And that one subject…would have to be SARAH PALIN…

I have so much material, that I think it’s probably impossible to weave these into any sort of cogent narrative. So, I guess I’ll simply try to categorize and summarize as best as I am able:

THE BOMBSHELL RESIGNATION:

• On July 3rd, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shocked EVERYBODY by announcing that she not only wouldn’t run for another term as governor…but she also wouldn’t even be finishing her first term. She plans to leave office on July 26 to pursue…well…keep reading. The full video and written transcript of her announcement can be found here. The speech…was classic Palin. It was badly written, rambling on-and-on without much in the way of an organized structure. It was badly delivered…breathlessly spewed forth in a torrent of incomplete sentences and rambling tangents. There was also an obvious disregard for atmosphere reminiscent of Sarah’s ill-fated Thanksgiving interview in front of a slaughtering table – She chose to deliver the announcement in an area populated by loudly (and somewhat comically) honking geese, and these surroundings lent a somewhat distracting and surreal feel to the whole event.
• According to Sarah…she’s leaving because of the distraction presented by all of the ethics charges against her…and the cost of defending against those charges…and she’s not finishing her term, but she’s not quitting, because she’s going to keep on “fighting“…but she won’t say what she will be fighting, or how, just that she’s not really “quitting” because she’ll still be “fighting.” She later responded that it has been considered “honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling.” No word as to what this higher calling might be…McCain seems to think she will serve as some sort of Republican leadership figure, however, most experts see her political future as bleak. Governor Mike Huckabee says those very ethics charges and her decision to leave office mid-term nearly negate the chances of a future presidential run. Even Karl Rove, who get get conservatives to vote for a dead cat, thinks her “strategy” is risky and that her options are few.
• And Sarah also wants us to know that she’s really not walking out on her responsibilities…because he “lame-duck” status prevents her from getting any real work done. Unfortunately for Sarah, NOBODY considers halfway through one’s first term a “lame-duck” period…in fact, this is a period where a governor SHOULD be able to accomplish quite a bit. The Alaskans who elected her are more than a little disappointed…since they elected her hoping she would perform some actual work. In fact, one legislator spoke of Palin’s “surprising amount of disinterest in state government after November…This state has a lot of problems, and she showed a complete lack of interest in solving them.” Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was even harsher in her criticism of Palin’s move: “I am deeply disappointed that the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded.” Governor Ed Rendell, (D-Penn) took offense…criticizing her characterization of lame-duck governors, her designation of herself as such, and her choice to leave office during a recession: “To resign after two-and-a-half years in office and somehow to say that she was going to be a lame duck and lame ducks can’t get anything done and governors just go on junkets during her lame-duck period is ridiculous. First of all, she’s a first-term governor, not a term-limited, second-term governor, and if she hadn’t announced she was leaving, she wouldn’t have been a lame duck, she would have been in a pretty strong executive position, number one. Number two, this is not the time for governors to abandon their states…Everyone of us is facing severe financial challenges brought about by the international recession and this is not a time to leave. We pledged to our folks when we asked them to elect to us, we pledged that we were going to serve four years and we serve in the good years, but we also serve in the bad years as well. And for her to leave and turn the state over to a lieutenant governor with less than a month’s notice, in the midst of difficult financial times, I think it’s just dead wrong.“
• Oh, and it’s the media’s fault, too. According to Palin, the mainstream media has been completely unfair to her and her family, they would not have gone after any other candidate the way they have pursued her…and she would still like to be in front of the cameras and allowed to talk as much as possible and if all the members of the mainstream press wouldn’t mind coming to see her fishing at the shoreline, she’d like to talk to all of them. She said this…as she alluded to her future political aspirations: “How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country…And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.” You know…I could quote from this wonderful article, dispelling the myth that the media has been somehow “harder” on Palin…or I could show this clip from August of last year where Sarah chastises Hillary Clinton for “whining” about the media, and says that it “bothers her” when female politicians proclaim themselves victims of the press. Instead…I’ll call it what it is: cry-baby bullshit. No, Sarah, you don’t get to pop out of nowhere as a virtual unknown, and run for Vice President…with a radicalized, secessionist husband…and an unwed, pregnant daughter…and ties to extreme, evangelical religion…and a history of abuse of power and ethics complaints…and a history of taking huge amounts of public money to fund failed projects…and then proceed to go ill-prepared into debates and interviews where you CONTINUALLY reveal your general lack of education, lack of knowledge of government, and lack of reasoning skills…AND THEN COMPLAIN THAT THE MEDIA IS TREATING YOU DIFFERENTLY. The media would treat any candidate in the same situation, with the same background, and who exercises the same poor judgment the SAME WAY.

THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES – WHAT IS REALLY BEHIND THIS?

• Unconfirmed gossip: let’s get this out of the way…some have said that Sarah was trying to get ahead of the results of very damaging federal investigation…however the FBI says it is in no way investigating Palin. If there is some damning piece of gossip or some pending investigation…there’s no proof of it. Others have said Palin wishes to continue to pursue lucrative book deals…maybe even a position on Fox News or some other conservative outlet as a contributor. Again, even if this is the case…there’s no evidence to support it, other than the face that she has signed a memoir deal with HarperCollins Publishers, which is a pretty standard practice for politicians.
• Presidential Run: As mentioned earlier…even Huckabee, Rove, and a wealth of other Republicans and GOP campaign advisors think Sarah’s chances of a 2012 presidential run are SLIM. However…polls show that a majority of self-identified Republican voters would still vote for her for president (of course, with self-identified Democrats and Independents…not so much). I’ll just say this: I have a good friend who I consider to be a very intelligent conservative. Back during the last election, he defended Palin to me…saying that it is not so important that she is not very intelligent, because her “charm” is such a powerful tool. This same friend…posted on Facebook recently that he believes Palin should step out of the spotlight, because her intelligence is obviously SO LOW as to not even meet the minimum requirements for the presidential office. I’m glad to see he has come around and finally grasped what I hold to be an obvious truth.
• Maybe she’s just nuts: no article did so much to damage Sarah Palin as Todd Purdom’s opus for Vanity Fair titled “It Came From Wasilla.” I highly recommend reading the entire piece. The article forced a major division in the GOP…between those who were willing to admit to the horrific strategic mistake that was choosing Sarah Palin as the VP candidate, and those still blinded by…well, whatever. In short (I mean really short, given Purdom’s article is 10,000 words long) Palin appears to be not very bright, not very experienced, not very savvy…and perhaps just a bit nuts: “Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ – and thought it fit her perfectly.” Or maybe Liz Trotta, a contributor for Fox News, put it best the other day when she said, “the woman is inarticulate, undereducated…I think all the liberal stylists…really have a case. She just begs for adjectives like flaky and wacky…We’re talking about somebody who, right from the get-go, has been a flashy person who gets into a lot of trouble and really has no credentials for any job.” Wow…well said, Liz.

THE ENSUING LAUGHTER:

• Seeing as Sarah’s announcement comes so close on the heels of her spat with David Letterman…one can hardly fault him for taking a parting shot…or twelve. Here’s his Top Ten list of messages on Palin’s answering machine. Enjoy.

• Of course, Keith Olbermann couldn’t resist a bit of tongue-in-cheek analysis of these developments…here is his segment titled appropriately “Palin’s Paling Prospects.” It mostly revolves around Andrea Mitchell’s interview with Palin at the water’s edge (Palin had just stepped out of a fishing boat…hip waders and all)…where Palin continues to flounder (no fishing pun intended) while attempting to explain both her motives and her ambitions. For me, the highlight is when Sarah refers to the federal government’s “Department of Law,” once again reminding me of how close we came to having this woman as Vice President…a person who has no knowledge of how our government or laws actually work. And here…is a brief Palin retrospective:

I’d say that we will have no more need for my regular “Palinwatch” segments, but the truth (and you and I both know it) is that she’s not going ANYWHERE and we will certainly hear from her again…for better or worse.