Palin Wonders Why Sudden Resignation is Such a “Darn Big Deal?”
7 07 2009After Friday’s stunning announcement that in a few weeks she is quitting the governorship, 18 months before her first term is up, Sarah Palin has gone fishin’. Kate Snow from ABC News has caught up with her near Dillingham, where Palin told her that she didn’t understand why the sudden resignation of a first term sitting governor who is rumored to be a contender for her party’s presidential nominee in the next election cycle is “such a darn big deal.” Really.
You can see the video clip from ABC News HERE.
Palin: Conditions have really changed in Alaska in the political arena since Aug. 29, since I was tapped to run for VP. When that opposition research just – those researchers bombarded Alaska — started digging for dirt and have not let up. They’re not gonna find any dirt,” she said. “We keep proving that every time we win an ethics violation or a lawsuit, and we won every one of them. But it has been costing our state millions of dollars. It’s cost Todd and me. You know the adversaries would love to see us put on the path of personal bankruptcy so that we can’t afford to run.”
I’m assuming by “opposition researchers” she means “journalists.” The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and scads of other media outlets, like most of the country on August 29th said, “Sarah Who?” And go figure, they came to Alaska to find out.
Snow: Why not just stick with it?
Palin: Because that’s politics as usual.
Ah.
Snow: A lot of governors face hardships.
Palin: They do! You don’t just embrace the status quo going, “You know, I’m gonna just muster through a lame duck session. Sure we won’t get anything done but…” kinda milk it is what most politicians do I guarantee you. I don’t need a title to be the one to usher in what needs to be done in our state and in our country.
Snow: Are you running for president in 2012?
Palin: Don’t know what the future holds. I’m not going to shut any door that … who knows what doors open. Can’t predict what the next fish run’s going to look like down on the Nushagak, so I certainly can’t predict what’s going to happen in a couple years.
Snow: Are you happy?
Palin: I’m extremely happy! I know that I know that I know this is the right thing for Alaska.
Snow: Is it possible, governor, that this could be the end of your political career?
Palin: I said before, I stood in front of the mic the other day “You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it.”
That last quote came from an event here in Anchorage in which she introduced Michael Reagan at a speaking engagement. Here is that quote in context from June 4.
Let me ask you why is it considering how fast the world is spinning and world changing events that go on all over the globe that do affect our lives, world changing events, thousands of them every day, why do you suppose that it’s the same big three supposedly competing networks that have the same news content every night and virtually the same exact viewpoint being spewed night after night after night. We’ve gotta ask those questions. So I join you in speaking up and asking the questions and taking action, and here at home in my beloved Alaska I just say, politically speaking, if I die, I die.
Ironic that ABC News, one of those “supposedly competing” networks that “spew” the same viewpoint night after night, according to Palin, is the one she invited to come pick fish with her.
Does the reference to the “If I die, I die” quote that happened more than a month ago mean we can assume that Palin began thinking about throwing in the towel prior to June 4? If so, it raises new questions about why the hastily called press conference with less than 2 hours notice minutes before 5:00pm on the east coast on the Friday of a holiday weekend when Todd had to pack up and fly in from Dillingham 300 miles away? Why not 2 weeks ago? Why not 2 weeks from now? Why not the safest decision; 18 months from now?
There aren’t many people who buy the rationale that Palin doesn’t want to be a lame duck, when she’s a lame duck of her own making. “I have decided to become a lame duck, and as a lame duck I would succumb to the temptations of not doing a good job, therefore I am stepping down.”
As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between the White House and what she had experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the “department of law” would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.
“I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,” she said.
There is no “Department of Law” at the White House.
Another ‘palms on face’ moment for the state of Alaska. Government. It’s just so darned complicated sometimes.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:17 PM
How can SP nominate someone to a non-vacant position? The governor at the time of the vacancy gets to make an appointment, which needs to be confirmed.
Ok…that’s clear as can be to me. Oh…*thumps head with left hand* (gotta save the right for typing – I can type one handed at over 40 wpm, timed/certified!)…we’re dealing with the bailin’ one…
Never mind….
July 7th, 2009 at 7:19 PM
Time for Letterman….5-4-3-2-1….
July 7th, 2009 at 7:24 PM
I have never posted before, but I found Mudflats after Palin was picked by Mcshrub. Watch Letterman, the top ten tonight is messages left on Palin’s answering machine … should be good !
July 7th, 2009 at 7:26 PM
…and paranoia sets in after hours on the computer…
The Alaska Limited Entry Commission website appears to have suddenly and abruptly gone down. Like, just since the interest in Todd’s skiff. Huh.
No problem at all and now, nothing. Won’t load, IE error messages. All the other pages in the portal will load, but just not that one.
At the point that I can get on there, if changes were made to commercial fishing data that I already saw, it’ll be obvious. That would be scary.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Letterman:
Obama waved to Palin from Russia….
Palin waved goodbye to Russia….
Puzzled FOLKS – Octo-mom?!?!?!?!
Palin called “KABOOM” Cheney for strategic maneuvering help….
Friends say Palin leaving due to attacks: Thank God I didn’t (Letterman sez)….
July 7th, 2009 at 7:36 PM
Coming up: top 10 involving SP’s answering machine….
July 7th, 2009 at 7:39 PM
KACHEMAK Bay
(Head hung in shame as I pull a Buttercup!)
July 7th, 2009 at 7:52 PM
Top 10 SP answering machine messages…going to fast to get them all…
callers: GWB, McCain, Sanford, dry cleaners, sarah herself, Arnold,
1 McCain: WHo’d ahve thought you’d retire before I do!!!!!!!!!
July 7th, 2009 at 8:39 PM
To get a better handle on how to bold and italicize you can visit here. It’s called HTML.
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_formatting.asp
July 7th, 2009 at 9:13 PM
Palin is congenitally stupid. She has these hazy, murky, dimly formed ideas floating around inside the vast emptiness between her ears. When she opens her mouth, words kind of tumble out with no particular relationship to one another and right before our eyes, they congeal into meaningless gobbledygook. She likes to string together meaningless chains of jargon or platitudes (”lame duck,” “status quo,” etc.) whose meanings elude her. In so doing she believes that she imparts an air of intelligence. She isn’t smart enough to realize that it makes her seem even more inept.
What makes Palin so dangerous is that she co-mingles ignorance and arrogance in fairly equal proportions.
Winston Churchill summed up Palin without ever knowing her:
“We know that [she] has, more than any other [person], the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.”
Amen, Winnie.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:19 PM
Palin Press Release
For Immediate Release.
The Palin Administration, 2012: To put an end to all the frivolous rumors by bloggers and such, also, and in fulfilling my pledge to be a maverick and to reform there the federal government (from now on to be known only as “the feds”), too, I will make the following changes to how “the feds” will be structured, also:
The Palin Cabinet
Department of Law
Department of the Interior — to protect the inside of buildings
Department of Shoppin’
Department of Presidential Office of Denials
Department of Illegitimate Baby Affairs
Department of Tin Foil
Department of Secession Equity
Department of Oil
Department of Russia Watchin’
Department of Limitin’ Words Endin’ in ‘G’
Department of Huntin’ n Fishin’
Department of Money
Department of Food
Department of Wars
Department of Schoolin’
Department of Fancy Pageant Walkin’
Department of Redundancy
Department of Ministry of Love and the Ministry of Truth
Department of Nastiness and Pettiness
Department of just ice — to keep drinks cold
Department of Homeland Security — to install burglar alarms
Department of Latest Fashion — for my wardrobe (and my family)
Department of Curly Locks — for my hair
Also, too:
The Secret Service — to prevent anyone from learning my secrets
The Bureau of Bureaus — responsible for the White House furniture
July 7th, 2009 at 9:25 PM
Gasman says:
“What makes Palin so dangerous is that she co-mingles ignorance and arrogance in fairly equal proportions.”
Actually, what makes her so dangerous is every time she opens her mouth, the national media gives her prime time attention! Why are they scratching their heads about why she quit? She is an idiot! Period. Sure, nice that she got to go fishing while the news media spent the 4th trying to figure her out. Why bother. In her infantile mind, she probably quit just to get more fishing time in. Maybe the national media needs to take that into consideration. Knowing her, it is just as possible as any other reason.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:24 PM
@ Pacificnwgal #301
“Why are they scratching their heads about why she quit? She is an idiot!”
—————————————–
LOL. You nailed it, gal.
Picture a very average third-grader trying to explain Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity…..and then picture a group of teachers standing around trying to make sense of the explanation.
Essentially this is what the pundits are doing. Trying to make sense of gobbledygook coming out of the mouth of someone who doesn’t even know herself what she’s talking about.
I don’t know who sounds more stupid. Palin or the pundits
She quit for one or a combination of the following reasons: 1) Fear of/ forced by upcoming legal problems 2) She’s an habitual quitter who’s not having fun anymore 3) Greed.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:38 PM
C. Rock–I think, though am not sure, that she quit being a sports reporter when she got pregnant and married?
July 8th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
I say that we start calling Van Flein ‘Van Phlegm’.
Anyone got a kleenex? I’m all phlugged up.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Sorry to post so late–I hope folks are still stopping in. The WSJ today had an article about Palin’s overboard jump from the ship of state, and I suspect it will be just the continuation of an ugly Bush-era trend: the trashing of government safeguards for it’s citizens, that help maintain transparency and bring to light those aggregious actions that need to be addressed. No other than Karl Rove is weighing in on the Freedom of Information Act. Those pesky laws. . .they get in the way of a fella just wanting to run government for his own benefit. Be vigilant, Mudpups. This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Article link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124700261179807839.html
July 8th, 2009 at 12:30 AM
@ NYHawk 307
——————————-
Great list!
My humble additions:
Department of My Treasures-ury (per diems, travel expenses, wardrobe, tiaras)
Infernal Rebel-News Service (staying connected with my red-neck buds)
Federal Burros of Infestations (jack asses for cleaning out sinful populations in large cities)
White House Breast Corp (emphasizes all things of mammary importance; headed by Carrie Prejean)
Department of Labor and Precipitous Delivery (leaking amniotic fluid, Hush hush. Nuff said).
Department of Rapture Transportation (progressin’ those end times; beam-me-uppers, Scotties))
Department of Edumacacion (headed by Piper when she’s not baby-sitting Trig)
Double-Jointed Chiefs of Staff Cheerleaders. (for me. for me. yay!)
July 8th, 2009 at 5:13 AM
YOU”RE NOT LISTENING TO ME….can you hear me now…OMIGod Palin got good and pissed 2:44.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/07/olbermann-tackles-palins_n_227471.html
July 8th, 2009 at 5:17 AM
AHaHaHaHa, Keith,
“She is LAZY and IGNORANT”.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:44 PM
#299 Breta…screaming from the room..
Chortle..just couldn’t resist….
but it WOULD fit her definition of not being in politics, would it not ? Appointed, not elected…and oooohhhh the junkets she could take with someone ELSE doing all those boring meetings…..