Maybe she's resigning because something terrible is about to come out? Surely she can't be so stupid to resign early to run for Pres.

Can she?

The feds must be close to sniffing out her meth lab.

Hopefully, the new governor will do a better job for the people of Alaska than she did.

Also, the timing makes me think that there's about to be some new republican scandal about to be revealed.

This is astonishing. Even for Palin.

$$ speechifying $$
money to be made.
and no background checks.

Given the number of horny, young, Republican Sarah groupies out there, she may be hiking the Appalachian trail, if you know what I mean;>

Maybe she's resigning because something terrible is about to come out? Surely she can't be so stupid to resign early to run for Pres.

Can she?

I'm pretty sure that she can.

Palin's making a terrible mistake? Hardly. Palin can't govern, and staying in office would only prove that. Her only chance at higher office is to not have a track record that people can point to. When oil prices were sky high, she could send out fat checks to boost her popularity. But with oil prices being lower now, she can't buy popularity. She'd actually have to govern effectively to be popular. She can't do that, and she knows it. Better to cut your losses now.

If you asked me...I'd guess this is about money. She wants more - and this whole governorship thing is holding her back.

With the possible exception of Madonna, I have never seen raw ambition like hers; at least Madonna could dance some.
Combined with her hilarious lack of gravitas, this insures 3.5 years of comedy. The White House must be having a good laugh over this.

An interesting weird irony about Sarah Palin is her supposed connection to Scientology. Look at this and the discussion:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080917203107AAKGEqq

Smells like a scandal to me. Trig's paternity? Or his maternity?

Uh, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.

I think "fostert" above nailed most of it. Another possible factor- she got bored. She's like a small child with a limited attention span. Actually having to govern a state isn't fun anymore, so she drops the toy she's been playing with and goes looking for a new one.

I see two possibilities:

1. Some hitherto unknown scandal is about to blow up, with legal implications that mean she'll need to deal with it full time

or

2. She really is quitting to devote full-time to a presidential run in 2012.

I discount #1, because if she is in legal jeopardy, it'd be better to face it as a sitting governor (see Blagojevich, Rod and Sanford, Mark). Which leaves us with 2.

Is quitting now insane? Breathtakingly stupid? Well, it is Sarah Palin we're talking about here. The woman's political instincts are amoral and ruthless, but also imbecilic, and she is way out of her depth as a national political figure. I've never thought she'd last as a national politician because she's too stupid to successfully run even the basic logistics of a national campaign.

I expect this idiotic resignation will be part of the flameout of Sarah Palin's nascent national political career. Still, no fear, I'm sure she'll provide a lot more comedy before she actually goes down for the last time.

I noticed that Andrew Sullivan was posting an unusual number of anti-Palin items today, even for him. Made me wonder whether he was on to something.

Did some republican operative supporting some Non-Palin person just find some dirt and blackmail her out of office? Friday afternoon and no good explanation...

Something super messy must be behind this...

There is no chance of a presidential run, and after the rotten job she has done in Alaska I'd be shocked if she were to be reelected - which means that for the remainder of her current term she'd merely have to uphold the duties of the office. Does she really feel so little for those that voted for her that she'd run out? I am no Palin fan, but this seems kinda slimy - even for her.

Paraphrasing some other commentators, I can't recall witnessing another party self-destruct so thoroughly in the year after losing an election as the Republican Party has been doing since Obama won the presidency and the Democrats increased their numbers in Congress.

She wants to be governor of South Carolina.(?)

This would be such an odd move, politically. I wonder if maybe it's an illness or a family issue.

maybe god did the state (and the rest of us) a favor and told her to resign...

Caribou Barbie: Trigonometry calculations are hard!

You think Sanford, Cheney, Blagojevich, and Bush are incapable of self-refection? Then Sarah is clinically insane that way. The base's adulation has destroyed whatever moral compass was still functioning in that dim brain. Fame is deadly. This isn't your ordinary loon....

So what's going on here is almost impossible to predict...

My first inclination: I wonder who she fucked.

So I am gonna split my wager on this one:

60% of my chips are on adultery
30% of my chips are on some Trig revelation
10% are on Steve's initial assumption.

Losing such a hard working patriotic public servant as Palin will be hard on Alaskans. You liberals should be ashamed of yourselves for harassing her family and forcing her out of office. She' a woman more fit to lead than you'll ever know.

"Another possible factor- she got bored. She's like a small child with a limited attention span."

I think that's also a good explanation. But one thing is for sure: all the factors pointed to quitting now. There was simply no upside to staying on. With lower oil prices, Alaska is facing tough times, and it takes a competent leader to get through tough times. She's not that competent leader. Better to have that be a question than prove it decisively.

Damn, I'm gonna miss her.

"Losing such a hard working patriotic public servant as Palin will be hard on Alaskans. You liberals should be ashamed of yourselves for harassing her family and forcing her out of office. She' a woman more fit to lead than you'll ever know."

Lol. Good one.

This is strange. I can imagine some Governors quitting to run for President (to avoid the charge they can't do both well, but even that's a stretch - so many go ahead anyway.) But this early? Really, about *three years* before a nomination announcement and a good two years even before serious campaigning? What's really going on?

(I have a curious interest in SP since I was the first person, period, to call her AK office and congratulate (a bit TIC) her on becoming a grandma via the birth of Tripp, the mysterious son of Bristol. The young girl at the desk didn't even know it had happened.) Oh, and I went as her for Halloween like about every smart alek guy in America.)

(PS, Martin; I'm one of the horny, older, Democrat Sarah groupies ... )

Maybe there are Runner's World photos minus the flag and spandex? Doesn't make sense....

PS2 - That above was one of the best from the Al-complex I've seen.

Look for a mega dollar book deal in a few weeks. She can onlt earn real money as aprivate citizen.

X-Mas has come early this year. Sarah Palin is simply the gift that keeps on giving. I didn't watch the press conference, but does she or anyone else seriously think that stepping down in the middle of her first term as governor of will somehow HELP her politically? Its hard to believe even she could be that stupid.

My best guess- she's going to steal Glenn Beck's gig at Fox "News."

and I went as her for Halloween like about every smart alek guy in America. - Neil B

Did you go with the slutty flight attendant look? Or Nanuka the Moosekiller?

Or maybe her family has been relentlessly mocked, hounded, had groundless ethics complaints filed against them and slandered to the point that it is causing marital problems and stress.

Could she be doing this for the sake of her family? No of course not. That is what a selfless person would do and all conservatives are ruthlessly after power and money.

Keep up the good work everyone - on to the destroy the next American who doesn't share your political philosophy.

Social conservatives understand themselves through antagonism.

In her mind savagely feuding with everyone around her ought to make her a great hero, particularly with the people she's fighting with.

a) todd isn't the father b) more video of her and stupid church antics. c) vanity fair article d) emails about tod and that group e) levi

so much to deny, so little time

Do we need any further proof that the American right wing does not actually care about governing. I am not talking about not liking government. I am talking about not liking the very act of governing. Oh, they love power and the thrill of anihilating one's enemies in a campaign. They just don't like the hard work that comes after it.

In conservative cultures the accepted right wing institutions govern directly -- the business oligarchy, the ecclesiastical authorities or the military. In liberal societies conservative elements have to give at least lip service to democratic traditions and sensibilities in order gain the consent of the governed for a very narrow governing elite. But once in office conservatives almost always turn over real power and decision-making to business elites, the church hierarchy or even the military. The hated "politicians" are merely figureheads for the most part.

Is it any wonder that the hard right that controls the GOP talks about radical free market policies like tax cuts on investment income and de-regulation of the financial markets, as well as trying to turn America into a Christian Nation with a Biblical Worldview. The one turns over the nation's economic policy to the business elite and the other puts the nation's social laws in the religious authorities. That is all Sarah Palin is. A figurehead for this conservative oligarchy waiting in the wings to take power if Palin is somehow able to seduce the American public into voting for her. But why should she hit the books and learn about monetarism or fiscal policy? She'd have "advisors" for that.

"She' a woman more fit to lead than you'll ever know."

I can only pray that's true.

arod really did knock up bristol.

Either (a) she's getting out before some bad news hits, or (b) she's decided she's done with politics.

There is no way that she thinks this will help her run for president in '12. Not even she is that dumb.

Governing is a lot different than campaigning. Governing never seemed to be her thing, and even as bad as she was at campaigning, she seemed to enjoy it, and plenty of wingnuts loved her. She can get that somewhere else. TV probably. The money can be pretty good, much better than governor of AK.

I'm shocked by all you missing the obvious. She's resigning to attend either Yale Law or Harvard Business school, as the only thing she needs to become the perfect presidential candidate.

It's either that, or Bristol is pregnant again, and she just can't take having to admit that Letterman was onto something.

She's moving to Washington DC, so she can say she has the experience. She'll be able to say she can see the White House from where she lives.

The real power is not in elective office. The real power is in propaganda. That is where she is going.

Just stopped by MSNBC, and looked to see if First Read had anything on this. No (unsurprisingly.) But they do have a nice little list, by state, of all the problems state governments are having right now, with most fiscal years ending June 30. Alaska isn't on the list, but governing a state is getting much harder right now. Maybe Caribou Barbie's one functional brain cell recognized this and decided to get out while the gettin's good.

Danp, I was the SFA with the spot-on red dress and reddish sexy librarian wig. Opinions were mixed on whether I looked "good" (heh, I did Madonna in 1985 and was rather a sight, had to fend off suitors....)

Here's some tripe by K-Lo, see how the Right is ready to say exactly what the parody troll MynameisAL put forth above:

Mother Palin
...

... it's way too overwhelming to be Sarah Palin, political phenom, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and Sarah Palin, wife and mother. I don't know that anyone can fulfill all those roles well, simultaneously. And we're unrealistic, I think, when we assume people can or should.

One reservation I've always had about Sarah Palin has to do with her family. If she is stepping down because of what politics has done to her family, because of something in her family life she doesn't want to see as David Letterman fodder, because it's impossible to be governor, a star, and a mom to an infant ... this is good. It demonstrates good judgment and priorities.

07/03 03:54 PM

Get it? It was good judgment, because Sarah was avoiding the abuse by people like David Letterman. Never mind that Barack Obama has to President of the whole USA and a dad, and put up with claims he is not really a US Citizen, is a Muslim, wants a socialist takeover of the US, etc. - all serious charges, not jokes. Yet he soldiers on and Sarah can't. Oh, the humanity ...

Palin was in over her head as the mayor of Wasilla. She's to stupid to be Governor of a small state let alone the United States. Without the benefit a Bush/Rove bubble to protect her from the reality of what people really think of her, she imploded. Good riddance.

Palin will no doubt spend the next 18 months living on the talk show circuit. I foresee a major bitch-fight between her and Megan McCain.

This is not inconsistent with her inability to make simple political commitments, like speaking at an important political dinner.

I'm thinking she has been so far out of her depth that it finally drove her around the bend. (How's THAT for mixing metaphors!) It's one thing to pretend you know what you're talking about as a weatherperson, or whatever she was on TV, but it's another when you have the press asking you questions about issues you really know NOTHING about.

I'm thinking nervous breakdown. Mixed with post-partum depression? She certainly looked freaked out at her news conference. Or statement to the press, I guess I should say. Since she didn't take any questions, it could hardly be described as a "conference."

The inflated ego finally blew.

Makes Kristol and McCain look like even bigger fools.

Bet Faux News somehow makes her out as a martyr to the Liberal Media.

[cue "Another One Bites The Dust"]

I predict its a legal issue. She's a walking, talking ethics violation. OR its money. If Rush can pull down a half billion for his mythologies, imagine what Palin can bring in.

Or maybe her family has been relentlessly mocked, hounded, had groundless ethics complaints filed against them and slandered to the point that it is causing marital problems and stress.

So, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" is no longer operative for Republicans?

Could she be doing this for the sake of her family? No of course not. That is what a selfless person would do and all conservatives are ruthlessly after power and money.

Can't argue with you there.

Keep up the good work everyone - on to the destroy the next American who doesn't share your political philosophy.

Yep, and I think we're pretty much done. Palin, Sanford, Ensign have been destroyed, Jindall too (getting him to give that goofy-ass speech right after Obama was a stroke of genius on our parts)...who's left for 2012? Oh, yeah. Huckabee? YOU'RE NEXT, DUDE!!!

So does this mean that if she is elected pres./vp that if the media is "mean" or tough on her that she'll walk away from that post too? Being an erratic quitter aren't exactly qualities I look for in my leaders.

That "speech" was one rambling pile of incoherency.

Wow. And here I am lamenting the fact that Sanford hasn't the guts to quit. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, what has gotten into you? Perhaps this fine sunny Alaskian morn she had an epiphany while shaving that Russia really couldn't be seen from her back porch and that those newspapers she always read turned out to be ads for the various thrift shops she used to frequent and that McAce was probably right when he suggested that she really was the best candidate he could have chosen to be a heartbeat away form his long sought after job and that realization bummmed her out to the point of resigning. Nauseating...

Lots of good juicy speculation here, all of which could be true to some degree. Basically she's been faking it all along, coasting on her looks and raw political instincts. But when the chips are down and there's nowhere to hide, she's got nothing left but to bail out and run away.

Or there could be another looming scandal that's so horrendous that to stay on would be suicidal, leaving no choice but to leave town one step ahead of the sheriff.

Or maybe a bit of both. I swear, the news reports next week are going to be more fun than they've been in a long time.

Oh man. Blankley on CNN says she's done something smart!! This will help her run for President, because Alaska is so far from the Lower 48.

The RePugs are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They still love her and think she's still trying to keep her options open. Oh BROTHER!

Is there enough popcorn in the world right now?

I just feel so bad for Tina Fey. Sad, sad, sad.

Is there enough popcorn in the world right now? - Cal Gal

You damn liberals are driving up the price of ethynol. I hope you know that.

A) She's about to have some killer scandal revealed

B) She's gunning for Lisa Murkowski's Senate seat, then pres in 2012

Remember, Palin went to five different schools to finish her college education. She may have ADHD. In fact, the way in which she talks, convinces me of it, because I talk the same way and I have ADHD (and am a rotten liberal anyway.)

But like many with ADHD, she's not good at self-reflection. If she knew she had a problem, she might have been able to get ahead of that condition and have a comfortable, useful career in public service. Which does not amount to resigning the governorship just because the GOPers think you're "special".

There's something there in her statement that as fishermen, she and Todd know that "only dead fish go with the flow."

Is there an eminence gris behind her, Scaife or somebody with lots of money, who told her to "go with the flow" or he'd cut off the money? And she didn't and he did?

She also talked about how much money it has cost to fight all the unfair "ethics scandals." That she and Todd had over 1/2 million in lawyers' bills.

To say her public statement didn't make any sense is understating how WIERD it was. I'm thinking the Faux talk show may be true. Gets her money to pay her bills. Keeps her in the public eye without any real responsibility (to Alaska or to the truth). And is a place perfectly suited to her ability to talk on and on withount any need to make sense or have any connection at all with reality.

Damn, I'm gonna miss her.

I hope she gives us a chance to miss her. I'm afraid she'll never go away now.

Delusional to the nth power

Just watched 2:30 seconds of her 6+ min press conference. That's all I could stomach...

Here is what I learned:

All self-regulating gyros in her mind are destroyed. She is sicker than even I imagined. Think Blago and Sanford on some sort of a persecution complex drug...

I am starting to think psychology needs a new sort of mental illness definition to capture the Blago-Palin-Sanford phenomenon. Delusional doesn't really get at it. This is a new kind of whacked, driven forward by too much fame and power and the total lack of mortality and a sense of humor.

She is ill...
Scary ill.
Someone should hide the key to the gun cabinet...

1. Perhaps Letterman was onto something - something is fishy with Willow Palin or

2. She is so depressed over the recent death of Karl Malden that she can no longer function.

Neil B quoting somebody called "K-Lo": It demonstrates good judgment and priorities.

The Al impersonator wrote his (her?) funniest line in a long time. It's hard to believe that a public commentator can not see that this is a catastrophe.

Incidentally, I did read your comment about fisheries: I agree that there is a serious difference between renewable resources and non-renewable resources, illustrated by fisheries, that market zealots often miss. Perhaps we'll discuss this later.

Keep up the good work everyone - on to the destroy the next American who doesn't share your political philosophy.

Yes, it is. Now that Democrats hit back you psychopaths don't like it so much. Too fucking bad. You made a bed of nails, mother fuckers, now you get to lie in it, too. You guys only like to play cutthroat so long as you are the only ones with knives. Cry me a fucking river, whiny loser jackass.

Thank you Sarah. Maybe this will get Michael Jackson out of the spotlight and refocus attention on wiggy RepubCo governors where it belongs.

Maybe she wants to hike the AlCan Highway. Sarah Gump. Just start running honey. Just run and run. And maybe drill a little along the way.

Damn, I'm going to be in John Stewart and Stephen Colbert withdrawal next week. They had better get some great material out of this.

Maybe the TV offer to do Monday Night Football was too good to pass up.

Tony Blankley, a hack for that sacrilegious false prophet (no concern to the fawning religious right) Rev. Moon ... who cares.

Hey tehee, you're following the same sap trap as the execrable doofus K-Lo. Sure, the tough Sarah Barracuda resign a Governorship just due to some kidding and some challenges that you never showed were invalid. Letterman even apologized, while Obama goes through crap every day about him being a Muslim, a socialist, not really a citizen etc. and when do all those hacks every apologize? He has kids too, younger than Sarah's.

Here's a good one from Sullivan, over-fixated he may be:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/07/the-odd-lies-of-sarah-palin-xxxi-todd-and-the-aip.html#more

URL is self-explanatory. Any word on the Scientology connection?

Palin said the family took a vote on whether she should step down or not. Supposedly there were 4 yes votes and one hell, yes vote. Most really devout Christians I know would be embarrassed to take the national stage and use the word "hell" the way she did.
She is a paragon of Christianity and family values./snark

Via TP:

UpdateMSNBC's Andrea Mitchell reports: "Talking to people who are very close to Sarah Palin, I have been told that she has told her supporters that she is out of politics, period. She is fed up with politics. She doesn’t like her life. She feels like she has to raise her family. She’s sick of the commute from Wasilla to the capital and she really does not want to run for higher office. This is not the case where she is stepping down in order to figure the way for a presidential run. In fact, she has told some of her biggest backers in the national Republican Party that they are free to choose other candidates for 2012."

I just listened to part of her speech, as played on NPR. The language makes me think she's running.

Obama showed you really don't need much political experience, or ability to govern, to win the White House. Obama never held an executive position before becoming POTUS and he held one utterly unspectacular term in the Senate.

So even if Palin quits to run in 2012, she already has more governing experience than Obama.

I wonder if this surprise decision will spur Wonkette to post new derogatory photoshops of Trig Palin.

This is so cool.

She's going to run out of money, Todd will lose his backhanders and she'll be forced to take up that Playboy offer after all to pay the mortgage.

Everyone's a winner.

This isn't hard. She wants to go on a speaking tour. Any flight out of Alaska takes hours. She will rake in hundreds of thousands if not millions more if she stations herself down here in the lower 48. It is all about the money.

Scandal

Caught on a DEA wiretap making arrangements to pick up a shipment from the Johnston family meth lab

To say her public statement didn't make any sense is understating how WIERD it was.

It was hilarious in a painful sort of way, but also just mystifying, since we don't have a shred of anything credible that would explain why she's doing what she's doing.

She does seem utterly incapable of forming a coherent thought, much less verbalizing it, but that didn't stop her from motormouthing on and on. Watching that was like drinking crazy from a firehose.

This is not as preposterous as it appears; after all, we have been in the era of the permanent campaign for some time now. We were bound to reach the point sooner or later that Presidential aspirants would begin their campaigns the day after the inauguration of the incumbent. With the money one needs to run for President these days, if Sarah Palin really wants the White house, this is a wise move.

Another thing to consider is that the GOP has no true leader right now; why not Palin? (If you're looking for sane Republicans to take charge, the answer is that they've almost all become Democrats, to the detriment of both parties.)

But you want rumors? Sarah Palin's leaving Todd to move in with Rush Limbaugh!

A couple months ago, she started raising a legal defense fund. I think there's another shoe to drop here. Isn't it interesting how it's one a week lately? First Ensign, then Sanford, now Palin. At this rate, the only one left standing will be the Mormon, who ought to go over REALLY well in the Southern Baptist-dominated Republican Party!

PMS.

My wild-ass guess on that next shoe to drop: It will be connected to the hockey palace built in Wasilla when she was the mayor-ette there. It didn't get a lot of attention, but it looked like the same contractor also built Todd and Sarah's brand spankin' new 3,000+ square foot house, whose windows bear a sriking resemblance to the ones in the area.

We can only hope! Anyway, buh-bye, Sarah!

Could not make it past a couple of minutes of the video. She was clearly in an unsettled or distressed state, and she rambled in circles. It made me feel like I should not be watching, tell you the truth.

It was such a strange performance, in fact, that I doubted it was about positioning herself for higher office. Perhaps another shoe is about to drop, of some kind. I hope it is not personally tragic. Sarah Palin is repugnant to me as a politician, but I don't wish her ill.

.
I heard Palin had a better offer. She's going to Hollywood to star in the sequel to "Public Enemies," a hot, women-behind-bars drama with Lindsey Lohan taking on the Marion Cotillard role. Or maybe our Sarah's just going to be indicted in real life. Either way, good career move? YOU BETCHYA! It all goes back to Elvis vs. Dubya...
.

Watching that was like drinking crazy from a firehose.

Brilliant.

correction: "... whose windows bear a striking resemblance to the ones in the ARENA ..."

Perhaps another shoe is about to drop, of some kind. I hope it is not personally tragic. Sarah Palin is repugnant to me as a politician, but I don't wish her ill.

That makes one of us.

"Sarah Palin's leaving Todd to move in with Rush Limbaugh!"

Given her extended family connection with Oxycontin that seems like a win/win situation.

All I know is that when something like this comes so unexpectedly, there's something big that's prompting it. That, or Palin is wanting to upstage Michael Jackson's death.

"The world needs more Trigs, not less."

That's it. She's resigning to become Executive Director of Alaska Assocation of Retarded Citizens.

Or Alaska Easter Seals.

If I could write about her without snark (and I'm sorry, but I just can't) I would suggest that really might be a good job for her. Maybe with her high profile and her high ratings among Republicans, she could actually convince ReThugs in Congress not to cut services to the disabled in this country.

But I just don't see that happening.

What I still don't get is, why not at least finish up her term. When I think of various reasons a person might resign, that latter point still doesn't scan.

Well, I figure Palin can make more money in talk shows etc. like someone/s suggested. But it's still weird not to finish up a term.

Am I alone in thinking that maybe the reporting on the Steve Schmidt emails re Todd being member of a secessionist party, FINALLY bringing that into the MSM, had something to do with it? Did that cost her some big $$ supporters?

Follow the money. That's always my advice when discussing Republican'ts motivation.

Allow me to illuminate this confusing situation with two simple words:

WHACK JOB.

I think she is very like WPE, in that they both enjoy the competition on the campaign trail but have no interest in doing the work of governing, or any other job.
There is a great deal of money to be made in the self promotion game on the bobble head circuit.

One can't help but get the impression that Palin is a clownish, vindictive amateur....

If only she had been a member of the Bush family, she'd have been a clownish, vindictive amateur with money.

"Palin's making a terrible mistake? Hardly. Palin can't govern, and staying in office would only prove that. Her only chance at higher office is to not have a track record that people can point to. When oil prices were sky high, she could send out fat checks to boost her popularity. But with oil prices being lower now, she can't buy popularity. She'd actually have to govern effectively to be popular. She can't do that, and she knows it. Better to cut your losses now."

you've got it right. Palin's walking away to save her chances, a podunk one term governor that loses reelection can't win the 2012 nomination but she thinks by taking her ball and going home (or off to make money hand over fist by flashing grin and gobbleygook) she can save her self.

Palin: "For Alaskans, for Americans, for Frodo!"

Watch what happens with SarahPAC now.

shannyn moore, via bradblog, sez it's an iceberg comin' sarah's way:

she says palin is "resigning as part of damage control" due to a scandal that is "not of a family nature." ...

"the governor would not be able to continue her job when it comes out," she told me on the phone just now, before adding: "why would mark sanford not resign, but sarah palin did? her family didn't even know about the resignation until they were standing with her by the lake" when she made her announcement.

i'm just repeatin' the gossip...

I said last fall that she seemed to be prepping herself for a career hosting the 8 pm show on Fox News. Now I'm pretty much convinced.

It's always fun to watch the arrogance of a moron too stupid to know how much of a moron she is. Sarah Trainwreck is god's gift to the rest of us for making WingnutWorld look like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party that it is.

Glass jaw.

Well we know she isn't doing anything honorable or noble--she is not possessed of such qualities. We know as well that she is not given to hard work. She is a lazy narcissist of the first order like Sanford. This resignation from political legitimacy allows her to sidestep more scandal, make more money, and blame someone else for her failings.
She is so prone to allowing herself to do whatever enters her head that there MUST be a breath-taking scandal very close to breaking.

Oh yes, no doubt a scandal is about to break. It's going to involve money and the Feds. No doubt, no doubt. Just wait and see, folks.

I know it is nearly impossible for the progressive mind to conceive of someone actually giving up power for some larger more important cause but it does happen. I also know if that ends up being the case there will be plenty of you still looking for some conspiracy working behind the scene. Projection is a difficult illness to overcome.

I know there are a few of you out there who have watched as your family was relentlessly tormented but someone. It is time to be a little bit more like Sotomeyer in your judgment: empathetic.

Bush is gone. Palin is gone. No one left to blame but Democrats.

I think she just didn't want to get bogged down in the hard stuff.

Not her strength.

She's channeling Imelda Marcos.

tehee - Once my nephew threw his glass of milk on the floor. His mother sent him to his room, and on the way, he grumbled, "OK, but now who are you going to blame when something goes wrong?"

So, by any chance are we related?

Tehee, since you are sort of tongue in cheek and I'm not sure where you really come from, I dub thee "paratroll." See my comment above about how Obama puts up with shit and doesn't quit like the GOPs favorite tough girl. I guess it's brave to shoot defenseless animals (and from the air!), but they can't handle being teased.

BTW, weird for Sarah to dig at Sanford, as Kos says.
Heh, in comments she's "Evita Palin." Sarita Peron?

Deep truth...

Wow. A thread with over 100 comments that is actually worth reading.
Time to go into the archives to find the deep thought:

I'm sure we are not the first culture to be entertained by the behavior of a fur-wearing savage from the edges of our empire.

SHE'S READING FORM A TELEPROMPTER. They have a picture of the teleprompter over at DU caught during a camera sweep of the crowd and family. She's so calculated and ambitious and you know full well she's incapable of writing this dribble.

Still trying to present that mommy image and so many buy into her beauty pageant hypocrisy where one is never ambitious or ruthless, they are just so caring of others and world peace and all to be caught up in jealous rifts. A conniving woman doing anything to get to the top or someone has devastating info on her that demand she resign or it would be revealed.

She was just Alaska's embarrassment until recently when she went national. She is barely equipped to be mayor of a tiny town but her huge beauty pageant ego makes her believe she could be world queen. She's not smart enough to know how stupid she is so must be reminded constantly by those she subjects to listening to her.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...except that of a woman who just didn't realize she was being scorned. I sincerely hope she is just running away from it all because it just demands too much from her. At least that is understandable.

The porno she made back in college is about to come out.

It's all Obama's fault. He got his African family to put a voodoo curse on all '12 Repub presidential contenders, so that he runs unopposed and wins the second term despite being terribly unpopular by then.

Something that has bothered me about Palin from the start is this. If *she* is presidential material, then the bar is pretty low. Therefore, who else in the party meets or exceeds that standard, but who is relatively "normal?" And why isn't the party backing them? She must have pictures of Bill Kristol with sheep for him to have put his entire hope for the future on such a pitiful excuse for a political leader.

Baaaa-humbug

She must have pictures of Bill Kristol with sheep for him to have put his entire hope for the future on such a pitiful excuse for a political leader.

So even if Palin quits to run in 2012, she already has more governing experience than Obama.

Hilarious!! you guys are really in denial, aren't you?

She just handed someone a great primary campaign commercial.

and for her next trick, sarah palin adopts joe the plumber.

It's hard to see that a looming scandal prompted SP's resignation, since it's not effective for 20 more days. I'd guess that she's taking a job as a spokesperson for a big conservative group or a TV gig. Her shot about not doing a trade mission was aimed at former Gov Murkowski, who did go off on a big junket that was called a trade mission just before he left office. Piper looked pretty miserable at the press conference today - that does suggest it's not a happy decision. Bummer that Andrea Mitchell doesn't know that Palin commutes to an Anchorage office building, not the capital, which is in Juneau.

"So even if Palin quits to run in 2012, she already has more governing experience than Obama."

I can't find where this comment came from, but it constantly amazes me that the right wing nuts are so brainwashed that they don't notice a train wreck in their own living room. Typically, and there are exceptions, when a Democrat turns out to be a sleezebag or nutjob, we want him out, now. Republicans have taken the loyalty thing a bit far.

It just shows that the politicians are NOT the leaders of that party. Bill Kristol and some others picked her and pushed her on McCain. They thought she would help *them* win.

But, now that she's failed they toss her aside like a dead salmon.

The real leaders of that party are apparently neocons and a very small handful of Haves and maybe politicians.

Sarah Palin was just window dressing. They only wanted to 'sell' a product so they could get into power again. They seriously do NOT care about Values or Policies the public cares about.

One thing some of you seem to forget. As a republican those transgressions and problems are short lived and of no consequence later. Politics may be over as 'being a politician' but that doesn't mean she's out of 'politics'.

If she plays it right, she could get her own 'reality TV' show, or become a Fox pundit, write a book, have a daily 1 hour radio slot, not to mention the lucrative speaking engagements. The options for her are endless.

She has realized it is much easier talking to true believers than trying to convert same people.

I think that Ann Coulter is having anxiety attacks right about now. For as crazy as Coulter is, she does realize that Sarah Palin has a larger following, is prettier, and can say the same crazy stuff she does.

CPAC... here I come. :) Plenty of opportunities. the 28% of dead enders here in America still amount to millions of people. Those people only have to send her a few pennies a month and she'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Don't feel sorry for her... She'll get over it and do better than she'd ever be able to do as VP, governor, or Senator. There isn't as much scrutiny from the 'liberal media' :)

MICHAEL THE NARC-ANGEL

Millions of little members of the worldwide F.F.A. (Future Followers of the Antichrist) have finally learned how to find a certain part of their lower anatomy and quickly touch it while dancing - thanks to Michael Jackson, the highest paid Lower Anatomy Toucher of all time! Special thanks also go to the Jesus-bashing, Hell-bound Hollywood moguls who were just as quick to see higher profits in lower anatomies! [Just saw this opinion on the web. Other grabby items on MSN, Google, etc. include "Separation of Raunch and State," "David Letterman's Hate, Etc.," "Tribulation Index becomes Rapture Index," and "Bible Verses Obama Avoids." - something for everyone!]

I don't think she is resigning by choice. In her speech she was playing the victim too hard. She kept talking about fighting, what I kept thinking, fighting liberals, she's doing that just fine as Governor. All that aside, her voice was quivering, like someone scared. Then tack on a official announcement on a holiday for most from her home, not the Capitol building. Why not make this glorious announcement on a day when people aren't traveling and why not have the capital as the background ?

I noticed that one of the articles listed by Julius - "David Letterman's Hate, Etc." - talks about the merciless back-stabbing of Sarah Palin by "comics" who should know better. How many of us would like to receive the same sort of treatment?

p0bCLt