Is Palin's national political career over? (Sadly, the answer is YES)

Hotair ^ | 7/3/2009 | Ed Morrissey

[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.

[FastCoyote]

[She’ll make millions on a speaking tour.]

Yup.

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.

[Kenny500c]

Wow, that is an excellent speech, but you would never know that from watching the news coverage.

[engrpat]

After watching her give that statement I believe this gentleman is correct.

I am going to get flamed but you are correct. She is done on a national level. You don't just up and say, "hey I'm done here" with a year left. She is done and the very strong, no compromise conservatives will have to find someone else that isn't a RINO and good luck with that one.

[Reagan79]

I love Palin. But it’s over for her. This was just her first term. It’s all so odd. I blame the media, they destroyed her long ago anyways. Face it non-elites are not allowed on the national stage.

[Jeff Head]

HAppily, the answer is..no!

I listened to her entire announcement. It was honorable, it was direct, and it punctuated the insane politics of our day...it also punctuated her personal commitment to fight, and to do so when it would not distract further from her job as Governor and the foundation she has built there.

I am proud of her and support her. She is a great American.

I think Sarah has just turned, like a fed-up mama Bear, on her detractors. She has put things in order, she has left them in the hands of capable people, and she has now turned to face her enemies directly.

...and I think they are going to be sorry. We have smelled the fear in them for a long time. Good on her!

I believe she will assist others greatly in 2010, and will run herself in 2012...and she has my full support.

GO SARAH GO!

HOW SARAH PALIN TRUMPS LIBERALISM



MANY MORE STICKER DESIGNS HERE

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This abrupt resignation in the middle of her term is bizarre and incomprehensible if judging by her justifications

How so?

If Palin has national ambitions then what better time to start than now?

With the presidential elections starting earlier and earlier, she had to make a move. By resigning, she's free and can do whatever she wants without the constraints of being Governor or moonbats filing bogus charges against her and trashing her family. Plus she'll be doing a lot of traveling and remember that she lives in Alaska, not in the lower 48 so that also helps.

Palin has 17 years of elective and appointed experience in office under her belt. If she was good enough to be chosen for VP, what makes you think she's not good enough to run for President in her own right?

[SeekAndFind]

For those of you who say that her resignation means she’s running for the presidency, think again...

This seems like a very, very strange way to launch a presidential bid. Not only did she make the announcement at a time traditionally reserved to bury horrible news but her speech seemed hastily pulled together, replete with the bizarre lame-duck rationale, instead of sounding polished the way one would expect you’d do for an announcement this big.

It seems to me that she did this for the kids, to protect them and to spend more time with them, but if that’s true, why not make that the focus of the speech and give this speech on Monday morning, when the media’s rested and ready for a full week of new coverage?

Quitting for her family only makes her sympathetic. And if that’s the real reason, why obscure it?

I still say the timing and the speech itself is STRANGE.

[mono]

I just watched the entire replay of her resignation speech and I am baffled as to what she was trying to say. If she does have future political plans she surely has given her opponents in both parties a lot of ammo to use against her.

[saquin]

Where were these editorial attacks when Democraps resigned? Hmmmm?

How many Governors, Democrat or Republican, resigned their office suddenly halfway through their first term? And with a vague explanation and the unspoken thought they might run for President in 3 years? I can't think of any.

Resigning elected office is a big deal, not usually taken lightly. It's not the same as simply not running for re-election.

[cotton1706]

This is such nonsense. She is going to travel around the country like Nixon in ‘66 and Reagan in ‘78 and help conservatives win. Then she’ll have lots of political chits to cash in on and loyal followers who she helped.

I ask this: can Crist survive if she endorses and campaigns for Rubio?? Does Cornyns endorsement even matter at that point? Can Reid survive if she campaigns in Nevada against him? Can McCain? How big a crowd can she draw for Pat Toomey? Can she help to defeat Dodd and Lincoln?

I think something big has just been unleashed!

[TribalPrincess2U]

I believe Sarah is a fighter.

I hope she has enough fighters to stand with her.

[dusttoyou]

I’m with you on jokyfo posts. Either a romneyite or a DU seminar poster.

Who knows from the road what lies in the bushes? With the ankle biters from soros, nobama and DU operatives trumping up lame ass ethics complaints almost daily, it had to be next to impossible to get the regular Governor work done.

Betcha we see Saracuda take off the gloves she had to wear as Governor in smacking down those weasels.

[Deo volente]

Ed Morrissey needs to step away from the Kool-Aid pitcher.

A cold shower and a pot of black coffee should sober him up.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

That's exactly right...the RNC wasn't lifting a finger to help her and she was fighting all by her lonesome up there. In fact, the GOP establishment was trying to help the libs bury her.

She's now free of them all.

[muawiyah]

The ethics complaints were more than a distraction ~ they'd become a nightmare for Sarah and her closest staff people.

It all went back to the time Sarah refused to pull Bibles and other religious books off the shelves of the public library in Wasilla on behalf of the local 500 pound red-headed atheist nutcase who thought she ran the town.

Having barely gotten past that the 500 pound fruitcake decided that Wasilla needed a grass ordinance.

That puke has dogged Sarah every step of the way, and through misuse of the ethics laws she was costing her tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of personal time to do nothing but provide depositions.

Are there no men in Alaska who could rid America of this sore on the body politic?

[Recovering_Democrat]

I love all these instant experts.

Folks, Sarah will take care of herself. Rumors of her demise may or may not be greatly exagerrated.

What we need to do is focus on Hussein’s America Destroying Agenda.

[SeekAndFind]

I blame the media, they destroyed her long ago anyways.

As I said before, there is a method to this madness.... the lamestream media, seeing their success with Palin, will now train their guns on whoever the GOP determines to be their next national candidate -- especially of he/she is conservative.

Think -- Bobby Jindal or Mitch Daniels.

[pointsal]

where is that birth certificate?

[saquin]

If Palin has national ambitions then what better time to start than now?

Again, resigning elected office halfway through your term, suddenly and without good reason, is a HUGE deal. The people elect you to do a job and to suddenly quit that job halfway through is something that's not usually taken lightly. Deciding not to run for re-election next year would have been completely understandable. Resigning abruptly like this? Not so understandable.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

To have thrown such a wrench into Alaska’s state government for no other reason than personal ambition may be a strategic maneuver

She did a good job in the 2.5 years she held the position, good enough to be chosen for Vice-President of the United States. Palin has a capable Lt Governor taking over and she has cleaned up the corruption there.

but one that ignores the fact that resigning an elected office is serious business that has a real effect on government in Alaska .

She can't do her job if moonbats are filing bogus charges against her at a cost of millions of dollars to the state can she?