The Friendly Hermit - Palin to Resign Alaskan Governorship Within the Month

01:20 pm July 3rd, 2009




			The Friendly Hermit - Palin to Resign Alaskan Governorship Within the Month All who wander are not lost...

legolastn


	Palin to Resign Alaskan Governorship Within the Month
	Bizarre. ETA: Some have speculated that this is a move for the 2012 Presidential campaign but I can't imagine she doesn't know that resigning halfway into her first term as governor is a suicidal move in terms of Presidential aspirations. I suspect she is either just tired of national scrutiny (or that along with some secret personal crisis is too much for her) and wants to move herself and her family into a more private sphere, or she is planning to move into some less conventional unelected political role (though I can't imagine what that might be since she is not known for deep policy analysis or superior public speak ability). ETA2: Andrea Mitchell suggests based on unnamed family friend sources that it is the former: that she is sick of politics and public scrutiny.

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	Comments

	From: i12bmore	Date: July 3rd, 2009 09:19 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Call me odd, but I've always felt kind of sorry for her. This is good.

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	From: legolastn	Date: July 3rd, 2009 10:03 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I won't call you odd because I sort of agree - if she is resigning for personal reasons I can respect that. I think she was totally unprepared for national scrutiny when she was pulled into the limelight by either McCain's narcissism-meets-desperation or his advisers' terrible advice. You can't really decline whens someone offers you a VP position on their presidential ticket.

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	From: i12bmore	Date: July 3rd, 2009 11:48 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Interestingly, I'd read some pundit on Yahoo saying some two or three weeks before her selection that she'd be the most likely VP candidate because of her success with populists, which at that point was totally out of left field.

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	From: rane500	Date: July 3rd, 2009 09:26 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It will be hilarious to me if it is in fact the former and she's sick of politics. Many die-hard Republican voters made her a sort of "poster child" for where the party needed to be, and boy does that say a lot when your poster child either can't stand the heat or simply finds national politics disgusting enough to leave.

It will of course be equally hilarious if this IS some sort of prep for 2012, because you are dead right - it doesn't look so hot if you resign your first term.

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	From: legolastn	Date: July 3rd, 2009 10:05 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I suppose it will be a good laugh on the Republican Party either way, but in terms of my attitude towards her as an individual, I think if it is the former I can respect that, if the latter that she is more foolish than I believed.

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	From: rane500	Date: July 4th, 2009 02:06 am (UTC)		(Link)

I'm a little iffy on respecting her for the decision if it's the former. She has only had to deal with a minuscule fraction of the crap politicians deal with and leaving halfway through a term to me smacks of dereliction of duty. She signed on to govern the state of Alaska and to help further their interests, but apparently the voters don't matter if she gets a black eye?

I think it's probably to try and "escape scandal," and I have zero pity for that. I'm not even talking about her specifically in that respect, I have zero pity for any public figure that thinks they can get away with their dirty laundry while living life in the public eye.

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	From: legolastn	Date: July 4th, 2009 02:50 am (UTC)		(Link)

I can see the argument that she is sort of abandoning her post, but when she signed up to be governor of Alaska I'm guessing she had no idea she would be a VP candidate and subject to national scrutiny. Yeah, other politicians have put up with worse, but there's no requirement to do so - other politicians and public figures have also withdrawn from the public spotlight in response to less. So, I'm willing to give her a pass in that respect. With the understanding that she does lose credibility in running for any future public office.

And, yeah, if she's trying to get out before a scandal hits, I don't see that as at all the same thing as getting out for personal reasons and I have no pity for that.

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