Palin Announces Resignation as Alaska's Governor

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska announced Friday afternoon that she would resign her position effective July 25. She said that she didn't want to run for re-election and didn't want to be a time-serving lame duck. She stated on her web page that her decision to quit would allow her to follow a higher calling. Everyone thinks she intends to make a run for the White House. If that is her intention, she has either received bad advice or has exercised poor judgment or both.

The argument in favor of quitting before her first term ends is not a particularly strong one. By resigning, she gets the negativity of the press spotlight off her. She can advance her cause with the broader American public with speaking engagements and talk show appearances. She can campaign for other Republicans (she is popular with the Neanderthal wing of the party) thereby picking up IOUs around the nation. A great many Alaskans have said she has been a disengaged governor since the November election in which she was running for vice president, so maybe quitting will help her regain her focus on politics.

The arguments against her decision are legion. First off all, the bizarre resignation announcement was a bolt from the blue that makes her appear flighty. She has had 16 ethics investigations into her activities, and 15 of those have come back in her favor; one is still pending. That means that there is no reason for her to quit because of wrongdoing. As a result, leaving office with her term half-done makes her look half-baked.

More significantly as a private citizen, she will not have anywhere near the access to power-brokers in the Republican Party that a sitting governor has. Commentators on the right have said that the GOP's establishment was never going to back her, and if that is so, she has given them a reason not to answer the phone. She has effectively undermined any political organization she may have had.

Worst of all, she gets labeled a quitter. She pointed out that she has been attacked both professionally and personally since John McCain picked her to be his running mate. That is true, and that is the nature of politics. Some will simply say nasty things about a candidate whether it is fair or not (e.g. Ms. Palin got free clothes during the campaign, or Barack Obama was neither an American citizen nor a Christian). As Harry Truman noted, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." He put up with a great deal, and the only time he really lost his cool was when a critic attacked his daughter's piano playing talent.

The 21st century has proved that the old political theorems about campaigning are obsolete. Facebook, Twitter and such can create a huge movement in a matter of days as the Obama team proved. Maybe, Ms. Palin's decision to leave the governor's office will prove to be a stroke of genius, but it isn't very obvious how. "Winners never quit and quitters never win," and Sarah Palin quit on the people of Alaska. What guarantee is there that she wouldn't quit on the American electorate if they were unwise enough to make her the next president?

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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