A day later, the Palin speech is still one of the most bizarre events in politics that one can remember. (Mark Sanford's cri de coeur is a close second.) It's still unclear if she's out of politics for good and if she's not whether she has irreparably harmed her chances of running for higher office.
Yesterday, a couple of wise readers noted that Bob Dole quit the Senate in the course of his 1996 presidential bid. But that was well after his bid was underway and it represented a belief that one could not manage the Senate and run for president simutaneously. Dole not only quit his majority leader post but also resigned from the Senate. Eisenhower, as I noted, was just a few months shy of the GOP presidential nomination in 1952 when he ditched his NATO command. Today, the New York Times likened Palin to Nixon in 1962. But that seems like a strained analogy. After losing the 1960 presidential race to John F. Kennedy, Nixon made a bid to be governor of California and it was only after losing that race that he famously said that the press corps wouldn't have him "to kick around anymore." He then spent six years rebuilding his political career. Palin, as the Times notes, doesn't have a scintilla of Nixon's experience as House member, Senator and vice president. In fact, if you compare her to Dan Quayle, who served in the House, eight years in the Senate and four years as vice president, she's still lacking.
I guess I still wonder if this all has to do with needing money and believing that more legal trouble awaits her. But as a strategy for running for president in 2012 it's bizarre, at best. She can't claim to be a one-term governor. Her reason for bolting: She's not seeking reelection and thus doesn't want to be a lame-duck leech on the taxpayers seems bizarre. As Kevin Drum notes, "OK, Sarah doesn't want to junket around the country as a lame duck. Fine. But can't she just, you know, diligently do her job instead?" It's a good question.
While looking for precedents to Sarah Palin's leaving the job, what has been overlooked is her own history. She resigned her position on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to become governor a few years later. Her past experience could lead her to beleive that, as before, rather than trying to prove her competency by doing a grinding and mundane job every day, she can just move on to higher job by getting the politics right. Also, as she has shown to have good gut for politics, she might have thought that she cannot be president in 2012 or even 2016 but can be a strong candidate for GOP nomination whether or not she remins governor. So why not enjoy all the money and influence that she can get now
Palin is done. The media is being too generous to her, as usual. Palin quit the only job that would qualify her for higher office. She quit in a way that raises questions about her mental stability. Sure the wingnuts don't care, but you really think moderate Republicans and Independents will support a quitter with barely any experience? Also, you think Palin can withstand two years of debates, town halls, and interviews. The woman does not have good people around her and does not listen to her handlers anyway. She also has no platform of ideas.
Lolis is definitely right. The mainstream media has consistently gone easy on Sarah Palin.
P.S. Does what Lolis wrote sound like something, say, a low-level BHO operative would write to anyone else?
No, but does yours look like something a low-level Palin operative might write with links and all?
Thanks for the confusion, but I'm not affiliated with any party, politician, group, etc.
The reason I included the P.S. is because, going back several months, the Atlantic has been receiving a large number of comments that appear to be from amateur or professional sockpuppets. For instance, back when Hillary was in the running, several people who identified themselves as 50-something white women all suddenly appeared on one Marc Ambinder thread and left comments supporting Obama. That was hardly an isolated incident, and if the Atlantic has kept their logs it might be interesting to know whether they can spot any interesting patterns, such as people leaving comments using the same Chicago IP but different names, people commenting from law firms linked to BHO, etc. etc. (For instance, one PR firm that had links to Axelrod tried to start an anti-Palin viral video some months back.)
Fair enough, 24. Pardon my comment.
I have only two question: what the hell was she strung out on during that news conference, and how long until she's admitted to Betty Ford?
This speech cliches it. Palin is a moron. I loved how she threw in RANDOM keywords into her speech... like 'Support our Soldiers' 'American Economy' haha.
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