Sarah Palin: The Aftermath
I’ll admit to a wee bit of obsession on the Sarah Palin resignation story. Now that we’ve had a couple of days to think about it, what have we learned? Not much, I think. Let me see if I got this straight – her stated reason for resigning was that she wasn’t seeking re-election and didn’t want to be a lame duck governor. In her statement, she implied that lame duck governors just spend their time traveling on the taxpayer’s dime on trade missions (nice shot at Sanford there). I guess my reaction to that bit of illogic is still WTF? Couldn’t she just resist the urge and do the job that she was elected to do? Apparently that wasn’t one of the options. Her statement implied that Alaska would be better off since she’s had to spend all this time fighting ethics charges from meanie bloggers. Ummm…wha?
The reaction of the media and the political world has been pretty negative, but some members of the so-called elite punditry class are smoking something good. Mary Matalin calls her move “brilliant.” Bill Kristol thinks it’s a shrewd gamble because:
After all, she’s freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues – and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska. I suppose she’ll take a hit for leaving the governorship early – but how much of one? She’s probably accomplished most of what she was going to get done as governor, and is leaving a sympatico lieutenant governor in charge.
And haven’t conservatives been lamenting the lack of a national leader? Well, now she’ll try to be that. She may not succeed. Everything rests on her talents, and on her performance. She’ll be under intense and hostile scrutiny, and she’ll have to perform well.
Is this what politics is to the GOP now? Just personality and no governing? How can you be a leader and a quitter? When the going gets tough, the tough retreat. It amazes me that Palin still has defenders in the GOP. She just proved that she’s not interested in the hard work of governing, which involves learning about issues and convincing others to implement your policy ideas. Actual governing is really hard work and she has proven that she doesn’t have the brains and guts necessary to do that. I guess that’s why the GOP has become the party of no – no ideas.
With all that we’ve learned about Sarah Palin since the election (since she won’t leave us alone), I’m actually kind of amazed at the McCain campaign. For one, McCain’s judgment looks even worse in hindsight than it did at the time. I shudder to think about McCain’s impulsiveness and the Iran situation, for example. I’m also amazed that the McCain campaign was able to keep her publicity-hogging personality somewhat under control during the campaign. I think they must have known early on what a mistake they had made with her and that’s why her media availability was so limited during the early part of her time with the campaign.
Personally, I think there must be a scandal brewing. I can’t imagine why else she would resign right now, other than to cash in while she can before a scandal breaks.
Tags: Quitters, Republican Crazy, Runaway Governor, Sarah Palin
Maybe the GOP have come to the realization like we have, that they can’t govern.
No, 90% of the GOP never HAD an interest in governing, it was always about gaining political (hence personal) advantage from holding office.
When viewed in that context, Palin’s move makes perfect sense.
But ‘bulo agrees with UI, there’s a scandal abrewin’.
And it looks like it grows out of her using her office for personal advantage. Go figure.
Greg Sargent over at WaPo had the best headline on this — The Quitta from Wassilla. And that is what will follow her with everyone except her fan club.
What is really funny to me is that if she has quit to work on a campaign for something else, she has quit to nurture her celebrity credentials — books, talk shows, speaking engagements — not to nurture her policy or accomplishment credentials (both of which are in serious need of attention). So this is Palin looking for higher office via the celebrity circuit. Remember when the GOP thought that being a celebrity was Really Bad? But here is someone that is running away from the responsibilities of governing in order to cash in or get on TV or manage some scandal. And this is behavior that a portion of the GOP base thinks qualifies her for higher office.
And don’t miss Palin’s attorneys threatening to sue everybody who talks about a possible embezzlement charge. With any luck, the media will see this as a really big read cape and haul off to Anchorage in big numbers. The weather is really nice there right about now.
“Just personality and no governing? ” Yes, that would be Obama.
Too bad all the closed minded and ill informed liberal hacks got trumped by Gov Palin. She has dropped you guys like a bad habit and now you have nothing to say.
Perrhaps now you can focus on the Obama FUBAR economy? The stimulus was supposed to stop unemployment at 8%. Nah, what’s a few million job losses among friends? What’s a hundred billion dollars or so to failed car companies? What’s a couple of trillion on failed TARP and TALF?
Celebrity circuit? What was Obama at the Dem National Convention in 2004? Or since then?
Palin 1, Obama and failed liberals 0. Palin whooped you liberals like a dead seal in the arctic.
MikeProtack
Protack illustrates perfectly the problems that the GOP has right now. We’re not scared or intimidated by Sarah Palin. We’re laughing at her, and we’re laughing at the cult of personality around her.
Agree or disagree with Obama, he certainly has pushed through a lot of legislation in the short time he’s been president.
OK, so I’m getting the impression that Mr. Shallow Bench is now taking lessons in locution and logic fron the Quitta from Wassilla now. So I guess this means that actually doing the job you were elected to do and not run away because people are being mean to you is a good thing now. There aren’t many independent voters out there who will find that comforting — but hey, you aren’t Mr. Shallow Bench for nothing!
what? Mike, she quit her job because…. people are mean to her? she is too good for Alaska? you are smarter than this. you don’t just quit because … i didn’t even really understand why she is quitting…. she IS quitter though, and im glad she didn’t become VP, she may have quit THAT….wait, no….than we would have VP Pelosi with president McCain one sun burn away from death.
Tell ya what Mr Protack. I will bet you banishment from commenting that there are criminal charges coming for sarah. If she ends up being charged, you can never comment here again. If nothing happens and she did end up dong it for whatever bat-shit crazy reason she was attempting to communicate, I will never comment here again.
As I’ve said, I think this is part of a much longer range strategy. Look for a 2010 Senate run, followed by a 2016 or 2020 presidential bid after establishing her national credentials.
And remember — she’ll still be in her mid 50s even at the time of the later presidential election.
And remember, a. price — the FBI has indicated that there is no federal investigation of her and she beat every ethics charge against her. But your bet with Mike also has a problem — by when will the indictment have to be handed down for you to stop commenting?
Ignorant demagogues like Palin are dangerous to society. Locally, those whom she attracts as supporters will further emaciate the GOP.
i’ll give it a month for the other shoe to drop. I have a feeling this is gonna be a story for a good long time. and I didn’t say indictment i said charged. Mike P also has to accept the challenge, i’l give him till tomorrow. A month from now he cant just claim victory.
but RWR, what strategy? is she showing that if she doesn’t like her job she just quits? even if she took an oath to do her job? She can run for senate or president while still gov. all she is showing is she is a spineless quitter who cant take attention. Or that she has distain for the people of alaska who gave her a job. Either way she has no honor and no future.
Shorter Delaware Republican:
Wharrgarbl
http://bit.ly/V2HXp
i do feel bad for them. Can you imagine if democrat after democrat cheated on their spouses while at the same time claiming to defend family values all the while refusing to resign? Then out of nowhere a hero of the part just up and quits because a comedian made fun of them… or because people point out they are a hypocrite? or probably because all the rules they broke are finally catching up with them…. It must be terrible to see no elected official who claims to speak for you has a soul, or a brain.
Now mind you, I’m not a Palin backer — I wanted Romney/Jindal last year and I still want it for 2012.
But there was good reason for Palin resigning from her current slot to run for Senate — the frequent frivolous ethics complaints. If she ran for Senate while still in office, there would be dozens more filed claiming that any particular official appearance was actually a stealth campaign appearance. Out of office, she doesn’t have that liability.
Of course, down here in Texas there is a constitutional requirement that most public officeholders resign their post if they seek some other state (or local) office, so I’m not as troubled by the resignation as the rest of you are. And while that provision generally doesn’t apply to those seeking federal office, you will often see that form followed as well by those doing so.
By the way, here is my view on what is going on regarding the Senate/Presidential strategy.
http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/289314.php
Also, a.price, such public corruption charges would only come in the form of an indictment, hence my choice of words.
is that the law in alaska? She didn’t quit her job as mayor of Meth-town to run for gov.
She didn’t resign as Gov to run for VP. The rationalizations from the wingnuts that this is some kind of excellent strategy on her part are simply laughable. A massive bit of the argument against her for anything now revolves around her being a quitter. She asked people in AK to give her four years to run AK and she quit because the going got rough. This is NOT Commander in Chief behavior by any stretch. But hey, she should run. She’ll be the usual disaster and the GOP base will further contract.
Not what I said — I’m just explaining how things get done down here and why the resignation is not as gut-wrenching an issue as it is some other places.
“Palin 1, Obama and failed liberals 0. Palin whooped you liberals like a dead seal in the arctic.”
Funny, but reading all this reminds me of nothing so much as Mike Protack quitting the governor’s race on the IPOD ticket because he decided he couldn’t win. Just up and quit on that party because it had no more advantages to offer him.
Righties have no problem with this because, as ES indicated, they know that all their bullshit about country and principles takes a back seat to their own ambitions.
Three days and I’m still wondering: has any other governor ever quit office short of 1) a medical condition, his or spouse; or 2) a scandal?
Ever?
Like quitting on a whim? Can’t think of one.
Progressive Mom and pandora, you know that the radical right is sifting through Wikipedia to find one, at least one other quitter.
That’s a good question, PM.
nemski, they get extra bonus Limbaugh points if the governor is a Democrat. It won’t matter if it was more than 100 years ago.
She’ll be like a bad case of herpes – she’ll keep on popping up when we least expect it.
So here’s question #2 — if it’s such a politically wise and morally high decision to leave the governor’s office in order to “do more” for the country, why aren’t Jindal, Crist and Perry also being encouraged to take a hike? (oops, and Sanford, too, but I think he already took his hike)
After all, the ball has to go through the hoop, and it needs to be passed to someone else, and that’s when the bases are loaded…
…or whatever it was she said.
Nemski, I think they’re running in the opposite direction, hoping no one thinks to do the search! Repubs aren’t going to ruin their own talking point. It’s all they have.
Like it or not, Palin is gold to the 21%ers. Romney and Jindal (LMAO at that ticket, RWR) don’t stand a chance. If she wants to run in 2012 who’s gonna stop her?
“she beat every ethics charge…”
And if she hadn’t, her wrist might have been lightly slapped. I know of no ethics rules for any government that contain punishment. They are window dressing, nothing more. Anyone who read the facts of Troopergate knows what kind of ethics the Palins have, and I don’t need an ethics board to obfuscate it for me.
Given the way such bullshit “findings” are trumpeted by the guilty, we ought to scrap ethics boards for elected officials. I’d rather we skip straight to the trial.
Yeah, pandora, you may be right about Romney and Jindal. Given the bigotry directed at Mormons by the left in this country, and the fact that Jindal is a brown man who doesn’t toe the liberal line, the hatred directed at such a ticket by the MSM lapdogs and the Dem base will be incredible.
Sort of like the sexism and religious bigotry directed at Palin the last time around.
A Mormon is our senate majority leader ass. i also don’t seem to remember republicans coming out for Romney in large numbers.
and by religious bigotry do you mean the right’s hatred directed at Obama’s non muslimness? seriously RWR, you strike me as a smart guy.. stop doing this, you look foolish.
It’s okay, a. price. RWR is just projecting – and projecting badly. Republican Evangelicals rejected Romney. Besides I’m told we voted for the Muslim guy. 😉
“Given the bigotry directed at Mormons by the left in this country”
The anti-Mormon bigotry comes from the right, clownboy. To the left, all Skydad fans look alike.
Yeah, Geezer — all those right-wing homosexuals in California going after Mormons in the wake of Prop 8.
But it is the folks in your party, RWR, that won’t vote for Romney which is the point. The backlash to the bigotry of the funders against Prop 8 is not in itself bigotry.
The gay community “went after” the groups that targeted them. Geez, stop pretending that homosexuals just woke up one day and decided to “attack” Mormons. It’s a lie, and you know it.
It must feel really good to be able to label people so definitively. Quitter from Was, That’s great! That’s a really great one. No one could have nailed it better. Intellectual curiosity satisfied. You have seen right into the heart of a person way out in Alaska. Thats really smart of you. In fact so smart it probably looks way past the facts that there may be some reason or reasons beyond your ability to figure out. Yeah that’s right I have no idea why she did what she did either. Mark
Kind of like how the Quitter saw right to the heart of Obama and told a room full of angry racists that he “didn’t love america the same way “we” do? She is public figure making a fool of herself over and over and over again. we owe it to her to make fun of her until she leaves public life forever and deals with her family which to this point she has used for political gains.
Mark – You are nearly as incoherent as Palin. “In fact so smart it probably looks way past the facts that there may be some reason or reasons beyond your ability to figure out.” That’s brilliant sentence structure.
Look, man, Palin is an incompetent liar. Even if she has some grand plan that is beyond my ability to figure out… I don’t give a fuck. She’s basically a Christian weather woman who has spent the last 10 months wasting everyone’s time.
If you have a wacko woman fetish, that’s cool, but let’s not pretend she is some incredibly shrewd power broker. She’s a disingenuous fucking hayseed imbecile. Case closed.
These so called ethics committees made up of the legislators, going to go after another legislator? You must be joking. Once your in the klan, your’e in. We need a Citizen Ethics Committees with the power to hold hearings, but of course thats what an Independent Inspector General would do with subpoena power.
Interestingly enough, Muslims voted for Prop 8 in larger numbers than Mormons did. Of course, Mormons are generally peaceful middle class family folks not inclined towards violence, so you know which group the gays chose to target.
Similarly, Blacks voted heavily for Prop 8 — but targeting THOSE churches would have meant going into THOSE neighborhoods — so they chose the safe neighborhoods where Mormons were found — or the occasional safe white megachurch in a good neighborhood.
And let’s note that the offense of the Mormons was exercising their First Amendment rights to petition the government for a redress of grievances — as well as exercising the rights of free speech free religion, and voting one’s own conscience. BAD MORMONS!!!!!!
^ stoopid is as stoopid does
Black people defeating Prop 8 is a myth. It is more appropriate to note that if older people hadn’t voted in their usual larger margins Prop 8 would have passed.
And let’s note that people protesting the Mormons’ free speech are also exercising theirs.
RWR doesn’t worry about silly things like facts. and hey, did mike P accept my challenge? this would be a chance for a conservative to silence my meaningless liberal voice… he has got 3 hours it looks like Palin is just batshit crazy
“If you’re not drawing flak, you’re not over the target.”
Obviously, Palin is; hence, the lefts’ inane obsession.
she tried to be VP, she wanted to be one bad McCain sunburn away from being the leader of the free world. it is our job to remind the world again and again and again what a horrible idea that would have been.
Cassie — that article doesn’t quite say what you represent it as saying.
And while those protesters are certainly exercising their right to protest (I don’t claim they are), they are doing so by protesting one of the smallest, least threatening minority groups in the state.
Like I said — they didn’t have the guts to protest in front of mosques or in black neighborhoods, because they were scared of getting their butts kicked. Instead they chose the least threatening minority group to attack.
This article says this (among other things):
At the end of the day, Prop 8’s passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.
Which is what I said — Nate adds that the data isn’t complete here, which means that you can’t make your claim that black voters defeated Prop 8.
they are doing so by protesting one of the smallest, least threatening minority groups in the state.
This is just plain whiny. If you mount up the kind of opposition that the LDS churches did to this thing — complete with lots of money to the cause — it doesn’t matter if you are a tiny minority. You were still the biggest influential on the block — an influential that is taking its road show to Maine — and working on that influence is not only worthwhile but just as constitutionally protected.
Whatever the reason, Palin is in over her head. Let her up for air please, and then safely retreat back to a much more comfortable zone of local politics if she so desires, and …..where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the deer and the antelope play. Because I for one am sick of the media prey and play, and her scratchy annoying words.
*cries* LEAVE SARAH ALONE!!!! Jo, it was HER choice to get attention and be batshit crazy and call obama a terrorist and use her special needs son and pregnant daughter for political gains. she is a low life bimbo who deserves every single bit of bad press she gets. if she didn’t want attention she should shut the fuck up and go the fuck home. otherwise she is fair game and a wonderful straw-womyn
I wish she would retreat back to her local city council or some such. But I’m afraid that the Quitta from Wasilla will be with us — and want to be paid for it — for some time to come.
Well Cass, Maine may prove you wrong. LDS population there is nearly existent. Say all you want on the California influence–they went as an invited friend of the issue, by the Catholic bishop who felt ill-equipped to take this on single-handly. How a recognized 5% of admitted church affiliation being LDS, can stronghold Prop 8–is ludicrous to assign that power and influence. The failure of Prop 8 sits squarely w/ those who wanted and advocated–but delivered their message in a mean spirit, deriding anyone in their way. This only sent a received message of “well if they’re going to act this way about everything they want or don’t get….” That was the real generational difference that cost them the referendum. Mature people whether straight or gay acknowledge that, and won’t make the same mistake next time.
However, that does not negate teh racial component to the vote, either — and the addition of so many African American OBAMA voters (who hold the same position on gay marriage as Obama SAYS he does) was one key to the victory of Prop 8.
After all, if no blacks had voted, the measure would have failed. If no mormons had voted, it still would have passed.
a. price–oh agreed–she’s fair game–but if she truly wants to pack–can we please help w/ the bags? This is old whiny, stupid stuff that I want to go away. The 26th can’t come soon enough.
If no old people had voted it wouldn’t have passed and the data is clearer on that than your black people boogeyman. But don’t let information get in the way of a good myth.
As for the LDS — certainly they were invited to help on Prop 8 but it isn’t as though they relied entirely on their in-Cali hands. Plenty of money came from SLC and all over the country (I have LDS friends in Balto who got the push to give) and this kind of fundraising certainly means something to both organizing and helping to intimidate folks. And that kind of fundraising is going on for Maine. Perhaps the advocates were too strident, but no more strident that those against who said pretty much anything — most of it the kind of thing they would have taught us had to be confessed on Saturday — to demonize gay people. This thing basically needs an older group of voters to get too old — then it passes.
IIRC, the brief against the Mormons was the out-of-state money used to fund much of the get-out-the-vote campaign among groups disinclined to support gay marriage.
Perhaps RwR is right about not wanting to protest in black neighborhoods or at mosques. But, with blacks certainly, some voted no. I doubt many Mormons voted against it. IOW, I think the unanimity of the LDS position plays a role, too.
And do you want to tell me that the No on 8 forces were not using out of state money?
I’m certainly not making that claim, just countering your “puny minority” bamboozlement.
Even if every penny of Prop 8 money came from Mormons, the measure would have failed had only Mormons voted for it.
And if George Soros (or the rich liberal or liberal group of your choice — I don’t care which one) were to flood California with campaign cash to persuade people to repeal Prop 8, I’d have no problem with that either.