Palin stepping down from office? Focusing on 2012?
This is a surprise – Governor Palin is stepping down from the Governorship.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday she is resigning from office at the end of the month, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate made the surprise announcement from her home in suburban Wasilla on Friday morning. She said she would step down July 26 but didn’t announce her plans.
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Yeah, right . . . support the sucessionist’s spouse for president . . . what country are you from . . . or for? Geez, she attended the sucessionist convention twice and spoke to it once via live video feed – and she’s a right wing hero? Yeah, the Tories, too, would love her.
I agree she is bigger than the presidency! She can do so much good now! Obama is in for a rude awakening now that he won’t be able to dismiss her and the media loves to cover her!
Oh, right, Anon: she’s going John Galt on us? Instead of staying in office where she can fight and protect her people, she runs for the hills… or Hollywood…. More likely she got scared of trying to ride out the recession as governor. Not exactly a recipe for leadership.
Wow jon you are already on the attack! obviously you and the rest of your socialist friends are scared!
caheidelberger
I think alaska is exactly where you want her to be. Out of Obama’s way.
When she starts to fight conservatives will become inspired and reawakened to the GOP.
John Thune is going to be the benificary. Thune in 2012.
Palin is going to lay the path for him.
Mark Sanford owes her one (and Micheal Jackson).
She’s done. Toast. One doesn’t release big game changing news on Friday afternoon, the eve of a holiday. One releases news on a Friday afternoon to bury it. Can’t wait to read about the investigation, or indictment . . .
Palin and Sanford in 2012, har, har, har.
Anon: Palin’s the queen of the nation’s largest socialist state. Alaska confiscates $3000 of oil company profits for each Alaska citizen and makes direct payments to those citizens for only being oxygen thieves. Alaskans pay no income tax, no sales tax, little property tax – they are not self-reliant — they are socialist leaches on the federal treasury and for-profit oil companies and take more per capita from the federal treasury than any other state. ‘Splain to us just how that is the right-wing role model.
Why is she doing this? I understand if she wants to work to campaign, but part of her platform was that she had experience. Why is she giving that up? I just don’t understand what she is doing.
Maybe she is stepping down to promote the Palin doll? Thank god she stepped down. It is the beginning of the end for her and now she will go away.
http://www.thefrisky.com/site/post/246-sarah-palin-sex-doll-now-on-sale/
4:18 I’m with you. WTF? Did you see the video where she goes off on lame ducks? Like she makes herself a lame duck (it’s not like she was termed out) and then dogs on how flaky lame ducks always act. Strange but weird. Something’s haywire here. My BS alarms are going off all over the place. Get all the kids in the house ma. And turn on the radio.
when you say you aren’t running for re-election, you become a de facto lame duck. not a difficult concept, bill.
No way she can run in 2012 after she just up and quits halfway through her first term as governor. This is just plain weird. I wonder if there isn’t more to it.
I know why Sarah Palin resigned. I’ve got the scoop on this one! It was John Thune’s fault! It was Thune’s fault.
You see, Governor Sarah Palin had just forced out Alaska’s health director because the director refused to go along with Gov. Palin’s opinion of science!
And then when Gov. Palin read in Dakotawarcollege today that Senator Thune was demanding both sides of the story when the government tries to squelch one of their own who disagrees with their view of science, well, the Governor just had to get out! No way was Gov Palin going to allow herself to be questioned by Senator Thune! Senator Thune demanded to hear both sides of the story and Gov. Palin just wasn’t going to put up with that nonsense!
My God, I didn’t realize that Senator Thune had that kind of political power! May the Lord have mercy on President Obama!
I’m not attacking. Just telling the truth; they just think it’s attacking. Hat tip to Harry S Truman
4:32 sure it is. You’re only a lame duck when you say you are. Especially in her case. Pluse, there’s no given way lame ducks are supposed to act. If she wanted the good leadership she’s been providing to continue, she would keep providing it and announce her decision not to run at the end of her term, not now. If you pretend you understand this, I submit that you are kidding yourself. But you’re not fooling me.
Maybe she was goin’ to Carolina in her mind. You know, a little adventure on the old Appalachian trail? Who knows? What a beautiful thought.
Bill,
I can’t get over this as it makes no sense to me to quit if she is going to run for something. It either has to be family related or something we know nothing about. I am guessing she just said I don’t need this and decide to do the Huckabee thing and make millions.
She is not running! She is going to be an advocate for conservative ideas. Obama is a socialist and it drives her up a wall.
Palin is a fighter. I wish the other Republicans in the Senate, House and Governor Mansions had the strength that she does.
There is another shoe yet to drop on this. You don’t quit your first term of governor, and have a press conference with only 7 people there on July 3rd, a Friday, during the afternoon. She wanted this news buried.
“Palin is a fighter. I wish the other Republicans in the Senate, House and Governor Mansions had the strength that she does.”
They should follow her lead and resign then.
This isn’t anything other than somebody who is just tired of politics. I don’t blame her.
I hope this doesn’t hurt her chances of getting the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. I’ve been saying for a while now that the easist way for President Obama to win a second term is if he’s running against Sarah Palin.
You can’t bury news if you are Sarah Palin no matter what day you announce! Anyone who thinks she wanted to hide her resignation is an idiot.
Meghan Stapleton, Gov. Palin’s spokeswoman said on FoxNews: “this is a fighting move. She (Palin) is saying, ‘no, you know what, I believe in national security, I believe in energy independence, I believe in supporting our troops. It’s not getting done, and I can’t do it and make a difference where I am right now behind the governor’s desk, so I’m going to go around the governor’s desk, and I’m going to make that difference, outside — outside government.’
Is Sarah Palin right? Is the Republican Party including Senator John Thune, just not getting the job done in national security, energy independence and supporting the troops? Is there nobody on the Republican side fighting for these principles? Has the Republican leadership become so ineffective that Sarah Palin had to give up her Governorship so she could step up and save America? Is she the last great white hope of the Republican Party? Will all the other Republican leaders now follow her leadership in order to save America? Just like “Anonymous @ 5:38 pm” said: “I wish the other Republicans in the Senate, House and Governor Mansions had the strength that she does.” Governor Palin has finally stepped forward and said you people are just not getting the job done so here I am to save the day! But will they let her?
Sarah Palin/John Thune 2012 You betcha!
Stay tuned to dakotawarcollege for the latest updates!
She is right that no one in the GOP is getting it done. Including Thune.
However I don’t think John Thune wants much to do with Palin. JT is to cautious.
But we’ll see!
one thing I’m pretty sure of is that she is not running for President. But I do think she is going to be a strong free market advocate (thorn) in Obama’s side.
These painful two weeks may be the best thing that happened to repubs in 2009. (Ensign, Sanford, Palin – all not viable; Gingrich (not viable telling bed-ridden cancer stricken wife to buzz off), Romney (not viable, tying a dog to the roof of a car on a cross-country trip looking cruel, heartless). Repubs absolutely have to purge and excise their nut-wingers in order to return to the rationality and trust-busting of TR Roosevelt, the foreign policy of Eisenhower, the personal choice liberties of Goldwater, the environmental common sense of Nixon. One of the next steps on the road back that repubs have to take is to take back the media-nuts like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck & Fox from being their badmouth pieces. When Repubs start appealing to the middle, then and only then will they earn back us independents. Until then, they’ll howl at the moon alone.
Jon, no one you mentioned is egregious as Obama’s terrorist and racist friends. Obama got a total pass — if McCain (or Palin) had been associated with the right-wing equivalents of Wright and Ayres, he wouldn’t be in the Senate, much less a candidate for President. And no Republican ever left a woman to die at the bottom of a pond, but the guy who did that and then perpetrated the one of the biggest political coverups in history is “lionized” as a Senator.
Go figure.
Palin is anything but a quitter, which means that there must be another shoe dropping sometime soon. I can’t believe she would just quit. However, I wouldn’t blame her. There was some guy from the Anchorage paper (who was obviously no fan of Palin) being interviewed and even he said that she had a right to be ticked off and tired of the bogus complaints that were lodged against her (all of which were tossed out). Fanatics libs who wanted to harass her to death cost Palin $500,000 personally and the Alaska taxpayers a couple million.
It looks like liberals are up in arms about Palin resigning moreso than Obama’s shoddy treatment of the gay rights movement. Interesting. Not sure what that means, but I think they’re scared.
Is it true what some talking heads are saying? “Is Sarah Palin a born quitter? Is it true that they are saying Sarah Palin failed to live up to her obligations to the State of Alaska and those citizens that elected her? Does show her contempt for the electorate? Is this the “cutting and running” that she talked about during the Presidential campaign? Is it true that this is why people are shooting off fireworks today? Is it ture that from now on July 3 will be Independence Day in Alaska? You don’t suppose she would just get up and walk out the door if things ever got tough for her as President?”
Wow! Those talking heads sure have a lot of questions. Anybody out there have the answers to the above questions?
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.
Probably those same 325 grassroots supporters that showed up at the fair grounds the other day!
Sarah Palin/John Thune 2012 It’s going to happen!
I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop…
But in the meantime, what’s happening to the GOP is kind of like watching that knight in that Monty Python movie where he keeps getting parts cut off and keeps saying “come on then! It’s only a scratch!”
Sarah Palin has a voice in the Conservative movement. That she chooses to “lay back” for awhile isn’t surprising.
She’s become a fascination, not by conservative, but by the liberals that can’t stand to see someone succeed without their approval.
She’s a mom of more that two kids (ACK!), who’s a Christian (no-no), she hunts wild game (2nd amendment!), she didn’t attend “elite schools” (commoner…), she took on her own party to fight corruption (not a “team player”) and she resonates with working Americans (NOT liberal).
Sarah Palin has demonstrated the ability to rise to the challenges she’s faced, an despite the lackluster support she received from the McCain Campaign. She became a voice within the GOP that resonates with the middle class.
Sarah Palin will be positive advocate for the conservative movement. The GOP should work with her, to its best advantage
Sarah Palin is a populist voice within the GOP, don’t dismiss her lightly.
William,
To spin it so that her decision to “cut and run” in the middle of her term is simply a decision to “lay back” for a while is comedy GOLD, bud!
For example: Governor Sanford decided that, rather than continue as chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, that he’d just “lay back” for a while regarding that position…
“Sarah Palin has demonstrated the ability to rise to the challenges she’s faced…” and then cut and run like a frightened bunny right in the middle of her term as Governor… errr… I mean, decided to lay back for a while, yeah, that’s the ticket!
Dude – “…don’t dismiss her lightly” ???
No one has to dismiss her – lightly or otherwise!
All anyone has to do is wait for her to quit! Sheesh!
Well, now Sarah Palin has time to “lay back” and just think. Sarah said she likes to sing to relax. Some say Sarah used to sing this song a lot while on the campaign trail:
I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers
Consultin’ with the rain.
And my head I’d be scratchin’ while
my thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain.
I’d unravel every riddle for any individ’le,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts you’ll be thinkin’
you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why The ocean’s near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I’d sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin’ my head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.
Wizard of Oz
Two thumbs, fisherman! As per Wayne’s World, “Sarah, if you were president, you’d be Babe-raham Lincoln.”
(same tune)
The fact I am a mama
Don’t make me better than Obama
Nor a hero like McCain
And unlike David Vitter
I’ve decided I’m a quitter
Cause I haven’t got a brain
The other shoe may well the coming indictments from the Iceberg Scandal:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-03/did-a-scandal-sink-the-uss-palin/?cid=hp:mainpromo2
Federal funds paid for the Wasilla sports complex & hockey rink. The same time it was built – so was Palin’s trophy house and the windows, wood, and other materials appear to be, well about the same . . . And it appears the contractor, SBS, may have been the same who built former Sen Ted Stevens’ house. Oh, the web we weave . . .
This is why we insist on open-bids, open government contracts, etc. Why is it that repubs who insist that government is sooo bad, 1) want to govern, and 2) govern sooo badly?
Same can be said about Dems. I would be careful when accusing people of things because of a article like this.
8:30 Jerstad’s Car. ” I think they’re scared.” [liberals]
Typical ridiculous, Limbaugh-style, neocon, boilerplate bullshit.
The woman runs away from her job like it was a house on fire at the first sign of trouble and this imbicile wants to make out like liberals are somehow afraid of her. Right. If you buy that, I’ve got some swampland in Florida to sell ya.
She didn’t pass the ball, she grabbed it, walked off the court and went home pouting. There’s no way this does her one ounce of good. None.
Well, being Governor was never her strong suit.
“She didn’t pass the ball, she grabbed it, walked off the court and went home pouting.” Bill Fleming, THAT was funny!
I agree with Bill. I don’t see how anybody can run for a office quit in mid term and expect to be elected again. If she was going to run for President she should have finished her term out. SHe is either just sick of Leterman type(kids were way off limt but I like the slutty look joke), sick of all these ethics charges that have all been dropped, has a great job lined up in the wings, or has something else ready to break. I can’t belive she is quiting to run for Presient.
Hey Jon…don’t open that door (as in 10:51), unless you want to get into a discussion about Obama’s McMansion and Tony Rezko.
it’s about avoiding lame duck meaningless duties, it’s about finishing the job, she is officially finished in politics. i predict a job at fox news.
Nice to see that the libs are still the understanding kind souls that they say everybody should be. Right.
Good for Sarah Palin. She’s a breath of fresh air in a national political scene run mainly by men who can’t seem to think outside the box. I’ve no doubt there’s more to this story and am looking forward to hearing details.
The GOP should be breathing a sigh of relief. The crazy lady’s gone… maybe… crazy ladies have a way of popping back up at inopportune times.
Yes Jamie! I agree completely. Crazy Ladies DO have a way of popping up.
As I’m reminded every time I read the Dakota Women website.
The most fair-minded analysis of the Palin situation that I have run across: http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/po_20090707_9809.php
As Charlie Cook points out (link above), if you work backward from the decision to not run for re-election in 2010, the decision is not crazy. I don’t really agree with it, but I can understand it. If you aren’t going to run for re-election, you become a de facto lame duck. You signal to your in-state opponents that you won’t be around much and have other things on your mind. Thus, it is a rational decision to exit the job at the height of your effectiveness, and hand off the work to someone who is in a position to do it. One could make a completely rational argument that Obama/Clinton/McCain should have resigned their seats to run for president. I believe Bob Dole did that.
While I think I would have advised her to finish out her term, the reality of the election cycle now makes it completely rational to begin running a full-time campaign years in advance. (Factor in the personal/family/money concerns and the decision is more understandable as well)
“It’s amazing how afraid everyone is of her!”
I think you’re confusing fear with hysterical laughter.
…and Doc?
She took an oath of office:
“I [Sarah Palin] do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Alaska, and that I will faithfully discharge my duties as Governor to the best of my ability.”
NOT …unless I get bored or it’s inconvenient or somebody says somethin’ mean to me or my kids or I can make more money in the private sector or I just don’t feel like it anymore gosh-darn it you betcha (wink wink).
Randall,
Take off your “despise Palin shades” for a second.
First, nobody should celebrate that she found the harrassment on ethics charges to be a significant distraction from her ability to do her job. Those were at best frivolous charges. Who paid for the Obama kids to go to Russia? Frankly, I think that the children of Obama and Palin should be able to travel with their parents. They miss out on them enough.
Second, we should have some sympathy for the financial impact she has undergone because of these charges. No public servant, Republican or Democrat, should have to bear such a witchhunt solely for their political views. This could (and I fear now likely) to be a tactic pursued by some conservative groups against a Democrat rising star. I wonder if you will see that witchhunt differently?
Third, for whatever reason an elected leader feels they can no longer give their best and full effort to perform their job, we should praise such a person for having the integrity to resign. Although not being from New York or South Carolina, looking from the outside, I think that Spitzer has acted with greater integrity than Sanford. I lament that the dirt of politics has caused someone like Palin to make this decision but it shows a great deal of integrity. I wish a few others would reach that same conclusion (and have decided not to run for re-election) when they know (or should) know in their heart they can’t do what is expected of them.
Fourth, I’m most offended to the degree that the direct and indirect attacks on Palin’s children impacted her decision. Children must be off-limits from news coverage, talk shows, and late night comedy attacks lest we dilute the pool of most talented from offering their services for the public good. We must remember that Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and other younger politicians have young children unable to properly compartmentalize the attention tehy recieve. It is crue and despicable what has been said about politicians children. This attack is one that any of us who are parents should have empathy. I’m so disapponted by the lack of condemnation of the Letterman et. al. attacks on Palin’s children, especially by liberals. Conservative defense of a conservatives children doesn’t have the same impact as liberal defense. But is something that should be universal.
Troy,
first,
The Obama girls traveling with their parents is a very different thing than Sarah claiming per diem rates for staying in her own house.
second,
Whitewater
Third,
Sarah didn’t step down because she got cancer or some other horrible disease. She stepped down for the political equivalent of breaking a fingernail.
Fourth,
Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, the Bush girls… I don’t condone it and agree it’s disgusting and low. But I thank God that she’s not our Vice President since jokes can shake her up so bad that she can’t finish her term.
I’m so excited that she stepped down. I don’t think she is doing it to run for President. I think she is shocked and appalled at all of the socialist bills and ideas that Barak Obama is pushing and has decided that conservatives and regualar Americans need a voice that is capable of fighting back. She is the only person in our country capable of doing it and/or with the balls to.
I think our party is on the verge of a big fight with Sarah Palin as our new voice.
Sometimes we have to realize that issues and principals are bigger than political offices.
I think it was the cap and trade vote that pushed her over the edge. She is all about energy independance and realized there wouldn’t be much left if the GOP remained silent.
Good for Sarah!!!