I've watched the entire 18+ minutes of her resignation announcement, and I have to say that it was off the charts weird, even for Sarah Palin. Jittery, nervous, nonsensical, the speech, if you can characterize it as such, rambled all over the map, in the end, failing to do what it was intended - give some sort of coherent rationale for leaving the governor's office well before her term ended. I read the first transcript before it was pulled from the Alaska government web site, and it was full of air quotes, fully capitalized words, and lots of exclamation marks, often bunched all together to keep warm.
My personal feeling is this was prompted by several things - boredom with her job, harsh criticism of her job performance and from the presidential campaign, a desire to cash in on her name, and likely a way of minimizing some sort of incoming ethics scandal, presumably one rather serious as she has been wildly successful at utilizing the organs of the state of Alaska to exonerate herself from wrongdoing in all previous complaints against her. That last may prove the killing blow, but we'll have to wait and see.
And the presidency? Never rule it out. Rachel asked me after I told her Palin was resigning if I thought she could still run and win in 2012 against an incumbent Obama. And I paused, because my gut answer - "shit no!" - isn't all that clear. The country is in deep shit, and so far, despite the talk of "green shoots" there are no concrete signs of recovery. Imagine things are this bad when Republican primaries get set to jump off, and she could conceivably not only become the nominee, but win if conditions remain poor or get worse.
Know-nothing populism can be a very powerful force to people caught in the midst of a gigantic shit storm apparently without an end in sight. The electorate would eventually regret handing someone so clearly unfit for high office that much power, but the damage she could wreak while she held the reigns is almost unimaginable. Her gleeful, prideful ignorance is awesomely dangerous when hitched to the power of the presidency.
In the short term, expect to see her on the Wingnut Welfare circuit, giving talks for 10-20k a pop, getting her book published, making all sorts of appearances as a way to position herself for 2012, even if she ultimately decides not to run.
She is addicted to exposure, fame, and the idea of power.
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