Surprise news from Wasilla:
In a stunning announcement, Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday morning she will resign her office in a few weeks.
Speculation has swirled for weeks, perhaps months that Palin would not seek re-election in 2010 as she pursues a political career on the national stage. The former vice presidential candidate has long been rumored to be considering a run at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Palin did not address those rumors at the press conference at her Wasilla home, during which she did not take questions from reporters.
She implied that her real decision was not to seek re-election, and that the resignation was a natural step after that in order to avoid a lame-duck final 18 months of her term.
“With this announcement that I’m not seeking re-election, I’ve determined it’s best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor (Sean) Parnell,” Palin said. “I’m determined to take the right path for Alaska, even though it is unconventional and is not so comfortable.
Andrea Mitchell says that the governor is fed up with politics.
Mark Halperin has 10 possible reasons for Palin to step down shy of her term’s end.
Your thoughts:
Too early to tell why she did it. Rampant speculation all of which reflects the bias of the specualtor. Give her time to tell us why she did it, and what her plans are. Then comment on her actions. And, yes, I am in her corner.
Our “normal” politicians have mucked things up. Perhaps we need someone like Sarah to get us back on track.
But, I dunno. Will wait and see.
Nobody has ever been hounded, by the left, and the beltway “republicans”, as she has. Check out the Vanity Fair article in this issue — six months into “The WON”s first term…
She has fought 15 “ethics complaints” by Alaska democrat politicos, and beat every one (though more are pending) at the cost of thousands of hours (that should have been spent governing Alaska) and millions of dollars (that she doesn’t have). Her children and family are attacked at every turn (even by angry old has-beens – like Letterman).
How long (and how deep into debt) should she let this go?
I think it’s a good choice. She should write a ‘tell-all’ about Alaska politics, make some money, and start traveling around the country touting conservative policy and politics and attacking the socialist policies of “The Won”.
It could happen…
Cheers! Happy Independence Day!
Chris
Whatever the reason I hope her marriage and family relationships are refreshed and strengthened during this time.
I doubt it’s the last we’ve seen or heard of her. For some time now it has been my prejudice that her great potential lies not in running for POTUS. She’s so polarizing she could not build the conservative coalition needed to win that office.
However, she can energize the social conservative part of the coalition like no other person — not even Dobson or Rick Warren can get the numbers she does (# noses or # dollars). By not being in office she may be able to speak and travel while attending to her marriage and family much better.
Having said all that, I’d LOVE to see her run for Senate. Hoo-ahh! Drop the brunette bombshell in the old boys club and watch the games begin. Saracudda would generate some excellent sound bites and turn a light on the Senate’s many shenanigans.
“She’s so polarizing she could not build the conservative coalition needed to win that office.”
Which was, of course, the goal all along. Make no mistake: any candidate that is both lives and preaches the conservative values needed to stop this headlong rush into socialist policies that will forever bind the producers in this country to a life of tax servitude will also be deemed as “polarizing.” It’s not a flaw of the candidate; it’s a manufactured faux outrage used to destroy any chance of true reform.
Both the democrats and the beltway republicans (rinos) fear her. I have not seen a political figure so personally vilified and smeared in my entire life. Not only Sarah, but her entire family was the subject of filthy accusations by the liberal establishment. She was then gang attacked with nutso groundless suits whose sole purpose was to break her family financially and make it impossible for her to govern.
The Palins are a throwback to the types who actually built this nation through the honest sweat and toil. She supported herself to get a college education rather than having it handed to her.
We could do a lot worse than having the Palins in political life. And we have.
In the years I’ve seen Memeorandum, this is the firt time I have observed but one topic: Palin. She’s a phenomenon that the Left loves to hate, perhaps even more than George W. Bush. Now, as a private citizen she can begin the speaking circuit and do well from it without the threats / suits for unethical behavior.
I believe she’s about to: Bring. It. On.
Real change and real hope.
Although it’s too early to tell, as Ron Snyder points out, above, the Alaskan flight-time problem is a very real logistical one that many over-look. Stay in Alaska and one is isolated out of the national media/campaign loop. Spend the necessary time in the lower 48, and one is accused of misfeasance of office. And it’s physically impossible to go back and forth in any sort of expeditious manner; attempts to do so means being caught in a “neither fish nor fowl” situation. Looks to me she has decided on the end-run option–as opposed to up-the-gut, over-center full-back dive, i.e., the Governer directly to candidate route. Why play by the rules? The opposition doesn’t….
I agree wtih VX and the cruelty of distance and time for those who live and work in Alaska and would compete for the presidency. I hope she is taking the time to build her own campaign staff for a real run at president. I just hope that she has nothing at all to do with the GOP run by Steele or any former GOP campaign staff.
Right after the speech there was this tweet:
The telling portion of the tweet “My family’s happy…it is good, stay tuned.”
Repeating what has been stated before, never has anyone been so vilified by the left. Andrea Mitchell couldn’t wait to spew her ‘insider’ comment, and I’m sure there are others who will lose not a moment’s opportunity to stick it to Gov. Palin. I see this gal going places, and that this was a
goodgreat move. I’m certain that Sarah has some great political mentors guiding her, and feel very confident that we will have her on the national stage again before too long. There are some up and coming conservative rock stars, and Sarah Palin is leading the pack.Long live Saracuda!
As I look at this question, it is actually three questions. 1) What do you believe? 2) Why do you believe it? 3) What is the separate verifiable visible evidence supporting your belief? My answer would be this, the only thing we really have is Governor Palin’s statement. This takes nothing away from her, but would have been stronger with the changes. Don’t forget, to have a negative view, would have required the same rigor. I just don’t know. Time will only tell.
Grumpy
I believe it was a shrewd move. As she intimated, the unsubstantiated ethics charges and other attacks were keeping her and her staff from doing their best for Alaska. She has no hope of support from the Republicans in the Beltway and the Dems all over attack her for breathing. So she did what was good for Alaska and is resigning. It is good for her as well as she is now a private citizen with freedom of speech and action. No weaselly state employees doing their party’s bidding by fabricating charges.
Now I suspect both the Dem and Rep Beltway bastards are going to be unsettled this weekend. Palin will remain a popular draw and have a forum to speak. She is no longer restrained. For all we know she may see the Tea Parties as a rising movement and she can open a new front by speaking the same beliefs. And when she speaks, the White House, the MSM and the blogsphere can’t help themselves but to listen and comment.
Now watching the video of her press conference. I thought the raucous comments from the press gallery were a little over the top. All those rude animal noises! And I kept waiting for somebody to step out on the water and club those baby seals and tear the heads off those poor freezing birds.
Palin for America.
Alaska wasn’t big enough for her anymore.
At least it moved MJ off the front page for a few microseconds…
- SJS
Sarah will be running for President. I will place money on it. What she’s doing is taking her cues from the Petraeus manual. Don’t fight the enemy in the way they expect you to. Don’t tip your hand needlessly.
Think and act outside the box.
Remember the mission. Play to win.
She may well be the only one that can save our nation from the infamy of “IWonism”.
Edward absolutely nailed it.
Palin is feared by the left and the media (but I repeat myself) more than any other politician.
Their attempts to demonize and vilify her have been unsuccessful, although their deceptions have successfully hurt her image with many of the idiots who are allowed to vote, but know nothing.
As Governor her hands are tied to restrict her from making the ferocious counterattacks desperately needed to take the fight to the liberals and point out and persecute them for their own numerous shortcomings, unethical behavior and destruction of our country through malfeasance or evil intent.
Palin indeed has the western frontier traits of self reliance, honesty and responsibility that created this country, and made it great. The effete urban elites are unfamiliar with women like this but need to learn from them.
I have no doubt that had she been alive 233 years ago she would have been a leading advocate for independence, and willing to pledge her “fortune, life and sacred honor” for the principles which make our country great.
I hope to see her unifying and leading the true conservatives of this country and bringing aboard larger numbers by articulating principles and educating voters, not by casting principles aside in hopes of luring in those by pretending to be a “Democrat-lite”.
I yearn for her voice and leadership as a spokesperson, role model, or a candidate, or all.
Team her up with Liz Cheney and they could demolish much of what is being done by the liberals now in power!
I don’t think we have seen or heard the last from Palin. No matter how much the liberals wish it.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a bold and visionary conservative leader and the Saracuda could be her American counterpart.
More information on “grassroots” supporters gathering across the nation to support Sarah Palin for President in 2012 can be found online at http://www.palin4pres2012.com
Note, the website is in danger of crashing due to the flood of readers and supporters signing up to show their interest in a Palin Candidacy. The GOP establishment had better watch out, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul combined with the power of the internet will remove the stranglehold of GOP special interests and the elites who have brought the party to its knees in defeat in the 2008 elections.
I think she she’s going to retreat for a short period and then come out swinging. Whether she’ll be effective in that role remains to be seen.
Anyone see the piece (with seven HQ photos) she just did with Runners World? She’s not dropping out of the spotlight, just building a broader base. She would be wise to do what Reagan did: write, write, publish, broadcast, sharpen her oratorical skills and learn the arguments inside and out. 2012 may be too soon for her (although not soon enough for us), but the day is coming if she works for it.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-410–13221-0,00.html
And I will repeat: the way McCain’s staff treated her was proof of what I had said all along about his den of snakes and of why he was not fit for office. Regrettably, the guy who won was just as bad, but for all our bitching about Obama, McCain wouldn’t have done much better so far, certainly not at keeping the government’s hands off private corporations and protecting our liberties.
Zane,
I didn’t so much vote for McCain, but rather voted against Obama. I am tired of having to vote for someone in order to keep the worse evil out of office. I can’t do that anymore and remain true to the principles I believe in, and am trying to instill in my children. My days of supporting the party are done. From now on, I’ll be supporting the candidate of my choosing, the one that best supports my values and ideals, and if no one fits those, then i will be staying home on election day. I’m going to start voting with my vote, as it were.
Whatever she decides politically, she needs to drop out of sight and get a tight, loyal, intelligent, well-read bunch of advisors around her and then she needs to “go to school”. Leanr everything she can about Afpak tribes, history, econ, the Federal Reserve, the deficit. The liberals fear nothing like an intelligent, non-adulterous, no tax cheat, conservative. Either that or she goes out, has an affair, doesn’t pay her taxes, vilifies Rush and newt, and the libs will welcome her with open arms to the “Say it ain’t so, Joe Sestak” ticket of 2012. either way, we ain’t seen her last.
In part of her speech yesterday, she spoke about making a bigger difference on national issues like energy independence and defense. She’s not going away, just stepping back and regrouping. Maybe 2012 will be too early; 2016 could be just the right time for her. I doubt we’ll ever know the real reasons why she’s done this. I think she’s learned a bitterly difficult lesson at the hands of the MSM. She’ll play everything close to the vest this time around.
Sarah – 2016???
Three words people: Spenard Building Supplies
Okay, I’ll bite…..
Let’s hear your conspiracy theory. Does it involve the Freemason, Bilderbergers and Illuminati. or just the Tri-lateral commission and the UN?
No just something I read:
Spenard Building Supplies allegations
Yawn… more dribble from leftist fearmongers.
respects,
2016 is a long time away. Would you have predicted Barak Obama in 2000? The nominee in 2016 is not yet on the political radar.
For 2012 a lot of external factors that Sarah Palin does not control will have to break her way. For better or worse, the economy is going to decide whether Obama is a one term president or not-short of a major foreign policy disaster-or some combination thereof.
Clearly the folks here are in the ranks of the already converted. However let me ask the question: Assuming Sarah Palin already has the support of the 30-35% of those who are true believers, how does she cross over and gain enough support out of the great unwashed masses like me who don’t see her as the Virgin Mary, Joan of Arc or Margaret Thatcher all rolled into one? How does she win with African American voters or Hispanics? Or even with other women for that matter-just like Hillary there are as many women who don’t like as do.
That’s what I don’t understand about this disdain for the rest of the likely candidates out there. There are equally or better talented presidential candidates out there, with the same bonafides as Palin, without all of the baggage that comes with her.
A final point about Margaret Thatcher. Don’t forget that she had almost 17 years experience as an MP and Cabinet member before she rose to become head of the Conservative Party. She spent another four years as the opposition leader-before her chance came her way.
She could go the Ronald Reagan route. She’s had as much exposure as Reagan did; but Reagan’s early political exposure was as a host on GE’s show, and in talking about free enterprise to GE’s workers. Then followed years of speeches, writing etc. The perverse benefit of her experience in being massively dipped in leftist shinola by the MSM is that it gave her a national presence she’d otherwise never have had. [And it gave me additional proof that some of these leftist jerks should never have been born.] If she has the fire in her belly to be President then at least she has a shot. OTOH she may be headed back to Wasilla and the moose stew hockey mom life. It’ll be fun watching her and seeing what she does, and I certainly wish her well.
Reagan served two full terms as governor though and had been on the scene for over twenty years politically. Also say what you will-Ronald Reagan was able to co-opt a lot of those “leftist jerks” through his experience as an actor.
Tim re: 18.1
appreciate the “John Galt” sentiment but those are losing tactics. Play the partisan purity game in off season and during primaries.
First rule of politics is stay in the game and get a “win.” Any win. Win a foothold. Maintain a position from which to fight a delaying action.
Leave the field of play on election day? Who is John Galt anyway?
Shipmate,
I understand exactly what you are saying. I once felt that way too. I cannot, however, do that anymore. After this last election, I felt that i simply couldn’t wash away the sense of whoredom for having supported McCain. He is an American military hero, but he’s closer to Murtha in his politics, and his shameful support of the repression of free speech, ala the McCain-Feingold Act, his willingness to sell out our American birth-right to any illegal who can run, jump, or swim to get into our nation, his willingness to repress 2nd Amendment rights, all of those things make me weep in frustration when I see what the GOP has become.
The GOP leadership is no different than that of the DNC, political prostitutes, selling themselves with false platitudes and promises in order to stay in power. I cannot, in good concience, support that sort of thing any more.
I will vote for that person who best represents my views. otherwise, I will not vote.
Respects,
Skippy — don’t take my scorn for the mean spirited, vicious attacks on anything associated with La Palin as a heartfelt endorsement of her as presidential materiel. While I admire her strengh of character, her resoluteness, her charm and likeablity, and her communication skills, like David Curp and Charles Krauthammer, I want to see some depth — some willingness to clearly annunciate policy, to show some intellectual heft, on issues past energy.
Maybe she isn’t up to the task, and realizes it. Frankly, the way she has been treated by people you at least agree with, I’m not sure I wouldn’t want to take my family out of the undeserved hateful limelight. She might have just made a decision that having your kids as the butt of late night comedians, a position they alone among the children of this decade’s political figures have been unwittingly thrust, isn’t worth the price of doing business.
She’s not the only politician to have a family you know-and a lot of that criticism resulted from her reaction to legitimate questions about what what she said vs what the record said.
I have yet to see punching below one’s weight work as a political tactic. “I shamed David Letterman” is hardly what serious people would consider a qualification for the presidency. If it were, Jay Leno would now be in his fourth term.
Seems to me that she controlled a lot of the tempo here-if she did not want to run for President she could have at least finished out her term and her commitment to Alaskans. If she had stayed in Juneau and kept her commentary to herself she would have been just fine.
Which is why I think something else is going on here-doing this makes zero sense.
So you also believe that she should have just “sat down and shut up.”
Name another politician whose family has been vilified like the Palins. Hell, name another politician whose under-aged children have been brought into the political circus and held up to ridicule.
And let’s hear your theory of the dark evil secret that she has that caused her to withdraw.
There is really only one member of her family that has been “attacked” and that is her daughter Bristol. And she threw gasoline on that fire by the way she and / or her surrogates reacted to her former son in law’s statements. The rest has all been leveled at her and her amateurish relationship with the truth.
My theory is that she’s leaving for the money. Unfettered by political office, she can hit the TV and lecture circuit and position herself as a sort of “alternative Newt Gingrich”. Mr. Kristol is calling his creation home to the mothership-for re-education, product labeling, and preparation for a new “rollout” in mid 2010.
Either that-or there really is a scandal that was about to break.
Bitch had it coming, is that it?
No, that’s not it. But if she is leaving politics-well then that’s something to celebrate. There is better talent out there if folks would just wake up to that fact.
I’m thinking it may be a principled move. I’ve often thought a good “rule” should be, if you’re in office (you’re there collecting a paycheck for a reason), you shouldn’t be out campaigning for another election. To me, it’s a ethical issue, to be missing meetings, and sending unelected staffers to do your work, while you shake hands, eat rubber chicken and kiss babies.
If you’re in a job, your professional performance should be your campaign, not how many more broken promises you can make, while still taking a paycheck to break the promises you already made. If you’re doing it will for your constituents, then any opposition should have a rough go. If you’ve “blown off” your voters…well, ya reap what ya sow, they say…
If she has done this out of that motivation, I’ll put her another couple of notches up in my book.
Apparently Levi (he who impregnated the daughter) has written a book and is shopping it around publishers. Be interesting to see what dirt he throws in there.
Levi book NY Post
I don’t suppose the growing rumors of a federal criminal investigation had anything to do with her sudden and unexpected resignation. Apparently she and husband Todd steered lucrative contracts in exchange for gifts like construction of their home. If true, that is a felony, a la Duke Cunningham.
A federal criminal investigation driven by AG Holder? Hmm, nothing suspicious about that.
ACORN is under indictment in 15 States for voter fraud and manipulation, multiple tax cheats are members of the Administration, Funny Guy Franken goes to the Senate after several questionable vote recounts (including more votes than voters), and all we should care about is ANOTHER rumor about Palin.
Yeah, I see the
gin fizzyfuzzy logic in that…Flit! You don’t mean another federal prosecution claim launched against another high level Alaskan public official by the U.S. Justice Department do you????!!!!! The same guys that tore down Ted Stevens and now have found that entire case thrown out and themselves under investigation for prosecutorial misconduct?! Those guys? Don’t make me laugh.
Curtiss/
Sorry, the facts of prosecutorial misconduct notwithstanding, you have seriously misunderestimated the utter shamelessness of ideologues like Holder and his ilk on the left. They won’t be deterred a bit. They have all the time and resources in the world to pursue their political enemies.
This is Chicago City Hall politics at work, Daley-style married to the intellectual certitude of leftist, statist, totalitarian ideologues who believe they are the singular repository of the good. Their attitude is EXACTLY the same as that of the Lilly Tomlin snarky-pre-AT & T break-up “Ma Bell” telephone-operator attitude who, in her classic routine tells the complaining customer why she won’t bother to rectify the screw-up on his bill: “We don’t have to–we’re the (loud snort) Telephone Company!”
These people think, indeed know, that they are answerable to no one–and are utterly without shame. A few complaints and one or two recalcitrant judges are not going to stop them from doing anything. If you believe otherwise you are, sadly, a delusional fool, my good man.
http://ktuu.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/Release_for_7-4-09-1.pdf
I am sure that Flit will find this of interest. Though, OTOH, it doesn’t fit into his dark, conspiritorial worldview. Don’t let the facts get in the way Flit, just keep spreading the rumours.
it is no laughing matter. The powers of the executive are in the hands of the Chicago criminal syndicate in collusion with the very real synthesis of national socialism and communism. All those who squalled “BushHitler” are now going to see what a real criminal enterprise in control of our government can do. Goodness, even the Russian and Chinese communists who had secreted their private funds in US enterprises are complaining that the US is tearing down the same road that those two nations took. Their hidden funds are going to be inflated out of existence when all our savings go that route.
The endless suits against Palin, all of which have been disproven IN COURT, is the new way of destroying your opponent. Just tie them up with false suits until they go broke or crazy or both.
And if that doesn’t work, just destroy their good name with sex sleeze in the news or on late night “comeday” shows.
The left has sown the wind. You know what results.
Boy, you nailed it, Edward. You know, I should have added in my reply to Curtis that one of the things which feeds the supreme confidence of these people is their equally supreme sense of moral superiority. A classic example I personally witnessed was a TV interview of Julia Louise-Dreyfus in which she smugly said: “I could never date a Republican–I’m too morally centered.” That little gem really says it all in a nutshell. No need to wade thru volumes of sociology and psychology textbooks–just expand Julia baby’s attitude to every single ideologue on the extreme left like Holder–be they academics, in the media or in government–that sense of moral superiority is all pervasive and drives everything they do.
Actually very few of the ethics cases against Palin have gone to court. They have been dismissed by the Alaska personnel board-which is not a judicial body.
1) Her claims about the cost to the state to defend against the ethics complaints have been inflated in her statements. She claimed once that it was costing 2.9 million dollars. The actual number was $296,000. $187,000 of that was on one issue-Troopergate. Now Palin herself is trying to pay down about 600K in personal legal cost of which her PAC has been able to raise about 19% of the required amount for her legal defense fund. The real burden is on her-not the state. She has not provided a break down of what those expenses were-so it’s a wash as to whether they are related to that or some other issue. ( Source is the Anchorage Daily News).
2) Palin herself initiated at least a part of the ethics case to counter a legislative investigation into the same matter. An additional Troopergate ethics complaint was brought by the state troopers union, which complained Palin and others improperly disclosed confidential personnel and workers’ compensation records of her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, and engaged in systematic efforts to have Wooten fired. The personnel board dismissed the union complaint.
3) One reason that the Troopergate claim was so expensive was that to depose Palin-they had to follow her all over the lower 48. Furthermore-most of the complaints she is complaining about happened last year. Although, by firing her health secretary she is probably opening herself up to another.
What surprises me – mildly – is your command of the facts surrounding this theoretical nobody, this supposed lightweight, this flash in the pan. Are you and Andy Sullivan trading emails?
What’s your take on Bobby Jindal, or do you have one?
I think Jindal has a lot more to suggest himself. He got elected in a state where it is tougher for someone of his political persuasion to get elected-and he’s not quitting his office just because he may have higher ambitions.
That said, I think George Will has it right when he says that Sarah Palin is a “lagging indicator of the political atmosphere.” The Republican party has a much better stock of rising talent than her.
Are you suggesting that someone should not take the time to look up the facts and merely take her claims at face value?
No, what I’m wondering about is, if Palin is such a lightweight, why are those who insist that she is such so obsessive and vitriolic about the fact? A rational response would be to hold fire until she’d taken leadership of her party and then demolish her at the polls.
But very little of this seems rational, at least to me.
Nice red herring, Skippy. Nobody said anything about the cost to the state. Edward was mentioning the “death by a thousand paper cuts” strategy of personal destruction. If Palin wanted to stop the legal fee bleeding over baseless ethics charges, which was already to the tune of $600K, why shouldn’t she?
Glad to see the guys on your side can keep this all on a high level.
Actually, Palin herself mentioned the cost to the state in her statement Friday.(Text of her statement here.)
I think Todd “Fists of Fury” Palin had something to do with her decision to resign. Certainly in Lex’s ‘home of testosterone’ group of heroes here, you folks understand better than anyone else how enormously frustrated he must have felt that he couldn’t respond to the deadly, disgusting insults to his wife and children as he yearned to. He’s a tough oil field worker and commercial fisherman as well as a guy who ran 500 miles of a snow machine race with a broken arm. Down here in hot Houston we know just how tough roughneck oil field workers are. And how protective.
So I think Sarah’s resignation has several reasons, most of which we can’t know yet. But whatever the reason she did this, I’ll back her all the way. She’s a wonderful, unique person, a testament to the fact that our country and our people still have guts and glory in them.
God bless her. And God bless all of Lex’s courteous and kindly commenters on this special day. This is still a great, great country, because of the people in it.
Marianne
Just wondering, are Flit and Skippy political soulmates or what?
Not at all-but a discussion is supposed to have two sides. Not simply be an echo chamber of one point of view.
The NoseOnYourFace has posted a great Youtube clip translation of Erik Sean Nelson’s apology after he joked that Sarah Palin would be running on the “More Retardation” platform in 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhVu3k2MYI
Edward,
Thanks for finding this. He’s a little slimmer (or is that slimier?) than I envisioned. Also looks to be suffering from some sort of self-inflicted mental issues of his own.
I think she’s just tired of the BS.
Sorta the way I “feel” about Skippy’s reflexive misogyny followed by his trademark “you’re all picking on me” mentality and Flit’s constant maneuvering from the left of Lenin!
Marianne- I agree with you 100%, if’n that was my wife and family taking that kind of abuse I would’ve already broke a few noses. Misdemeanors at most- worth it. BTW I can’t believe it doesn’t happen more- physical violence is often a good remedy for what ails you and a powerful lesson learned for those that have a bleeding nose. Did you notice blathering Ol’ Hair plug jumped on the Palin-I-told-you-so bandwagon today from Iraq where he’s visiting his son Beau-Jest?
Between this and the death of the bizarre Afro-PeterPan, did anybody notice we turned over in Iraq and are in a big brouha in Helmand? Hell no.
We live in a Fellini movie.
b2
Meanwhile, the tinfoil hat theorist will have to take another twist on the antenna:
But the critical question remains: Who is baby Trig’s mother? And why in the name of Gaia didn’t she abort him?
Must be the same angst they felt over Fitzgerald’s failure to do his duty.
Is that quilted, or heavy duty, Flit? And Skippy wants to know if you can make one in his size, also.
Many of the charges you make against Palin, can be made against the guy you voted for, Skippy:
So, the guy who quit the Senate after three years because he had higher aspirations is a good guy, and the one who quit after being governor for three years is a (fill in your favorite misogynist slur)?
Well, that’s the point isn’t it? Maybe you are right, Palin is just Obama in a dress-do you really want the country to repeat the same mistake twice? There are people of substance in the Republican party after all.
Obama would not be president today, save for a perfect combination of several things: the economic mess, the war in Iraq, and as the tie breaker-the presence of Sarah Palin on the ticket. A lot of people voted for Obama with their eyes open-what was it Tim said: “didn’t so much vote for McCain, but rather voted against Obama.“-the same thing happened on the other side as well.
If the Republicans had won in 2008, Sarah Palin would have done the same thing Obama did. She would have left office because she got voted to higher office. But he didn’t quit the Senate three years out because he knew politically it would have been the wrong thing to do. I’d submit the same thing applies here.
Yeah, his being black had absolutely nothing to do with him getting elected.
Guy in my first ready room was black. He had a great point — “I miss quarters, everybody notices. One of you guys miss it, no big deal.”
Easy to be UA when you are one of 100. Not so easy when you are 1 of 1. Unless you are Tim Kaine. Maybe La Palin has the silly notion that she should do the job she is paid to do. Doesn’t seem to bother the Head Democrat.
Scott,
It is always at this point that Skippy and Skippystalin and their friends Flit and Froggie go quiet and still and hope that you won’t notice their absence from the conversation. In all our back and forth with them over the years I’ve noticed a complete and total failure to refute the simple plain fact that Palin has far more executive experience than Biden or Obama and a track record to show for it and she is easily their better at getting legislation passed through a legislature on a partisan or bipartisan basis.
This is the part where they always seem to get bored and drift away for awhile before rushing back with some other misogynist piece of BS about Palin which just never seems to come within a country mile of explaining the “superior” credentials for office that both Biden and Obama had.
Sorry Curtis, we leave because there’s a point where it just becomes clear, you can’t convert the heathen no matter how hard you try.
However with respect to Palin, I have been doing a lot of research on the subject-because I am amazed that for having such a **wide** amount of executive experience, that she would simply chuck it all for some, as yet, undetermined reason.
One of the things that comes out if you start researching the Alaska papers is that her present diffculties with the legislature began after the campaign. Prior to August of 2008 she essentially governed in a RINO kind of way-being a centerist, forging alliances with Democrats and for the most part Alaskans were pleased. After the campaign however, she was now branded as a conservative and , at least according to both Juneau and Anchorage papers, she stopped trying to reach compromise-and the supposition was that it was to enhance her credentials with the Republican base.
Furthermore, she still had some big progjects unfinished. Is Alaska really ready for a “Mission Accomplished” declaration? The recently announced gas pipeline deal, for instance, is expected to have a major impact on the state. But it’s still largely a work in progress with many key details yet to be concluded.
You still have not made a good case on why it makes sense to leave in mid term. Unless she is chucking in the political towel (and I do not believe that for a second)-it does not make any sense whatsoever. Besides-the election is old news now. The question for Republicans now is how to beat Obama in 2012. This doesn’t really help that effort does it?
Skippy, I payed as much attention to what you wrote above as it is clear that you paid to what I wrote. Stop digging up dirt and picking at scabs on Palin and answer the question I asked. Point out that experience that you claim Palin so lacks but which sloshes within the backgrounds of Obama and Biden.
Did you perchance notice that your hero Obama resigned from his elected office years earlier and totally failed his constituents and remaining to serve his full term as did Biden? I guess its OK to quit for some reason but not OK to quit because your enemies are wreaking financial ruin on your personal life? What about Hillary quitting elective office? You going to complain about her too? Weren’t she and the ONE on the record right after they got elected to the senate as saying that they planned to serve their full terms and had no ambitions to run for president?
So, stop rooting around in the rubbish tips in Alaska and start digging up that extensive executive experience background on the plug and the ONE.
Contrast the smooth transition of one Executive in Alaska for the previous one and compare and contrast with the Democratic Machine pay for play with Obama’s replacement and Hillary’s replacement. I thought that was unseemly behavior in a republic.
Contrast the smooth transition of one Executive in Alaska for the previous one and compare and contrast with the Democratic Machine pay for play with Obama’s replacement and Hillary’s replacement.
You really lost me at the end-how are either of those events Obama’s or Hillary’s fault? Hillary did not resign from the Senate until she was confirmed by the way
“What about Hillary quitting elective office? You going to complain about her too?”
We never got the 250,000 new jobs she promised; I think she ended up leaving at -80,000.
As a NY resident voter, I’m glad she quit.
Skippy,
Try to imagine that you actually answered the question and then answer the question. Your’s is rather more democratic party, “what’s in it for me before I resign my slot and plead guilty to charges, ie Conyers wife”
and your fresh and inspirational comeback has to do with a broad question such as “a **wide** amount of executive experience, that she would simply chuck it all for some, as yet, undetermined reason.”
Skippy, who elected you the Master of Palin and decided that you should order her destiny and determine her fates? She is a citizen and enjoys all the rights of citizenship and if she decides that enough is enough then so be it. You and your ilk will elect to portray that as a weakness and I’ll stoop to acknowledge that a bunch of rabid weasels can prove unendurable without acknowledging that she is weak for making a rational reason based decision to leave the weasels to themselves. She so clearly does not need them or the office. She has a national place that she can build upon. (Slyly, would you believe that is in large part due to the insane depraved actions of the weasels who challenged her just because she is a girl and a conservative?) Yeah, thought not. I’ve kind of viewed her as Jeane Kirkpatrick’s little sister.” She’ll do well enough whatever she decides to do from here on.
So Skippy-about that executive experience with which our ONE and THE PLUG are so richly endowed, just get started with this little template:
1. Mayor of _____________
2. Governor of ___________
3. Crime Boss of __________
4. Head of Union _________
5. Head of Senate Menu Cmmte.
That was just to get you started you understand. Throw in professional qualifications such as fighter pilot, partner at a law firm, CPA, friend of Bill and whatnot.
Scott/
Sorry. We’re in “dialogue of the deaf”– land here, my friend–until the end of time.
And not even the best efforts of Dr. Who or the collective efforts of the rest of the Time-Lords can fix or even end it.
Something I greatly value about this site is that people that we in the majority here feel are very much in error in some of thier beliefs, are still allowed to post, and while they may well get chided for those views, they are still considered full partners in the discussion, and not driven off, as they would be in on many other sites.
Scott, it greatly helps that In This Place cordiality is adhered to, as if one were speaking in the wardroom over coffee with one’s peers. I have friends I’ve known for nigh on 20 years, of a more liberal persuasion than I, who cannot carry on a written conversation regarding politics without appealing to the inherent authority of their superiority. To wit, the argument seems to be I’m stupid for believing what I may, they’re obviously better-informed because they’ve reached a different decision, or the final argument is Limbaugh or Fox News says it is thus, therefore the position is wrong.
Gets kind of tiring, engaging in conversation with them. For the past three years I’ve declined to do so on-line, instead saying we’ll take it up in-person when we next meet. I’ve also made it a point to make these visits myself. I find a sort of irony in draining a man’s beer supply, getting a free meal at his table, sleeping in his abode, and all the while being told I’m the gullible one. Best part is, I don’t even have to argue — all I need do is pretend to look thoughtful, as if I’m seriously weighing their arguments, and ask for a refill.
Once we’ve killed a twelve-pack or so, the conversation invariably turns towards cars or guns or aircraft or the like, at which point we generally remember why we became friends in the first place and politics is left behind.
In the morning we part again as friends, each smug with the notion that he has been a consumate host or guest.
It’s too bad so few online areas allow that sort of meeting.
It would also be nice if they’d offer beer, come to think of it. And supper. I’m partial to Italian, in case anybody wants to invite me over for discussion.
– Max
One thing that bugs me about Palin’s resignation is she called a press conference for it on a Friday, before a holiday weekend. That’s typically when a politician would announce something they’d want to bury in the news cycle. Sarah knows she’s going to get the coverage nationwide, she can’t believe this will go unnoticed anywhere in North America.
Likewise, she doesn’t actually step down for three weeks, which is forever if you’re trying to escape a scandal being printed up. Finally, there’s no love lost between her and the republican senator up for election next, and the media is in the tank against her, so going for that office is suicide.
Politically, there’s no near-term advantage to this. It’s as if she wants to step down and focus attention away from herself in the media.
Which gets me to wondering, is she going to do a book, the lecture circuit, or…
She drew better crowds than either Obama or McCain, she can speak for an hour without notes or a teleprompter, her down-home style appeals to the masses (and to those who decry her lack of sophistication and nuance just say the words “Harry Truman” and see how many will jump to the defense of a President who decried the Secret Service preventing him from urinating off the back porch, that being the more cosmopolitan way to empty the bladder. Then ask about his speeches.)
The Republicans appear to be a party without a coherent message. Young players like Huckabee are chomping at the bit, Steele seems incapable of organizing a kegger in a brewery, McCain appears part of the Old Guard supervising the demise of the party, and even Newt has gotten into the act as an irritant to the party leadership.
There’s a fight for leadership of the GOP, I’m betting Sarah has been recruited to be a part of it. Her ability to pack the house is going to raise money for big-C conservative politicians, she gets to pay off some debts, and as for the family as a private individual it will be more difficult for the press to harass her kids.
Which, say what you will about freedom of the press, going after a person’s family? I think if I were in her shoes I’d just start carrying a lead pipe and break a few legs at press conferences. Misdemeanor assault charge, it’d be worth it. Todd Palin I’d keep in reserve for any that didn’t learn the lesson.
No matter what she does, it will be an interesting three years until the next presidential race.
– Max
What he said. Max, if you are ever in the CT area – I make a mean spaghetti sauce and throw together a bitchin’ salad. And my desserts – world famous (just ask Unkawill). Invitation open.
Is it 2012 yet?
Skippy does have one good point: her maneuver doesn’t make much sense right now; nearly everyone’s reaction has been Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?
While it’s mildly entertaining to chew the fat over recent events, it’s also (to a great degree) pointless. None of us have enough data. My primary reaction is to kick back and see what happens. No doubt by this fall or next summer we’ll have a better idea what she’s up to.
That said{g}… Skippy has another point: fulfilling only half of one term as governor does not look good on her resume, and I’m saying that as a fan. If she does try to gain national standing, she’ll have to do a lot more than make popular speeches.
This goes back to why I prefer to see candidates with executive experience. It’s not that this makes them more “qualified.” Rather their performance in said office gives us a good idea of how they’ll likely perform as President. That’s one of the main reasons Obama did so well; there was no record of performance available, so everyone was free to project their own image, from the Messiah, to the Great Reformer, to Yet Another Liberal in DC, then Secret Muslim Agent and/or Manchurian Candidate. His team did a great job managing his image to their own benefit.
Palin’s record as Alaska governor was, alas, spotty. Only half a term doesn’t give much data, unlike Reagan’s two full terms; not to mention California is a big, rich, complex state. We got to see the great one in action quite a bit, and had a good idea of where he was coming from. Sarah P., not so much. As Skippy demonstrates, it’s not hard to paint her picture in multiple ways, although I don’t find an ability to work across the aisle a negative. It depends upon what one is compromising.
Anyway. I’m going to kick back and watch the fur fly. See if Sarah P. becomes the next Rocky (or not) if the Anointed One goes down in flames butchering the economy while the MSM keeps their lips on his buttocks (notice there’s no more “Worst. Economy. Ever.” stories making the rounds, even though things have gotten worse the past couple of years?), or even if the Democrats lose any ground during next year’s mid-terms.