I Respect Sarah Palin's Decision
Posted by Joe Rivett on 07.06.2009
Shockingly, I think Palin made the right call to call it quits...
I think Sarah Palin made a fine decision in resigning as Alaska's most famous governor.
If she wants to run for president: Logistically, flights from Alaska to primary states and others for fundraising are damn near impossible. Plus unlike Hilary, McCain, and Obama, I give her credit for not trying to do two jobs at once. I hated having Hilary as my Senator when I knew there was no way she was working as hard as Chuck Schumer. Frankly, I'd like to see a Constitutional Amendment stating that you have to give up a government position when running for president. Some pundits are explaining that she is losing valuable experience; however, no one took her experience seriously anyway and Obama seemed to do fine with hardly any credentials. In fact experience tends to taint a politician as they have time for more corruption and bad votes to explain.
If she doesn't want to run for president: Why would Sarah Palin want to be governor when she can make millions in the private sector? Governors don't exactly make much money. She can write a book, give speeches, or host a TV show like Huckabee. She was damn lucky to be selected as a VP candidate so why not take advantage of it? Keep in mind she does have a very large family that she may want to spend more time with and keep out of the media spotlight.
Whatever Sarah decides to do in the future, she will at least be making more money and having more time to spend. Who wouldn't opt for that?
Joe I understand where you are coming from brother but do you really respect someone who cut and runs on a state that is in such a mess which she helped create? I find it hilarious she will might be a spokesperson for angry, ignorant sheeple. I just hope I have seen her wink at me for the last time. Whoever votes for a person that cannot handle being a governor(incompetent 1 at that) should get a frontal lobotomy. Drill baby drill!!
Posted By: L I A M (Guest) on July 06, 2009 at 08:10 PM
Joe,
Well said on the Constitutional Amendment. I agree that declared candidates should give up their current position to seek the office of the presidency. As John Edwards said (and I'm paraphrasing), "let go of the side of the pool!"
I can't speak for others, but my problem with Palin isn't that she's quitting as Governor of Alaska so she can get more money and more time.
My issue is that she plain just up and quit, especially when things in Alaska were looking less and less rosy. I'm from CA and I look at my last Governor and current one. Neither can be said to have done a stellar job. But Gray Davis, even through the recall, stuck it out in Sacramento and did his job. Schwarzenegger is getting beat up on right now--and rightfully so--but he still clocks in every day. And Schwarzenegger of all people can easily quit and get more money and time to himself!
But the biggest beef I have with Palin is her absolute disingenuousness.
Firstly, if she is truly "one of the regular people" like all of these RepubliCON posters keep claiming, then why not come right out and say she's quitting for more money and time? Surely, her "down home, salt of the earth folksy folk" supporters would totally understand that.
Second, don't quit in the midle of your term and claim that you are actually exercising leadership. She is quitting, which is the least "leadership" of all leadership skills.
Look, I'm the chief negotiator for m faculty union. If I'm in a round of bargaining, and I start getting my ass handed to me, and I decide to quit b/c I'm just that horrible, can I walk out of there and say I'm exercising leadership, or answering a higher calling? How does that look?
I know if I did that, it would not come close to passing the smell test. And frankly, neither does Palin's.
Posted By: Brandon Crow (Guest) on July 06, 2009 at 08:35 PM
if she did it to spend time with her fmaily, kudos to her. if she did to run for office, the scrutiny is only going to get worse.
Posted By: rey (Guest) on July 06, 2009 at 08:49 PM
Rivett,
Good article.Fair and thought out.Pleasant to see a couple of articles written without all of the left wing MSNBC type hate.
Crow, were do I sign up to be one of those republiCONS?They should cool.
Posted By: John (Guest) on July 06, 2009 at 09:27 PM
Rey, good point.What if she spent some time with her family.........and then decided to run for office?
Reaching.
Posted By: John (Guest) on July 06, 2009 at 10:59 PM
and somebody should point out that two of obama's cabinet members, hhs secretary katheline siblus and dhs head janet napolitontio, basically quit in the middle of their terms as gov, and the fisrt nominee hhs secrtary was bill richardosn, who like obama was an absentee chief exec for our state, while he campaigned for pres, and also was up for hhs secteray until he had to drop out because of ethics problems, and oh yeah dems, also obama, didn't serve out his first term as junior senator and spent a 1 1/2 yrs campaigning for pres, so hello kot this is kettle
Posted By: coby preimesberger (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 02:14 AM
She quit.
I don't care what her excuse is. She quit.
Coby, there's a difference between leaving one job to go work at another one, as Obama (and many of the presidents did before him) and simply quitting in the middle of a job people trusted and voted you in to.
There was no family emergency, no scandal, no higher level gov. position for her to work at... she simply decided that the best way she could do the job people voted her into was to hand it over to someone else.
Posted By: cyks (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 04:33 AM
I find it hard to automatically assume this is a great idea unless you're Bill Kristol, who may be campaigning for a job.
If she wants to run for president:
Reasonably, Sarah Palin is a lightning rod for the Republicans but faces constant attacks from her own as well as the majority of America. The Republican party as a whole has a 34% approval rating as of last month according to Gallup. Basically, this move will not do anything to stop the critics from lambasting her again as a quitter. This may not hurt her now... but I bet you that in a Primary it could seriously hurt her as you can be sure her opponents will label her a quitter, not ready for primetime, someone who can't stand the heat or other trite metaphor depending on what region of the country they're from.
What she has to make clear is that she has a specific goal in mind and through reps begin to build her machine and do it now. A meandering speech at the picnic much like the one on Friday will only give her critics ammo. In fact it's almost kind of funny watching her defenders Try to come up with ideas and defenses when that should have come from her, not them, not the writer of this article. Governor Palin needs to represent leadership, morals, and inner strength and while this is a good idea to focus on launching a campaign she needs to say that and shape her own agenda otherwise by the time she gets around to it -it will have been shaped for her.
If she doesn't want to run for president:
Bring on the book deals! Well, maybe she can run opposite Katie Couric on Fox News. In that case this is just fine. However the critics will never go away. And nobody ever wants to spend more time with their family. Ever.
I just don't see her leaving politics.
But if she really wants to get away from the P-Word as usual, own up and say she wants to be President. Every day we don't know is another reason not to vote for her in 2012.
Posted By: The Weesel (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 09:29 AM
She felt like both she and her family had better options available to them than her being Governor of Alaska. So, she quit. Bailed so to speak.
If those options weren't there, she'd still be Governor.
What is so hard to understand about that?
Don't try to read anything else into it. It simply is what it is.
Posted By: RazorLight (Registered) on July 07, 2009 at 10:21 AM
She quit and didn't pick up her mess.
Posted By: Captain_America (Registered) on July 07, 2009 at 12:12 PM
her poll numbers were lowering quite quickly. Oil revenue was drying up in her state (drill baby drill didn't work they way she hoped) while her trips to DC and NYC cost the state a ton of money. The ethics complaints were taking a toll on resources too. She quit when the going got rough. On one side I think she is doing the people of Alaska a favor and the other is she completely left them for greener pastures... I say within 7 months we'll see her with a house in the lower 48.
Posted By: hey now (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 01:33 PM
Last I checked we all have the right of leaving our jobs. I'm sure all the commenters moaning about this on the Internet have never not finished something.
And if this is some sort of character litmus test, just get over it people!!! Even if she did want to run for another office after this gong show, she could govern circles around the lot of ya!
Keep the Palin coverage comin', 411 writers!
Posted By: Trig '12 (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 01:46 PM
Come on Crow, there are plenty of reasons to not like Ms. Palin. As I have always stated, I don't find Palin to be a compelling national figure and that losing vp candidates have not fared well as Presidential candidates.
But comparing your union work with being a lame duck state governor is a bit of a stretch don't you think. Withdrawing from a service that you are not helping but actually hurting is called integrity. Chill-out not saying she is pillar of integrity but come on. If you were infective in negotiating for higher State of California IOU's for the union's members, you would resign.
How many politicians have left an elected post mid-term for better opportunities? More than we can count including the current President. So what?
"she's quitting for more money and time"
In addition to other reasons, that is what I understood her to be saying. She said she needed to be able to pay for her mounting legal bills.
I don't personally know anyone that sees Palin as a credible candidate. Does she have Ron Paul, Ross Perot, Dennis Kasinich or Allen Keys type support. Sure, maybe. But outside of Perot's wallet, none of these candidates had any national legs. I think Arnold's pockets are a bit deeper than the Palins as well don't you think?
California is issuing IOUs and the Federal Government is only a fews years away from similar result, but Palin does provide a nice distraction from Michael Jackson.
When I saw the highway procession on TV today, I thought OJ had escaped.
Posted By: AdmChesterMynutz (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 02:05 PM
Crazy, we don't have problems like this in Canada
The US's solution to this will put more people in jail
Posted By: Kent Baker (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 03:42 PM
Uh, coby preimesberger it's not "Quitting" if the President offers you a new job in his cabinet. That's been tradition as long as the office has had the power.
Quitting, is leaving your office for no apparent reason and deciding you'd rather not do the job that the people elected you for.
Posted By: Jake G (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 05:05 PM
Admiral,
I don't disagree with most of what you said. But there are two points that I'd like to clarify and further:
1. She was not a "lame duck." She was only a lame duck in her own mind. She had decided to leave before her first term was up. Nobody else knew that; she could have easily ran for a second term. "Lame duck" isn't even the right term to use here for this instance. But then, Palin herself brought that up, so I shouldn't be surprised.
2. "How many politicians have left an elected post mid-term for better opportunities?"
Plenty. But none of them did it and then disingenuously called it "leadership." Clearly, it is not. And this is what I was getting at in my last post. If she's leaving for better money and more time, say so. Had she done that, I would have called her a quitter on her state constituents and then left it at that. But she's clearly trying to claim quitting is leadership. It is not.
The only time when quitting is actually leadership is when a leader has been absolutely ineffective and/or even downright detrimental. And they know they've done a lousy job so they're walking away before it gets worse.
Is this what she's saying? is Palin admitting she's been ineffective?
No--she's saying it's true leadership...
That's what I have a problem with.
Posted By: Crow21 (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 09:01 PM
Admiral,
I don't disagree with most of what you said. But there are two points that I'd like to clarify and further:
1. She was not a "lame duck." She was only a lame duck in her own mind. She had decided to leave before her first term was up. Nobody else knew that; she could have easily ran for a second term. "Lame duck" isn't even the right term to use here for this instance. But then, Palin herself brought that up, so I shouldn't be surprised.
2. "How many politicians have left an elected post mid-term for better opportunities?"
Plenty. But none of them did it and then disingenuously called it "leadership." Clearly, it is not. And this is what I was getting at in my last post. If she's leaving for better money and more time, say so. Had she done that, I would have called her a quitter on her state constituents and then left it at that. But she's clearly trying to claim quitting is leadership. It is not.
The only time when quitting is actually leadership is when a leader has been absolutely ineffective and/or even downright detrimental. And they know they've done a lousy job so they're walking away before it gets worse.
Is this what she's saying? is Palin admitting she's been ineffective?
No--she's saying it's true leadership...
That's what I have a problem with.
Posted By: Crow21 (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 09:02 PM
Last I checked we all have the right of leaving our jobs. I'm sure all the commenters moaning about this on the Internet have never not finished something.
And if this is some sort of character litmus test, just get over it people!!! Even if she did want to run for another office after this gong show, she could govern circles around the lot of ya!
Keep the Palin coverage comin', 411 writers!
Posted By: Trig '12 (Guest) on July 07, 2009 at 01:46 PM
Wow. Comparing an elected official abandoning their post to someone leaving their job at the local mill, dept store, or what have you; and then some rah-rah crap thrown in to boot. How do you breathe without someone to tell you to do it?
Posted By: ugh (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 12:51 AM
"Keep in mind she does have a very large family that she may want to spend more time with and keep out of the media spotlight."
Are you crapping me?!?!?! You typed that sentence with a straight face? She has been using her litter of children as campaign and tv exposure fodder from the day she first showed up on TV!
Please tell me you laughed just a little bit when you typed that. I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt that you are not that dense.
Posted By: my brain hurts from you (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 07:47 AM
I can't believe she didn't put over the Lt. Gov. on her way out.
That goes against the whole business.
Sarah screwed Sarah
Posted By: Vince (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 09:05 AM
Sarah Palin is a nationwide laughing stock
And for good reason too
The sooner she is out of the public spot-light the better...all she craves is that "Hollywood" aspect of politics...she doesn't know a damn thing
Posted By: Guest#7690 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 09:10 AM
ugh,
I'd say it was sometime after the doctor pulled me from my uteran home and slapped me - the assault caused irreparable psychological harm. To this day I still can't cry naked in public. Thanks for bringing it up.
Posted By: Trig '12 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 10:58 AM
If she's running for president she needed to get out of the spotlight.
As far as losing experience, she was the governor of one of the least populated states in the country, there's nothing to gain by staying governor, and there's plenty to lose (like being for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it for example).
I recall that Richard Nixon was considered dead in the water before he plucked a relatively obscure columnist named Pat Buchanan to help gameplan his return to the political stage.
Similarly, I think Palin needs to take Bill Kristol up on his obvious desire to run her campaign. Like Kristol or not (and I don't), the fact is that his father, along with Buckley, basically created Modern American Conservatism, and if Palin wanted to run a "core value revival" of American Conservatism, he's probably the man to talk to.
Let's face it, although there are still many people who adhere to conservative principles in this country, hardly anyone still considers the Republican Party to still be caretakers of that legacy. If Palin wants to succeed she needs to have a clean break with the current republican power structure and return to the core values of American Conservatism.
Palin is no intellectual heavyweight, but by staying out of the spotlight, she can hide that by avoiding questions from reporters, and write a book that can establish some intellectual heft for her. It should probably be titled something along the lines of "A Return to Real America."
Then turn up in 2010 making speeches for a select group of Republicans. It'll seem fresh because she'd been gone for a about a year, and she can help people out by energizing the base (which will probably be the key to winning seats in the midterms. American politics have changed a lot, but not so much that we'll see another record midterm turnout like '06). She can rack up some political capital inside the Republican party which she can use to jumpstart a presidential bid starting in '11.
That seems to be the gamplan and it may work or not, but Palin is not a conventional candidate, and she'll never win by trying to be one.
The Republican Party is starving for leadership right now, and if anyone has a chance to fill that vacuum, Palin can do it. She's always been more valuable for what she represents than who she is, and the Republican Party needs to embrace what she represents if it ever hopes to climb back to relevancy.
BTW, take that whole thing with a grain of salt, cause I'm an ultra left-wing liberal who is salivating at the prospect of Palin challenging Obama in 2012, because I don't think she has a snowballs chance in hell of beating him.
Posted By: dipstick jimmy (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 01:38 PM
I'd say it was sometime after the doctor pulled me from my uteran home and slapped me - the assault caused irreparable psychological harm. To this day I still can't cry naked in public. Thanks for bringing it up.
Posted By: Trig '12 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Someone on the right says bullshit, it gets dismissed with logic, then they respond with jokes or something similar, never facts or logic.
Posted By: Guest#7177 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 02:00 PM
I'd say it was sometime after the doctor pulled me from my uteran home and slapped me - the assault caused irreparable psychological harm. To this day I still can't cry naked in public. Thanks for bringing it up.
Posted By: Trig '12 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Someone on the right says bullshit, it gets dismissed with logic, then they respond with jokes or something similar, never facts or logic.
Posted By: Guest#7177 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 02:00 PM
Yup!!
Posted By: Trig '12 (Guest) on July 08, 2009 at 06:21 PM
STAY CURRENT