News Why Did Sarah Palin Resign as Governor?

[LowlyPion]

Time's analysis of the 5 reasons she may have quit.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800,00.html

Looks to me like they all stack up to a "Show me the money." move on her part.

It's less clear how astute a politician she is. One has to wonder about her piquish refusal to appoint an acceptable Democrat as required by law for the Alaska legislator that went into the Obama administration. That kind of narcissism doesn't seem like smart politics.

Maybe the real reason she left was that she found herself increasingly unqualified to handle the job of Governor, as problems mounted for which she has no solutions? Better to quit and let people think she could solve problems, than remain and prove that she couldn't?

 

[BobG]

Time's analysis of the 5 reasons she may have quit.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800,00.html

Looks to me like they all stack up to a "Show me the money." move on her part.

It's less clear how astute a politician she is. One has to wonder about her piquish refusal to appoint an acceptable Democrat as required by law for the Alaska legislator that went into the Obama administration. That kind of narcissism doesn't seem like smart politics.

Maybe the real reason she left was that she found herself increasingly unqualified to handle the job of Governor, as problems mounted for which she has no solutions? Better to quit and let people think she could solve problems, than remain and prove that she couldn't?

I have to admit that the balance between spending up to a million dollars of her own money to defend herself from allegations from outside groups vs the chance to earn money on a speaking tour would make the last reason seem pretty reasonable. That's a strange quirk in Alaska's laws.

I would agree that becoming the VP nominee has brought nothing but trouble for her. I think she was qualified to be governor of Alaska, but being the poster child for the conservative wing of the Republican Party has destroyed the Democratic base she had in Alaska.

I think she definitely wasn't (and isn't) ready for prime time, but Time magazine's mention of the 2006 version of Palin does lend some credence to Palin's claims that the McCain campaign mismanaged her by making her the poster child of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

But what else is new? Romney's campaign jumped through so many hoops to appeal the right that no one could figure out who he was by time the primaries took place. Even McCain took a lot of hits among long time backers by catering to the right. The only reason Palin and Huckabee didn't look more two-faced is because they had so little exposure before their campaign took place.

 

[LowlyPion]

That's a strange quirk in Alaska's laws.

I agree that it seems a bit onerous. It occurs to me as being about as contrived as NCAA rules concerning what head coaches are permitted in terms of recruitment. Anyone in Alaska with a view to political ambition seems to be somewhat more hamstrung than one imagines elsewhere. (Heck in some states you can just take off and see a mistress in Argentina for a week.)

I'd say the ethics violations are at once a little unfair, but occasioned by less than careful behavior on both Todd and Sarah Palin's parts, and by the blurry line they made for themselves by Todd acting in quasi official ways. Improper e-mailing and campaigning etc is too much niggling about what was actually done, but they should have been smart enough to set up parallel accounts and keep things from becoming a problem in the first place. The vindictive fight with her brother-in-law looks way too petty, yet they got way too involved for someone who would think to be seen as made of Presidential timber.

She just doesn't seem to have a big brush or a grand vision. She can't seem to paint in broad strokes, rather she seems unnecessarily caught up in picayune things. So going for the media/entertainment gold likely fits her view of herself far better than any policy ambitions that she genuinely would want to advance.

 

[Loren Booda]

Politics aside, I am concerned that she may have suffered an anxiety or depressive disorder of some kind - or is she more shrewd than I suspect?

 

[LowlyPion]

Politics aside, I am concerned that she may have suffered an anxiety or depressive disorder of some kind - or is she more shrewd than I suspect?

I know she is more shrewd than I think she is.

She would have to be.

 

[LowlyPion]

Politics aside, I am concerned that she may have suffered an anxiety or depressive disorder of some kind - or is she more shrewd than I suspect?

I would add that Maureen Dowd touched on this in her article the other day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05dowd.html?_r=1&em

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Politics aside, I am concerned that she may have suffered an anxiety or depressive disorder of some kind - or is she more shrewd than I suspect?

Unfortunately I did not catch his name but I just heard a pollster from Alaska on the radio who speculates she has a narcissistic personality disorder and simply could no longer deal with all of the negative things being said about her.

 

[LowlyPion]

Unfortunately I did not catch his name but I just heard a pollster from Alaska on the radio who speculates she has a narcissistic personality disorder and simply could no longer deal with all of the negative things being said about her.

Then the reaction to her announcement likely isn't up to what she would have hoped. If anything the rhetoric has been amped up, with many in the Republican Party even saying it's over for her as far as 2012. (Like Karl Rove before anyone wants a cite.)

Grabbing golden security for her family seems like the real toy prize that she is wanting from the bottom of the Cracker Jacks, given the more limited means she has been raised from.

 

[math_04]

I know she is more shrewd than I think she is.

You think so? .

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I found the pollster's name. Ivan Moore.
He talked about Palin's support since her resignation but I have only found recent articles he's written regarding numbers for the Senate and House races so far.

 

[LowlyPion]

Evidently she really is thin skinned. So she got out of the kitchen. This remark is reported from fishing on Bristol Bay yesterday.

"Especially when all these lawmakers are lining up for office. Their desire would be to clobber the administration left and right so that they can position themselves for office. I'm not going to put Alaskans through that," the governor said, wearing a Cabela's fishing bib as she stood on a Bristol Bay beach outside Dillingham.

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/855907.html

I'd say it's not Alaska that she was concerned for so much as herself, with her record for not doing anything in a down economy being "clobbered" through 2010.

 

[LowlyPion]

Levi Johnston, 19, whose wedding to Bristol Palin was called off earlier this year, says he believes the governor is resigning over personal finances.

... "I think the big deal was the book. That was millions of dollars," said Johnston, who has had a strained relationship with the family but now says things have improved.

http://www.adn.com/nation/story/859606.html

It's not that the ethics charges are costing Alaska all this money, after all she brought the one charge in Troopergate against herself that by far cost the most, so if she was really concerned about Alaskans ... maybe it's that being Governor is costing HER money.

Maybe after all, everything she does is just all about Sarah? Public service is maybe just the Tollway to the treasure?

 

[LowlyPion]

Peggy Noonan's piece about Sarah:

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html

 

[LowlyPion]

The accounting on the cost to Alaska for her ethics lapses seems to be a trifle inflated. I wonder if she thought people wouldn't add up the numbers?

A $30,000 an hour attorney? Palin report overstates inquiries' costs

There's some double counting and other problems with a spreadsheet outlining $1.9 million in state costs for ethics complaints, public records requests and lawsuits directed at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/310/story/71675.html

The cost of Troopergate was apparently over $500,000. And that was a complaint that she initiated against herself, to short-circuit legislative action. Apparently she wasn't so concerned for Alaska pocketbooks at that time when it advantaged her to spend their money.

 

[lisab]

Peggy Noonan's piece about Sarah:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html

Good article.

Sort of makes me wonder if the elites of the GOP love Palin for the same reason they loved GWB so much...put a simpleton in White House, and the real power is available to those who know which strings to pull.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Oddly there is another board I go to occasionally that has been bombarded lately by spambots quoting snippets of news articles about Sarah Palin.