CNN: Palin Stepping Down
wesmorgan1
Courtesy CNN:
Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down as Alaska's chief executive by the end of the month. She will not seek election to a second gubernatorial term in 2010. [...]
Palin said she was transferring authority to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will be sworn in at the Governor's Picnic on July 25.
"She thinks she has accomplished goals she has set forward," a source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. "She sees what a positive influence she has had on people's lives from traveling the country in the last year."
As the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, Palin has been considered one of the front-runners for the GOP nomination in 2012. Her decision not to seek another term as governor is sure to stoke speculation that Palin is seriously eyeing a run for the White House. [...]
OK, that was unexpected. As I see it, this can mean one of three things. From least likely to most:
- She's jumping ship before something nasty comes to light. I very much doubt this, but you can never tell with politicians.
- She's decided to leave the spotlight altogether. Given what's going on in her family (helping Bristol with her newborn and raising her own special-needs son), I could completely understand this.
- She's trading the remainder of her incumbency for a national stage. There's little doubt that, if she stays in political life, she'll be a headliner to the conservative base for the foreseeable future. I consider this the most likely outcome, but it's risky; there is such a thing as too much attention, even for politicians. Even so, she can certainly build up LOTS of IOUs by campaigning for GOP candidates during the 2010 election season - and call those chits in two years later.
In any case, the blogosphere is going to be absolutely buzzing over this one...
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (52)
A later edit of the CNN article added:
Ouch. That may come back to haunt her, if true; quitting one's public trust for a book deal comes across as a wee bit selfish...path to 2012 makes sense... she is probably hoping to get her name and face out there more, in similar ways Huckabee, Romney and others are. She may be looking to focus more on the national politics as opposed to seclusion up in Alaska. Staying up there would give an advantage to guys like those mentioned, or perhaps a Ron Paul type or others heavily involved in the national policies of the day (2 or 3 years from now that is). If that bill to audit the Fed goes through, his name will be up near the top as well. People know who he is now. With Sanford gone, and Pawlenty and Jindal (in my opinion) outside shots... she may see this as her only way to secure a nomination. I think freeing up herself for a chance at stepping up the ladder in the GOP would make the most sense of it all.
However, the rumors will certainly be flying in all 360 degrees.
Absolutely, Skinny...and the sad thing is that she's handed her opposition (both GOP and Democratic) the next round of ammunition. Her "refusal to embrace lame duck status" doesn't ring true.
Wes;
CNN and especially MSNBC HATE Palin. So anything reported by these two on Palin is subject to a big fat b.s. filter. MSNBC is already speculating that she's withdrawing over some unforeseen 'major' scandal. Every ethics complaint against her has been dismissed for lack of cause but the state democrats are filling bogus complaints that the last time I saw had cost her $500k in legal fees to defend.
You doubt that Wes, seriously? A shoe is about to drop and she's heading for the hills. I'm sure of it. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. No matter how much lipstick you put on Palin, she's still a pig.
It's really too bad Palin is done for. If I had my choice, I would've picked Palin above all others to face Obama in 2012. I guess now I'll have to root for my runner-ups Romney, Huckabee and Jindal.
Being just a private citizen means she can now take to court those who unfairly slander her and her family.
The MSM who still can't find one thing in six months to criticize Barry about conversely is spending hours attacking Palin over something they thought she wasn't qualified to do in the first place and that's be the Governor of Alaska. Those J-School mental giants like Couric, Rose and Matthews who have aspired to such heights in life look down on Palin yet their the ones’ laughed at and scorned.
? ? ? ?
Things to do this weekend:
Read this.
And this.
It's amazing that your list lacks the obvious. In Alaska, anyone can institute a complaint of wrongdoing by an elected official. All it takes is a notarized complaint. The liberals have organized a campaign of attack, that has cost Palin over $500,000 in legal fees all ready. When she set up a legal defense fund, they filed a complaint on that. How anxious would you be to fight an unnecessary constant battle? I wouldn't be surprised if she left politics all together and went into broadcasting.
Get your "Sarah Supports Partial-Term Abortion" shirts here.
Count Palin Out for 2012.
Couldn’t make this up either:
I love how only Democrats and liberals, who wouldn't have voted for her anyway, consider the decision she made (that nobody knows for sure why she made it) detrimental to her future success as a politician on the national scene. Why is that I wonder? Perhaps because in 2 years, only they will be the ones scrutinizing her for this decision, holding it against her? perhaps? just another log to fuel the Palin rage?
I think the only reason I love Palin is because she riles up the left so bad...
the angrier they get the more they come off looking like bees trying to sting a lawnmower...
... she's like an Ace in the hole, our Nancy Pelosi, only with a brain and stuff.
PDS has replaced the fever of BDS for the leftwing wackos. Sadly with the left there is always a 'derangement malady' of some sort.
Palin said she punched out to avoid all the lawsuits and so that she and Alaska can get back to normalcy. Yet many Fox pundits predict she will start spending time in the Lower 48 stumping during the mid-term elections. She gets a lot of IOUs in her own political warchest and can earn enough speaking to pay off her legal bills.
Personally, if anyone ever gets elected with an accent like hers please shoot me. It's like a cross between a Jewish Princess and a North Dakota Rabbit Choker. It's somewhat Canadian with a dash of Minnesota "yah" in there. It's Mary Harman, Idaho skin head "You Betcha!" My God, it's Rosa Rosannadana (sic).
Don't think there is PDS with the left-wing? Check out HuffPo where there are TWELVE articles on the front page on Palin. LOL.
Thomas' and Skinnydip's comments are perfect examples of what I keep hearing from the right, that liberals hate Palin. That couldn't be further from the truth. We don't hate her, we think she's a joke. Anyone who thinks science is a hoax and that the Earth is 6,000 years old can't be taken seriously and automatically disqualifies themselves from consideration for political office.
And frankly, I'm dissappointed about Palin's recent meltdown. I was hoping her next mental breakdown would wait until she garnered the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. Now she's going to end up with a TV or radio show on Fox where she can't do any more harm to the party.
Shorter Egg: "bzzzz"
Bingo. Bull's-eye! Give that man a stuffed panda!
To Palin's fans, her chief and pretty much only attractions are her perpetual whining and incessant casting of herself as a persecuted victim. Nooshans absolutely LOVE this stuff: baiting perceived "liberals," while imagining themselves as plucky, persecuted, oppressed and mocked minority, is like sweet crack cocaine to them.
Paradoxically, if the extremist Right gave a flying f*** about even appearing to care about competent governance, she'd not have a future. As it is, though, to the extent striking adolescent poses gets them all wound up with their silly tribal thing, she continues to exert great appeal.
Not exactly completely correct. The reason you love Palin is that you imagine she "riles up the left so bad." Try asking a few independents how they view this sort of erratic behavior.
shorter Winston: "bzzzzz"
Now I'd like to take my 3 little stuffed Pandas and trade them up for the larger prize.
“Derangement Syndrome” is just one particularly durable bit of rightwing-fabricated jargon designed to make opposition to W nut programs and policies sound pathological and grounded in some condition of mental disorder rather than having some reasoned factual basis.
The strong element of projection is pretty obvious.
I don't "hate" Palin nor does she "derange" me. I do agree with Eggman that as any kind of serious officeholder she is "a joke." With no accomplishments she can point to to speak of, not even (now) a couple of successful gubernatorial terms (her approval in AK seems to have fallen to an all-time low), a crony approach, and an opportunist's eye, isn't she really just George Bush with boobs? On top of it all, quite a few establishment Republicans neither like nor trust her.
I joke also that her national political career is dead just because Limbaugh's political prognostications are virtually always wrong (look it up), but Iin fact I fear that may not indeed be the case: the fact is the GOP's right rump is such a diseased mass of simmering resentment, aggressive ignorance and know-nothing belligerence that all the usual criteria for what finally puts a politician outside the pale may not apply here. Palin's folksy fascism can certainly claim some fans.
Holy shit the derangement vacuum with GW gone is never so evident as today. The left is so consumed by a governor from Alaska we get these 'reasoned' pearls of wisdom:
"I was hoping her next mental breakdown would wait until she garnered the GOP presidential nomination in 2012."
or
"paradoxically, if the extremist Right gave a flying f*** about even appearing to care about competent governance, she'd not have a future."
With the distinction of the most disliked governor in the country haling from a left-wing dominated state of New York, you would think the libs would STFU about Palin and worry about the mental giants of Pelosi, Biden and Reid. No chance of that senor. They just reflexively double down with more hate dressed up as ridicule.
Sorry, I stand by that statement. Large swaths of the GOP have stopped even pretending it matters to them whether the US is well and competently governed.
I'll give you one example out of many: John Boehner (R-Ohio) says House Republicans are open to health care discussions, so long such discussions take off the table any reform plan that includes any public option, employer mandate, individual mandate, or tax increase. They seem unaware who won the last election. And why.
But my derangement anger certainly extends to elected Democrats. I can't explain why they are continuing to talk with these people rather than just lock them out of the room and get some actual work done.
Example 2 would be Chuck Grassley bragging that he takes pride in being an obstructionist.
It'S OFFICIAL: SARAH PALIN STEPS DOWN DUE TO SEX TAPE SCANDAL
Speaking of Chuck Grassley, did you see this video about a public healthcare option?
During an Iowa townhall meeting last week, Grassley was asked “why is your insurance so much cheaper than my insurance and so much better than my insurance?” Grassley did his best to spin and struggled to explain the details of his own health care plan. The old man followed up, “okay, so how come I can’t have the same thing you have?” Grassley replied “You can. Just go work for the federal government.”
Amazing.
SARAH PALIN SEX TAPE SCANDAL
Fixed that for ya skinny
The reason the Republicans are so against a public option on health care is because Americans don't want government intervening between them and their doctor. As for campaigning one way and governing another; wasn't it Obama who lambasted McCain for "taxing your employee health programs?" Now guess who wants to tax employee health programs? Do even need to type the name?
Damnit... you got me again!
::curse you Rick Astley and you're infamous Rick-rolling sounds::
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA skinny it's as easy as falling off a log
I don't think that's necessarily so. Millions of people use Medicare where the government doesn't "intervene" between patient and doctor. And any public option would be . . . . well, optional. If someone doesn't like the way it's designed, they won't have to choose it. They're free to use their employer-based or private plans.
Freedom. Choices. That's what it's all about it, isn't it?
Somehow the Extremist Right convinces itself Sarah Palin "drives the Left crazy" and makes them "and the liberal media" all "furious" and "deranged."
At least until Amercians become more preoccupied with looking for scapegoats for their own festering resentments than with getting their government to function properly, Sarah Palin don't scare me. She's just a particularly ridiculous reflection of where the reichwingers are at these days.
you personally may not feel that way about her,
but the vast majority of the kos guzzling left certainly does,
resorting to insults, speculation and Mike Doogan (D - AL) quotes as legitimate scrutiny...
...I only wonder, what will they do when they don't have her to kick around anymore?
GOOD LORD! They may actually have to resort to debating substantial politicians now...
or find reasons to compalin about Palin, like they do Bush, and the duststorm she left behind.
(I hope they debate conservatism better than they guess on stimulus results...
... because unfortunately for the left, we "guessed" a lot better on its final results)
Winston;
The government intervening I suggested above wasn't based on the La' La' scenario you laid out. No I'm talking real world examples from around the globe where MRI's are denied, CAT Scan, Smat scan, no way. All due to the government bureaucrats saying there too expensive for your government 'health plan.' Deny it all you want but the reality of that horror show won't go away besides it makes so much sense to pattern another multi-trillion out of control boondoggle after that shining example of fiscal responsibility Medicare.
. . . and yet despite all those supposedly denied MRIs and CAT scans and other procedures, people in foreign countries are HEALTHIER and live LONGER and have LOWER infant mortality rates . . . . it boggles the mind . . . . how they can actually get better medical care for EVERYONE for less money . . .
I see Whiney-tard still has his lips firmly planted on Maobamis' nether parts,....what a "laff"!
Progressive/ regressive/ statist morons like Whiney and Co. despise Sarah Palin because she represents a real woman and not a scumbag like their role models of womanhood like Gerafolo, Rosie, Whoopi-cushion, Pigliosi,......ad nauseum.
"Maobami" ?
New one on me.
I guess that's what I get for keeping away from the cesspool over @ Free Republic.
"Maobami." Nice.
Whiney, I'll bet you're one of those "slobberin moonbat morons" who thinks thal little "obscene, crotch grabbin, dry humpin pervert", Michael Jackson, deserves martyrdom huh?
Your pals at MSM have been slobberin about it for a week,.....now that's a real role model for you statists, eh?
". . and yet despite all those supposedly denied MRIs and CAT scans and other procedures, people in foreign countries are HEALTHIER and live LONGER and have LOWER infant mortality rates . . . . it boggles the mind . . . . how they can actually get better medical care for EVERYONE for less money . . ."
Winston;
You leave out the most important ingredient to a healthy life; that would be one's lifestyle choices. Americans have never been accused of being health nuts. I realize everything is packaged as "low fat" or "reduced calorie" but in-fact were still very fat and sedentary. Our healthcare is the best in the world but it can't overcome the free choices Americans make on the way they want to live. Would I rather live in a country where my choice is tofu or granola or in the U.S where I can eat tofu, granola or a dozen eggs with bacon? I'll take the latter.
Tom, is that your final answer? That Americans spend like twice as much per capita on medical care than people in other industrialized nations and have the finest health care in the world but you just wouldn't know it because . . . they're fat lazy overeaters?
Wow.
Winston;
You obviously discount what other pros in the medicine note as the most important factor in good health; lifestyle choices. Here's to you being a fit man with moderation in all things good and bad because if you’re not your precious government plan won't be there to help you for one minute more than the current system.
Tom, I don't dispute that many Americans make poor lifestyle choices that negatively impact their health. It's just that Americans can't possibly be so different in that respect from Spaniards, Italians, Brits, Canadians, Argentines, Finns, Germans and Swedes that they spend nearly twice as much on the finest medical care in the world to buy worse outcomes.
The fact is, US healthcare has become a racket. We pay, through the nose, for "security" that will be yanked out from under us the instant we need it.
* Ron Williams - Aetna - Total Compensation: $24,300,112.
* H. Edward Hanway - CIGNA - Total Compensation: $12,236,740.
* Angela Braly - WellPoint - Total Compensation: $9,844,212.
* Dale Wolf - Coventry Health Care - Total Compensation: $9,047,469.
* Michael Neidorff - Centene - Total Compensation: $8,774,483.
* James Carlson - AMERIGROUP - Total Compensation: $5,292,546.
* Michael McCallister - Humana - Total Compensation: $4,764,309.
* Jay Gellert - Health Net - Total Compensation: $4,425,355.
* Richard Barasch - Universal American - Total Compensation: $3,503,702.
* Stephen Hemsley - UnitedHealth Group - Total Compensation: $3,241,042.
”the vast majority” ? I think you’re seriously misreading how most liberals view the Quitter from Wasilla. In one prominent recent example, ATRIOS. NAILS. IT.
Palin cabinet: “. . . your Department of Law . . .”
Nooshans love Sarah because—in their dreams—she enrages liberals. Hey, works for me.
Anyone want to argue the habits of the Irish are all THIS much healthier than ours?
WSJ has an editorial today that recounts actual 'turndowns' by British healthcare. It is so devastating that if a certain person reads it they should in all honesty at least admit their reconsidering their position on government healthcare.
--Pap smears for cancer screening? Err' sorry; not in the budget. Yes we Brits keep the price of healthcare down due to the denial of all drugs costlier than an aspirin--
As an Irish lad, I'm deeply offended by that comment Winston. Sure, I have the "pre-cancerous" condition known as "barrett's esophogus" thanks to a little hobby I like to call "drinking heavily", but other than that I'm the picture of health... or so my AA sponsor tells me. Must be all that whiskey I pour into my coffee in the morning.
Went hunting for it, Tom, but couldn't find it.. (You need to work on that link thingie.) OTOH I did find this: WSJ opinion leader explains how the Incompetence Party works.
BTW, me wifey is British, so yer silly propaganda about the NHS won't work on me. We know better, from personal experience.
Don't be offended, skinny!
offended? what? i don't even remember saying that! (must have been the booze talking)
Some thoughts on “rationing”: “silly, but not outright dishonest” vs. plainly and shamelessly dishonest.