it singularly unimpressive. “This was a rambling, bombastic, self-centered, ‘poor me’ kind of speech.” That’s how Mike Carey of the Anchorage Daily News just described her speech on Fox News. I agree. He then said it was, darn, I already can’t remember if he said it was “pitiful” or “pathetic,” but it was some word like that. Again, I agree. It was a speech in which she clearly made a bit for a national audience — not a very effective bid, but a transparent one — but didn’t adequately explain to the people of Alaska why she was relinquishing her duty…
Statesmen hang tough. Sarah Palin is cutting and running. ‘Nuff said.
Two problems ~ Daylight Savings Time ~ Mitch has made mindless enemies on that issue. And Obama ~ he’s screwing the hopes of all persons of color for the next two centuries regarding a chance to be elected President.
Something doesn’t smell right, and she is most definitely toast.
I don’t think So..
You are an infantile fool.
I don't know. If it allows her to be front and center in DC on September 11- 12 it might be great timing.
Sarah’s not done!
Palin’s actually not my choice for Republican nominee in 2012, but I don’t think this hurts her as much as some seem to think.
Americans love an underdog, and they love a comeback story. So the more the MSM writes her off, and the more they marginalize her....the more supporters she’ll gain should she choose to run in 2012.
During the election, she was ridiculed, saying that being governor of Alaska was not enough experience because Alaska was a small, backwoods state.
But resigning from Alaska is a political killer?
-PJ
lolol. Sarah is being Sarah, I say you go girl. Don’t count her out of anything!
Agree completely. As the motrician said, “Remains to be seen”...
Shut up Saint Nobody, what you think is unnoticed and irrelevant outside of the skin of your feeble cranium.
>>The lame-duck explanation was the most incoherent part of the entire statement: <<
For me it made perfect sense, coming from her. It is wildly outside normal politics.
Great Reasoning, FastCoyote-
Here it is again it’s reply 61
“And here’s the big elephant in the room. What is now needed is a revolution, not just small measures. Palin is perfectly positioned to run a revolution from the outside if she so chooses. Both the DEMS and GOP are corrupt, so following conventional wisdom and launching from a governors office may work for a normal presidential campaign, but we are well headed towards a global socialist depression. Picking at the edges isn’t gonna do it.”
Thanks for the transcript.
Snagged me a new tagline !
Classy.
BTW, thanks for your service to our Country.
I'm seeing if I can get a "lumberjack's club" going here in Fairfax County. Our mission will be to have already identified each and every tree that's of a suitible age to cut down and use for firewood in our 350,000 fireplaces once Crap & Tax has run our power bills up to $1500 per month, and deprived us of coal and fuel oil.
I figure we can clear-cut the county in just under a month. That'll give us enough firewood for most of a winter.
I hope it is over. I wouldn’t expose myself or my precious family to that low life who would dare to attack an innocent baby who has Downs Syndrome. They are rotten. God forgive them cause I never will.
“Palin isn’t perfect either. But she’s the most charismatic leader that we who still respect the original ideals of the American Experiment have right now.”
And yet a good number of Republicans seem to hate her guts every bit as much as the Left (The guy writing this article seems to be one of them). They don’t say that they hope she becomes more polished or electable, they imply “Good riddance”.
Gee, I wonder why the Republican Party is screwed up?
Guess a lot of them just want to see Huckabee vs. Romney II while another RINO takes the nomination in 2012, which is probably what we’re looking at anyway.
Having said that, I hope Palin doesn’t run in 2012. I hope she waits til 2016. Obama’s a two-term guy, like it or not. Dems and some Independents have too much emotionally invested in our “First! Black! President!”
Having said all that, I think it will be some time before Palin recovers from this (to get elected to something). You want to see lots of Google hits? Try typing in “Palin” and “quits” in a week or so. Gonna take awhile to get over that.
Your tag line puts America on par with Christ. Christ is God and God can raise up nations and lay nations to waste.
Saying America brings freedom to its citizens and others is true but when the word freedom is used in the same sentence as Christ you are inferring a freedom that only Christ can bring. He is the reason we are free from this world and from sin. He is the reason we are free from death.
I urge you to change your tag line so that you do not mislead others about Christ.
Sadly enough...I think she is being FORCED OUT. It’s like when you are fired and all of a sudden you feel free and find your next niche in life. I think looking into the possible candidates in the GOP will be very interesting. THe GOP is dead to us and we have no time for the idiots in the Dem party. Losers...ALL!
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