Saturday, July 04, 2009

Why Is Sarah Palin Resigning As Governor of Alaska?


From the Belmont Club:

Northern surprise

Sarah Palin’s has announced she intends to quit as Governor of Alaska, fueling speculation that she is clearing the decks to focus on a Presidential run. The Wall Street Journal writes “Her decision not to run for a second term will likely fuel speculation about whether she may make a presidential bid in the 2012 election.” The Washington Postcalls it an unusual move by an unconventional politician.  It writes:

One strategist who assumes she has aspirations to run for president called the decision to resign her office “puzzling,” another described it as “nutty.” “If this is about running for president, it’s about as odd a way as we’ve ever seen,” said John Weaver, a Republican strategist. …Yet, it has been obvious that Alaska is a difficult place from which to participate in the national debate — both because of its physical distance from the rest of the United States but also because of its unique culture and identity. Freed of the constraints of her office, Palin could, if she chooses, become a more engaged participant in the national debate.

“My contrarian take is almost everyone I talk to thinks it’s crazy but I wonder maybe it’s crazy like a fox,” said Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, who has been out defending Palin this past week.

If Sarah Palin has resigned in order to focus on the 2012 it will have the effect of starting the election season early. Both President Obama and Republican Presidential hopefuls must consider whether they can stay on the starting blocks while the former of Governor of Alaska runs down the track at her own pace. The President will probably try to ignore her; with his publicists portraying her as “looney” or trying to escape her responsibilities in Alaska. There may even be one or two exposes commission to allege that Palin had something to hide in the Great North and was running from it. By leaving her destruction to his public relations minions instead of taking her seriously, the incumbent can portray her as beneath his dignity to take seriously. But if Palin’s campaign begins to acquire momentum, then every other Presidential hopeful will be forced to respond whether they like it or not.

The word “campaign” must be used advisedly. The text of her announcement, as excerpted by the AP suggests that she may be aiming to position herself as the center of a movement rather than than as the aspiring Republican Presidential candidate for 2012. Sarah Palin may be calculating that, with employment rates at their lowest point in decades and with polls showing a widespread fear for the country’s future, that a crisis is brewing or will soon burst. A crisis would seek a natural center, a point around which to rally; and she would be it.

In a hastily arranged news conference at her home in suburban Wasilla, Palin said she will formally step down July 26, and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the governor’s picnic in Fairbanks. She said she had decided against running for re-election as Alaska’s governor, and believed it was best to leave office even though she had two years left to her term. …

Palin hinted she had a bigger role in mind, saying she wanted to make a “positive change outside government.” But she kept supporters in suspense, promising on Twitter: “We’ll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election … this is in Alaska’s best interest, my family’s happy … it is good. Stay tuned.”

If something resembling a crisis does break out in the next six months then Sarah Palin’s “unconventional” or “puzzling” move will be retroactively described as an act of genius.

6 comments:

midnight rider said...

I have to hold with Bill Kristol on this and said so in Carlos' post last night "I believe the good governor has something up her sleeve that she can't accomplish while shackled by governorship. She is most assuredly up to something."

I really hope I'm not wrong here. We'll see.

Pastorius said...

Yeah, I hope she's got bigger plans.

midnight rider said...

I don't even care if it's a POTUS run or not as long as she is getting in there to attack the bullshit going on in D.C.

Reliapundit said...

she said why:

You don’t hear much about the good stuff in the press anymore, though, do you? Some say things changed for me on August 29th last year — the day that John McCain tapped me to be his running mate. And it was an honor to stand beside a true American hero. I say others changed, and let me to speak to that for a minute.

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law that I championed became their weapon of choice over the past nine months. I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations, such as holding a fish in a photograph or wearing a jacket with a logo on it and answering reporters’ questions.

Every one of these, though, all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We have won, but it hasn’t been cheap. The state has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to opposition research and that’s money that’s not going to fund teachers, or troopers or safer roads.

And this political absurdity, the politics of personal destruction, Todd and I, we’re looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills just in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime. So they’re not going to stop draining the public resources, spending other people’s money in this game. They won’t stop.

It’s pretty insane. My staff and I spend most of our day — we’re dealing with this stuff instead of progressing our state now.

And I know that I promised no more politics as usual but this isn’t what anyone had in mind for Alaska.

If I’ve learned one thing it’s that life is about choices and one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down or that build up and I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose not to tear down and waste precious time but to build up this state and our great country and her industrious and generous and patriotic and free people.

Life is too short to compromise time and resources and though it may be tempting and more comfortable to just kind of keep your head down and plod along and appease those who are demanding, hey, just sit down and shut up. But that’s a worthless, easy path out. That’s a quitter’s way out. And I think a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just kind of hunker down and go with the flow. We’re fishermen and we know that only dead fish go with the flow.

No productive fulfilled people determined where to put their efforts choosing to wisely use precious time to build up — and there is such a need to build up — and fight for our state and our country and I choose to fight for it. And I’ll work very hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government and strong national security for our country and support for our troops and energy independence and for those who will protect freedom and equality and life.

I’ll work hard for and I’ll campaign for those who are proud to be American and who are inspired by our ideals and they won’t deride them. I will support others who seek to serve in or out of office, and I don’t care what party they’re in or no party at all, inside Alaska or outside of Alaska.

But I won’t do it from the governor’s desk. I’ve never believed that I nor anyone else needs a title to do this, to make a difference, to help people. So I choose for my state and for my family more freedom to progress all the way around.

revereridesagain said...

I do believe Gov. Palin is appropriately applying the principle of "Illegitimi Non Carborundum" (Don't Let the Bastards Wear You Down) by refusing to sit quietly in the trap that has been set for her. She has rightly concluded that things have come to a pass where we have to refuse to just play the game and instead go on the offensive. And, she is about to make herself a moving target and therefore much harder to hit.

She's still not my top choice as a candidate, but damn, this is impressive. I hope more will follow her lead.

Pastorius said...

As I've said in other posts, I don't think she's ready to be President, but she sure as hell would be a fun President. If you thought the Dems went nuts over Bush, man oh man, they'd have to be carted off to mental institutions if Palin was President.