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Say It Ain't So, Sarah
Obviously God has it in for us, taking down our website (explanation here) on the same day that Sarah Palin decided to resign as governor of Alaska. Twitter just isn't the same.
True story: I was eating a bowl of popcorn when CNN cut to Palin's speech. Very appropriate. So have you watched it yet? If you haven't, do it now. Seriously. It was an instant classic, right up there with Nixon in '62 as a resentment-fueled blast of grievance and self-pity mongering—though this was sort of the breathless junior high school version. Here's the gist:
William Seward....endured such ridicule and mocking for his vision for Alaska....I wish you'd hear more from the media of your state's progress....I have taken the slings and arrows....You don’t hear much of the good stuff in the press anymore, do you?
....Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt....Life is too short to compromise time and resources....I will not seek re-election as Governor....I know when it's time to pass the ball—for victory.
....This decision comes after much consideration....The "hell yeah" sealed it—and someday I'll talk about the details of that... I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.
....Worthy causes....not this local / superficial wasteful political bloodsport....My parents' refrigerator that says "Don't explain: your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway."...."We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction."
But that's not all. You really have to watch the whole thing from beginning to end. There's the dead fish. There's the bit about staying in office being the quitter's way out. There's the basketball riff. There's the part about resigning being the only way she can stop herself from going overseas on lavish taxpayer financed junkets. I guess we all have our favorite parts, but my sister's reaction pretty much summed it up: WTF? What's more, even the endlessly chattering talking heads on the cable nets couldn't say much more. They sent up little more than a collective WTF too. When was the last time those guys were left speechless?
So what's really going on? If I had to take a guess, I'd say we take her at her word: She just got tired of all the crap. Via email, reader JS puts it like this:
The reason is scattered all througout the speech—she's not having any fun anymore. She's fed up, pissed off. When she was the golden girl and everybody in Alaska adored her and she was able to push through pretty much everything she wanted to do, that was exhilarating. Now her popularity has plummeted, she's fighting with almost everybody in the state, and the MSM, the blogs, the late-night comedians and the McCain operatives are all trashing her and her family daily. That's not what she thinks she signed up for.
She's only thick-skinned when she's getting her way and the people who are fighting her are on the losing end. I think she simply doesn't have the stomach for this kind of long-running battling.
Reihan Salam has a similar take:
Sarah Palin’s [announcement] makes perfect sense to me. Though I wouldn't exactly be surprised if she turned blue, sprouted several additional arms, and decided to become America's chief advocate of a forceful Hindutva politics, I tend to think she really wants to leave politics behind and perhaps become the evangelical Oprah.
Still, who knows? Maybe there really is some other shoe about to drop, like the long-rumored house/hockey rink scandal. You'd have to be a fool to try to say anything conclusive. But if Palin really is leaving big-time elective politics for good, it's only fitting that she goes out the same way she came in: in a flurry of incoherence so freakish that we're all left in jaw dropping astonishment.
Oh, and I'll ask again: Has anyone ever resigned a governorship before without actually saying why? Or is this a first?
And now: catblogging!
Take her for her word.
Take her for her word. She's throwing the monopoly board up in the air. She doesn't want to play anymore.
If you think she's angling for 2012...
just imagine if you were running against her, primary or general election. All you would have to do is play that clip of her explaining her consultation with the focus group of four and ask the voters if they want to elect someone who turns away so frivolously from the job you've given them.
Some political careers are steady lights, and some are fireworks in the night sky on the Fourth of July. Boom! Say goodbye to Sarah Palin's wild adventure in American electoral politics.
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Palin's A Wimp
Sarah Palin is a wimp. It's as simple as that. She is a pampered princess with a pack of toadies supporting her every word, move, et al. It worked on the small stage in Wasilia, where her team could put a full court press on the outmatched competition ... but she is a small dead fish floating in a big pond now and the sharks are taking huge chunks out of her, so she will float tail tucked out of that big pond and go to the shallow end of the pool - Fox News, the South and other pro-Palin enclaves - where she does not have to hear mean people talking badly about her, and her supporters will lavish praise on her every word, step, etc., and tell her again how wonderful she is as she spews anti-librul Eastern-Establishment media, pro-American, comic-book stories to the paranoid right and make a lot of money doing it, which she probably will need to pay mounting legal bills. And, if it goes well, she might make a run in 2012.
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Rupert Murdoch called.
I predicted last September that Palin would end up on Fox News. So when I heard about her resignation, the first thing I thought was that she either had a big scandal about to erupt or that Rupert made her an offer.
The Sarah Palin Show Set To Premiere On Fox News?
A Palin show on Fox News has always been a good fit for both her and Fox. Neither have an interest in, or reputation for, honesty or accuracy. And both have profited from exploiting controversy and sex.
Palin
This is such a perfect response to her resignation! You made me laugh out loud, not only at the ridiculousness of it all, but at the plausibility of Fox, er, I mean Fix News using her! She is a piece of work that quits everything she ever starts, and now that her halo has become so tainted, she's taking a powder.
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
junkets
Apparently so. She also mentions her recent trip to visit the troops in Kosovo and at Landstuhl fondly. Got to stop that so resignation it is.
ps. why aren't <i> tags allowed?
Two words to think on
Thrid party.
Scenario: Palin rakes in the coin through the end of next year, declares for GOP nomination, gets in the national face all through 2011, loses to (let's say) Mitt, two months later gets the top spot on the Constitution Party ticket by acclamation, raises tens of millions of dollars, bullies her way into the Obama/Mitt debates, wins Alaska, Idaho, and Wyoming while throwing several red states to Obama.
Then she turns the hellspawn of Limbaugh and Winfrey, with Tina Fey on the guest list for her first week. And for the rest of our lives, she never goes away.
Be afraid...be very afraid
I believe you might be right on this one. Tina Brown wrote a really good article today kind of saying the same thing. She didn't realize that her role was not as a serious politician but of an incidental celebrity, that would otherwise be obscure were it not for recent events.
Little doubt in my mind that
Little doubt in my mind that a well-paying Fox News gig is in the works. And she does need the money. And I think Alaska feels too small town for her now that she's seen the big city.
It was evident lately that the GOP heavyweights felt she had to get up on the issues if she was to contend for 2012. And she knew she couldn't cut it. There is not a wonky bone in her body. She obviously has no interest in governing, so she quit.
But a Fox News gig gives her fame and money, and leaves open an outside bid for 2012. She's probably the most popular Republican and a show would only increase that. This way if she decides to run, she runs on her strength, charisma.
If she doesn't run, she gets richer and more famous. It's win-win and a very smart decision for her.
Of course if there is a big scandal, she done for.
Incoherence
is the correct word.
That's the only thing she's fit to be spokesperson for.
Money - that's what she
Money - that's what she wants. And, also, to be the belle o' the ball. Governing is bor-ring.
Now she can take all the money she wants; go where she wants; be feted at one-off events (for big money); go on the teevee for big money.
(Can't quite imagine Sarah maintaining a steady TV gig without wondering how long before she's feuding with all the other talent & every producer assigned to her & the crew & etc. until there's a great meltdown.)
Pawlenty/Palin, sitting in a tree . . .
Oh, man, I really really really hope that is the GOP ticket in 2012.
About the website outage - Wow! I guess I am glad that I'm now in the business of setting up highly available web services. Mother Jones gets a pass, sort of, because as much as I miss you guys I understand that your website is not your bread and butter.
But Bing travel and the others operating with a single point of failure without a backup plan? Yikes. That is really taking a BIG risk with their bread and butter. The price of servers is going down and the array of HA solutions is large and growing. There is no excuse for poor planning any more.
If websites want to be the phone companies of the 21st century they really gotta embrace HA and 24x7x365.
Tripp
My experience is that it's
My experience is that it's simpler and easier and likely more successful to set up an almost HA site than it is to recreate a site from backups. Plus of course, the down time is less.
Recreating a site from backups? That way leads to madness, lost content, and security holes being reopened.
Typical mother jones IT failure.
My guess is that she and
My guess is that she and Blagojevich are going to start a new comedy / variety show.
Sarah Barraquitter!
...or is it Bailercuda?
Double standard
I keep wondering why Palin feels so aggrieved that folks are trying to dig up dirt on her. Isn't that the price of wanting to run the country or of being on a ticket that might have? Honestly -- Mitt had to endure revelations that he "tortured" his Irish setter Seamus (nothing as bad as shooting wolves from helicopters, but oh well), McCain's marriages, divorce, his wife's dug addiction and bad treatment of her damily -- and did you know Obama isn't an American citizen, that Michelle wrote an anti-white senior thesis? Or that Hillary had Vince Foster murdered? Everyone puts up with this stuff. And, no it's not fair, but not much about life is. But everyone understands that if you want to be President, you're going to be vetted within an inch of your life. Trouble is though that Sarah thinks Sarah is very special -- and of course, she wasn't vetted last summer, so maybe she thought she never would be. No one is asking her to like the coverage she has gotten, but compared to what the Clintons have received over the years or what the Right is now spreading about Obama, she seems to have gotten off pretty lightly. Unfortunate that her children were dragged in, but she is responsible for some of that -- I mean pregnant teen daughter in domestic drama that won't end. What did she think the press was going to do? For someone who says they were a journalism/communications major, she doesn't seem to have the slightest idea of how the press in the modern US works. --- actually, I take that back: She does have a keen sense of her own victimhood and is betting she can use the press being "mean" to her to help her. Oh hell, it worked for GW Bush, didn't it.
She's responsible for
her teenage daughter's pregnancy? That's her fault, so it's OK to bash the daughter and tell smutty jokes about her?
I hope Sarah Palin never holds an office that has any impact at all on my life. However, if she's simply throwing in the towel because she doesn't like living with so much negative attention and hassle, I'd say good for her for recognizing that and throwing in the towel now. I'd say it also puts to rest the idea that she's insanely power-hungry and ambitious.
Great. She's giving up on holding elected office. She's happy. I'm happy. We should all be happy.
Has anyone ever resigned a
Nelson Rockefeller, with a year to go in his fourth term, resigned as governor of New York in December 1973 to, he claimed, devote more time to a couple of commissions he had set up. The prevailing wisdom was that he was gearing up for a final run at the Republican presidential nomination in 1976, though he would have been out of office at the end of 1974 anyway as long as he wasn't running for a fifth term. (Contrary to popular belief, Rockefeller did not resign the governorship to become vice president -- that offer came eight months later.)
Rockefeller resigned and said why he was doing so. Whether that was the real reason is open to debate.
It's simple
She wants to be able to cash in on the Wing-nut Welfare speaking tour while she's still a hot wing-nut commodity. Write a book, hit the talk shows, and tour at $20,000 per speaking gig.
She got a free house, or at
She got a free house, or at least free materials for a house, as a by-product of a city contract to build a lavish hockey rink/community center at a total price of $12.3 million.
Can I prove it? No. But then that is not my job, that is a job for the U.S. Attorney who it seems is actually on the job.
Tawdry yes, boring yes, but it explains the whole announcement from the timing to the sense of resentment. Because really it is not her fault.
If Ted Stevens hadn't been caught up with his own house renovation, and John McCain hadn't brought her into the spotlight chances are she would just be Governor Palin with a loving husband and family, and oh yes a beautiful house on the lake. But she fell for the temptation and went on the national stage and things blew up on her.
I might be wrong, maybe Sarah has a deal to run for office from a day job as a Fox headliner with a legal free wardrobe and on-site make-up artist and hair stylist. Maybe it will all be like the initial days of the campaign but only better! But I suspect she is about to form the women's auxiliary of the Corrupt Bastards Club (the name Alaskan thieving State Senataors emblazoned on their caps).
Who knew picking up the freely offered goodies would backfire this way? Taking per diem for living in your own house? Taking the house itself? When did THAT become a crime in Alaska? Well that is what happens when you travel Outside.
Welcome to the big time Sarah
Right wing activists who start at the bottom often have a naive simplistic view of things: our (God’s) side is right, the other side is wrong. When they work their way up and find out things are a lot more complicated and having God on your side is not enough to win, the result can be a certain amount of disillusionment. When Linda Smith, Washington state’s own Sarah Barracuda, lost her House seat to Brian Baird she dropped out of politics and eventually surfaced working for Mother Teresa in India.
UNFORTUNATELY, we are NOT
UNFORTUNATELY, we are NOT YET DONE with Palin (Pain without the "L"). She's the "poster-girl" for the far right wing-nuts and they can have her. Basically, she is not qualified to hold a high public office--her brief stint in Alaska underscores that statement, and she should run on a Limbaugh/Hannity/O'Reilly ticket. Her platform is beyond poisonous to every social, economical or political aspect of running this country. Wish she truly were finished with politics, but that is NOT going to be the case.
Hiking the Alaskan trail
I'm hoping that the reporters got it wrong, and Mark Sanford was visiting Alaska, not Argentina.
Palin's Defining Moment...
She wanted to keep the clothes. Isn't that what defines her?
If she quits and goes on a speaking tour, she gets to keep the money. Watch. If she runs for president, she'll declare late so she can keep piling up the dough.
It's not bad work if you can get it.
Isn't she married to a
Isn't she married to a separatist or something? Maybe she's planning a coup and secession on July 25th. Are you going to tell me that they couldn't be that stupid? Well, are you?
Funny you should mention Nixon
Remember, Nixon came back with a vengeance. And I do mean vengeance.
Don't count Governor Palin out just yet. She may very well come back to haunt us.
Of course, if she does become President, she'll probably resign six months into the term, not wanting to be a lame duck or anything. You betcha!
Nixon comparison
Steve, I've seen that suggestion elsewhere.
But remember by the time the primary season for 1968 started, Nixon had been a national political figure for 20-ish years.
He'd been a congresscritter, a senator, had twice been VP for the very popular Ike, and had lost a very close national election to JFK in 1960.
And while he had that very whiny news conference after losing for CA governor in 1962, he remained a national figure all during the 60's.
Admittedly this is a very different political and media age, but even GWB wasn't created from political whole cloth.
Nixon in a dress? Nope.
Nixon was, aside from his extensive government resume, a hard worker, deeply knowledgeable about foreign policy and U.S. government, and wicked smart (with the emphasis on "wicked"). Plus nobody ever accused Nixon of getting by on his looks.
Both Nixon and Sarah are ruthless liars and shameless hypocrites, but I don't think that's enough for her to make a comeback on.
I don't think Sarah will find success as a radio/TV host. That takes an ability to hold forth for hours every day in an interesting way, and I don't think she could do that. Plus she'll end up feuding with people she needs to have as allies.
Does anyone remember in
Does anyone remember in early 2008 when Sarah Palin, speaking at some women in government event, advised Hillary Clinton not to complain about unfairness? Wouldn't it be lovely if Sarah Palin could actually follow her own advice?
sarah dead barracuda
As has been noted on other blogs:
Whatever we think of Rupert's "nooz" network, the on-air people are universally pros: attractive, articulate, able to marshal and articulate coherent (if wrong and/or false) sentences and paragraphs.
Has anyone ever seen or heard Ms. Barracuda do that?
Even once?
Didn't think so.
=================
Of course it would be *perfect* if she had a stud gaucho on a ranch just outside Buenos Aires, wouldn't it?
she can make more money as a
she can make more money as a talk show host/celebrity than governor
and it's more fun
Palin
Re: being a game show host or pundit...good fit for Palin...takes less intellect, I predict short run...she can't doesn't play well with others and I am sure she runs with scissors.
My Gut Feeling
My gut feeling is that whatever she is up to won't work. She does not seem like someone in command of the situation. So I've got my doubts about the idea that she'll make a lot of money and have a successful career as a media figure. If she gets a show on Fox, perhaps it will flop? Perhaps she won't be a big success as a public speaker?
I'm guessing the answer is simpler --- she will be charged soon with a crime or some major embarrassment will come to light.
The gut usually can tell if someone has their act together...
Palin
I don't think it will be feasible for her to re-enter the political scene if that's what she's planning on doing in a few years.
Aaand... down she goes. I'm
Aaand... down she goes. I'm thinking the reason she's abandoning her office are the sweet profits from book deals and speaking engagements. From her perspective, she can either deal with people shooting down her idiotic policies in Alaska or migrate down to visit the loonies in the real states and sell books and speeches for some serious (and misspent) money.
Aaand... down she goes. I'm
Aaand... down she goes. I'm thinking the reasons she's abandoning her office are the sweet profits from book deals and speaking engagements. From her perspective, she can either deal with people shooting down her idiotic policies in Alaska or migrate down to visit the loonies in the real states and sell books and speeches for some serious (and misspent) money.
10 bucks says she had some
10 bucks says she had some serious dirt [misconduct] about to come out. Whatever the truth ultimately is, we can almost be certain that her real reasoning did NOT equate to the explanation she provided.
The "powers that be" will soon become the powers that were.
The women is on drugs.
The women is on drugs. Watching the video typical meth head
One more puzzle piece
Great comments. Another piece to the puzzle is that when things started falling apart in March and the GOP was casting her adrift Scientology started trying to befriend her. Great Van Sustern and her husband Todd set up her legal defense fund PAC, and Scientology gave the fund much of the startup money.
Obviously that kind of help comes with strings and I think Sarah and her husband Todd didn't like where that was heading. Which I give them credit for. It proves that despite their other flaws they are not total sell-outs.
If they start shilling for Scientology I will retract my props. As someone above said, I think she started to lose control of her situation and instead of going along like a dead fish in the flow she jumped onto the river bank to flop around and die out of water.
Sorry for the bad analogy. I could only do so much with what Sarah gave me to work with.
Tripp
S palin
My favorite part of the resignation speech was the birds (were they loons?) in the background - quacking away as if they were providing harmony to her breathless presser.
Palin, a Nixon Orthogonian
"It was an instant classic, right up there with Nixon in '62 as a resentment-fueled blast of grievance and self-pity mongering—"
You're really on to something here, with the Nixon analogies.
Palin, a Nixon Orthogonian, Take #2
I see this point has well made, already:
http://themoderatevoice.com/37939/sarah-palin-orthogonian/
Why She Resigned???
Sarah Palin, the former Vice Presidential candidate has been making news since the election, most of it not really noteworthy. However, now there's some Sarah Palin news that's at least worth a little attention. She has announced that she will resign her post as Governor of Alaska. There hasn't been a reason given specifically as to why she has resigned the post as Alaska Governor, but it's rumored that she's doing it to concentrate on being the frontrunner for the 2012 Republican Candidate, and she's probably also looking into some instant payday loans for campaign funding. Sarah Palin is loved by some, detested and ridiculed by others, and secured loans for a 2012 Presidential run might not be ill spent.
I figured it out
tagged as:- solution
After watching Sarah's speech several times I just now figured out what she is going to do.
She is going to march us all to victroy. First she is keeping her eye on the basket as all good point guards do. And then she is going to keep her eye on the ball and then pass the ball, not politics as usual, to victory.
It is as clear as the nose on her face. She is going to win a basketball game somewhere and then save us so we can catch the dead fish.
A blind man can see it. This concludes the leson of the day. I will be here all week.
Palin's Plan
I have noticed a pattern with Sarah Palin. Everytime she is getting ready to go to the next level, she quits whats she is currently doing and takes her steps to what she says is a "higher calling." She quit her job as mayor to become governor, can anyone guess the next step? President in 2012! This is one of the reasons why I think she is a very smart politician, because when she wants to go to the next level, she prepares herself for it.
-Nikki-
selling photography 101
Pregnancy
Sarah Palin is not responsible for her daughter's pregnancy. She is responsible for dragging her unwed, pregnant, teenager daughter into the limelight at the time that would be most excruciatingly humiliating to her daughter, then using her daughter politically by holding her up as a moral example for choosing not to abort, while making her daughter a potential target for potshots because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. She had to choose between her political opportunity and her daughter's needs, and she chose politics. Bristol may not be angry with her mother, but I am on her behalf.
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