My assorted random thoughts...
Ramblin' - Uhmm, was that the most erratic speech evar, or is it just me? She starts off with a basketball analogy, essentially saying that stepping down is "passing the ball". Uhhhmmm, wouldn't this be more like begging the coach to take you out? Then she somehow goes on a tangent about "calling an audible", which when I last checked, was a football term. For a 3-4 minute stretch, she was talking so fast and unintelligibly, I swore she was about to offer me a VCR for $20. Epic Fail!
No Sympathy - I'm sorry, but it's very, very difficult for me to have any sympathy for Palin, simply because she didn't give any definitive reason for stepping down. Had she simply said "I'm sick of all this, and just want to focus on my family", I doubt anyone would begrudge her decision. Only a heartless bastard would have an issue with this. But by rambling on and on about "wasteful spending", "lame ducks", and "the Constitution", she leaves the perception that this might be a politically movitated move. If she suddenly announces a Fox News deal, a daytime talk show, or yet another book deal, then we'll know what's up. Either way, there is no way whatsoever to otherwise justify quitting halfthrough the job that thousands of Alaaaaaskans entrusted you with. Period. No way.
Quitter - Seriously, how can someone be forgiven for bailing early on a job without giving a valid decision? She only served 2 1/2 years of her first term as Governor, and nearly a year of that was spent running for Veep or positioning herself for 2012. What sort of experience does that amount to? Could you possibly pass yourself off 3 years from now as a qualified candidate with such an incomplete resume? The cloud of ethics complaints, red ink, and denied stimulus funds she leaves behind is hardly the stuff of champions. And the timing (Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend) is pretty dubious too.
Liberal Media Attacks. Huh? - I've long posited that much of Palin's appeal is predicated on an "Us vs Them" style of victimhood.[1] The problem with this is that much of the media scrutiny that she complains about is generated from those in her party, and a lot of it is stuff she's more or less brought on herself. The much maligned recent Vanity Fair piece is full of quotes attributed to McCain campaign staffers, not "anonymous sources" as many have posited, which shows they didn't bother reading the whole 11 pages. If she does resurface and run in 2012, there's no way (I repeat, no way) she makes it beyond the Republican nomination. Those guys (Romney, Huckabee, and Newt especially) will seize everything I've written on this site, and then some, and use it to rip her to shreds. Obama wouldn't have to lift a finger.
The GOP's Future - Uhhh, what future? Palin has no future after such a flaky, erratic, poorly explained resignation. The party's other "stars" have fallen one by one in recent weeks. The only guy without a spot on his resume is Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a guy to dour and boring, he makes Mike Huckabee look like Diddy by comparison. Again, score one for Obama.
Question: What's really going on here? Is Palin stepping down to "spend more time with her family", "improve life for Alaskans outside political office", or should we expect a press release about her upcoming Fox News show any moment?
[1] And for the record, I could probably take her far more seriously if she'd kill this whole "victimhood" angle and just kick the facts. It's hard to hear any valid credentials through all the whining. Is this a reverse-sexist double standard of some sort? I think so. I doubt a man could pull this off without being called a wimp.
