For the first time in history, a Palin has pulled out early.

HAY-OOOOOOOO

7/4/2009 12:07:22 PM

nutsmackr:

Quote :

"Supplanter, please quit posting BlueNC as if they have a fucking clue what is going on."

I only referenced that site only once & only to point out that it hadn't occurred to me that this announcement happened during the Friday evening news dump time period until someone else pointed it out first.

I'll try to restrain myself from going so overboard next time.

[Edited on July 4, 2009 at 12:38 PM. Reason : .]

7/4/2009 12:37:37 PM

whoever this schmidt guy is in the cbs article a few posts back...he sounds like a smart fellow

7/4/2009 1:43:07 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/07/04/sarah-palin-outsmarts-left/

Quote :

"Sarah Palin Outsmarts the Left Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska is a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement. The biggest problem with her responsibility as Governor of Alaska is that the state is so far away from the rest of America. No one hears of the good work she has been doing there, and the left is free to paint their own false caricature of her. And because of the long distance and her family, as well as governing, responsibilities, she can get down to the lower-48 enough to build her national political presence. I am hoping she spends two weeks of every month now touring the states doing fundraisers for a the sweeping Republican revival in 2010 that is now developing. I hope she establishes a new national grassroots organization to fight for conservative causes. And I hope she starts a new national think tank in Washington. She could pick up the mantle for social conservatism for the late Paul Weyrich in Washington, reinvigorating the pro-life cause and defense of traditional values. She could advocate sane, grown up energy policies through these organizations, favoring increased production of traditional as well as alternative energy, including nuclear power, while opposing fruitcake ideas like cap- and-trade taxes, and runaway corporate welfare that would bring back Jimmy Carter's synfuels. She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs. Here's hoping as well that she devotes these organizations to advancing the economics of Milton Friedman, Art Laffer, and Jack Kemp, rather than the outdated, failed economics of John Maynard Keynes that Obama advocates as if there was never any alternative. She should also be a new staunch advocate for peace through strength, and rebuilding our nuclear deterrent, rather than Obama's policy of nuclear disarmament. And here's hoping she becomes a powerful new voice for Israel, making new alliances with Jewish voters. If she does all that, the left won't be making jokes about her any more, just like they stopped joking about Ronald Reagan long about 1984, and Newt Gingrich in 1994. Peter Ferrara served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under the first President Bush."

bwahaha

[Edited on July 4, 2009 at 1:48 PM. Reason : .]

7/4/2009 1:47:56 PM

i recommend she follows that guy's advice. run a campaign against mercury poison bulbs

7/4/2009 1:51:40 PM

Agreed. It could be as successful as that campaign against fluoride in drinking water.

7/4/2009 2:25:06 PM

Palin needs a speech writer.....

7/4/2009 2:47:53 PM

Quote :

"MERCURY POISON LIGHTBULBS"

[Edited on July 4, 2009 at 4:03 PM. Reason : .]

7/4/2009 4:03:17 PM

possible embezzlement scandal? it is think progress, but i'm curious to see how it plays out.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/03/palin-hockey-arena-scandal/

Quote :

"Max Blumental reports on The Daily Beast that Sarah Palin may have quit her job today because she was trying to avert a major, yet-to-be-disclosed corruption scandal. The gist of the rumor is that an Alaska building company called Spenard Building Supplies (SBS) was awarded a contract by Palin to build a hockey arena in Wasilla, AK, and in return, SBS helped construct Palin’s home: Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide open state. SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information. Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an addition $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow. Alaska bloggers have reported in recent weeks that “a long simmering embezzelment/IRS scandal is still being looked at by the feds.” In her press conference today, Palin asked the public to “trust me with this decision and know that it is no more politics as usual.” But she also bemoaned “political operatives” who have “descended on Alaska” to investigate “all sorts of frivolous ethics violations.” Palin said this “politics of personal destruction” was one of the key motivating factors behind her decision today. UpdateAlaska blogger Shannyn Moore writes, "For weeks the rumors of a criminal investigation against the governor have been brewing. They are rumors, but are swirling fresh again with Palin's resignation. I'm holding my breath for the other 'Naughty Monkey' to drop.""

7/4/2009 4:31:09 PM

Bitch is crazy.

Anybody hailing this as the move of some misunderstood genius is totally delusional. McCain "suspended" his campaign in the middle of a national crisis and rightly faced a never-ending hailstorm of derision. Palin is quitting her job as a sitting governor for no apparent good reason -- what reaction does she deserve?

As to protecting her family -- she chose to put herself in the national political spotlight, and to seek national responsibility. She contradicted herself on the degree to which her family was taken into consideration when making that pivotal decision. But the decision was hers. As the commander in chief of the U.S. military, would she believe it's OK to quit for the sake of her family while brave men and women are dying on the front lines, thereby destroying their own families?

Partisan hacks like Glenn Reynolds, who claims to be libertarian while supporting this marauding nut case, say she's been the subject of an unusual amount of abuse from the national press and the liberal media. So what? As far as I'm aware, she wanted to put herself in the position to become chief executive of this nation, a job that puts you in the line of fire of would-be assassins, into the middle of war zones, and negotiating with despots and mullahs.

Now she's said to everybody that she can't handle the job of governing a state with a tiny population, for a few more months.

Cry me a fucking river. I hope she's gone for good.

7/4/2009 6:19:57 PM

i think dems would have to be delusional to think shes done with elected office. but i'm with ^ in that i wish she was gone for good. i think she does this country more harm than good.

7/4/2009 6:23:25 PM

^^^ Yeah that's the most likely explanation I've seen so far.

7/4/2009 7:54:33 PM

doesn't surprise me at all that palin is the type of politician that would abuse her powers. She always seemed to be an egomaniacal asshole.

7/4/2009 9:39:22 PM

She actually wanted more time to work on her own line of moose chili and burger

7/4/2009 11:25:01 PM

^some of us dont subscribe to "drive by media weekly"

7/4/2009 11:36:13 PM

Maureen Dowd crushed her in the NYT this morning.

Quote :

" Sarah Palin showed on Friday that in one respect at least, she is qualified to be president. Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy. Usually we don’t find that exquisite battiness in our leaders until they’ve been battered by sordid scandals like Watergate (Nixon), gnawing problems like Vietnam (L.B.J.), or scary threats like biological terrorism (Cheney). When Lyndon Johnson was president, some of his staff began to think of him as “a sick man,” as Bill Moyers told Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Moyers and his fellow Johnson aide Dick Goodwin even began reading up on mental illness — Bill on manic depression and Dick on paranoia. And so it was, Todd Purdum learned, as he traveled Alaska reporting on Palin for Vanity Fair, that the governor’s erratic and egoistic behavior has been a source of concern for people there. “Several told me, independently of one another,” Purdum writes, “that they had consulted the definition of ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy’ — and thought it fit her perfectly.” The White House can drive its inhabitants loopy. So at least Sarah Palin is ahead of the curve on that one. As Alaskans settled in to enjoy holiday salmon bakes and the post-solstice thaw, their governor had a solipsistic meltdown so strange it made Sparky Sanford look like a model of stability. On the shore of Lake Lucille, with wild fowl honking and the First Dude smiling, with Piper in the foreground and their Piper Cub in the background, the woman who took the Republican Party by storm only 10 months ago gave an incoherent, breathless and prickly stream of consciousness to a small group in her Wasilla yard. Gobsmacked Alaska politicians, Republican big shots, the national press, her brother, the D.C. lawyer who helped create her political action committee and yes, even Fox News, played catch-up. What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued: Sarah wanted everyone to know that she’s not having fun and people are being mean to her and she doesn’t feel like finishing her first term as governor. She can hunt wolves from the air and field-dress a moose, but she fears being a lame duck? Some brickbats over her ethics and diva turns as John McCain’s running mate, and that dewy skin turns awfully thin. Maybe there’s another red Naughty Monkey high heel to drop — there’s often a hidden twist in Sarah’s country-music melodramas. Or is this a reckless high-speed escape from small-pond Alaska, where her popularity is dropping, to the big time Below? Even some conservative analysts admitted that the governor’s move seemed ga-ga before venturing the spin that Palin might be “crazy like a fox,” as Sarah’s original cheerleader, Bill Kristol, put it. Maybe, Kristol mused, she could use the 18 months she would have spent finishing her term to write her book and study up on the issues for 2012. Why not? Palin/Sanford in 2012, with the slogan: “Save time — we’re already in Crazy Town.” Palin’s speech is classic casuistry. After girlish burbling about how “progressing our state” and serving Alaska “is the greatest honor that I could imagine,” and raving about how much she loves her job, she abruptly announced that she was making the ultimate sacrifice: dumping the state on her lieutenant. Why “milk it,” as she put it, when you can quit it? “Only dead fish go with the flow,” she said, while cold fish can blow out of town. Leaving Alaska in the lurch is best for Alaska. She can better “effect change” in government from outside government. She can fulfill her promise of “efficiencies and effectiveness” by deserting Juneau midway through her term — and taking her tanning bed with her. “We need those who will respect our Constitution,” said Palin, who swore on the Bible to uphold the Constitution. She said she can’t fulfill that silly old oath of office in the usual way because she’s not “wired to operate under the same old politics as usual.” Naturally, she dragged the troops in, saying that her trip to see wounded soldiers overseas “fortified” her decision to give up because “they don’t give up.” She refuses to succumb to the “politics of personal destruction.” It’s no fun unless she’s the one aiming those poison darts, as she did when she accused Barack Obama of associating “with terrorists who targeted their own country.” Sometimes, she explained, if you’re the star, you have to “call an audible and pass the ball” and leave at halftime, “so the team can win” somehow without you. The maverick must run free when greener pastures beckon. The musher must jump out of the dogsled when warmer climes call. As Palin’s spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, says, “The world is literally her oyster.” But just remember, beloved Alaska, it’s all about you. "

7/5/2009 10:50:26 AM

hahaha that foxnews article had me rolling

Quote :

"She could pick up the mantle for social conservatism for the late Paul Weyrich in Washington, reinvigorating the pro-life cause and defense of traditional values. She could advocate sane, grown up energy policies through these organizations, favoring increased production of traditional as well as alternative energy, including nuclear power, while opposing fruitcake ideas like cap- and-trade taxes, and runaway corporate welfare that would bring back Jimmy Carter's synfuels. She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs."

did they just seriously use the words fruitcake and grown up policies in an article and expect to be taken seriously? also the light bulb thing was a nice touch at the end of this paragraph of crazy.

[Edited on July 5, 2009 at 11:10 AM. Reason : ah it is an opinion article..]

7/5/2009 11:08:50 AM

Fox News has done a good job recently of hiding when an article is an editorial and when it's an actual article.

7/5/2009 11:16:18 AM

^^

Someone sensible ought to seriously oppose the CFL mandate. I don't think it should be her, but someone ought to.

[Edited on July 5, 2009 at 11:20 AM. Reason : foo]

7/5/2009 11:20:01 AM

The mercury in CFL's is a somewhat overstated, but real, concern.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

That site has a good summary of the realities about them. The question about whether the reduction in emissions and ground level ozone would potentially outweigh mercury exposure concerns is still an open one.

Of course, the question would be rendered moot if LED light bulbs were more affordable.

7/5/2009 11:42:58 AM

hey hey hey, this thread is for palin's epic fail. the merits of opposing mercury poison bulbs can go in its own thread

7/5/2009 11:52:18 AM

Most people have fluorescent bulbs in their house already, that contain mercury.

7/5/2009 11:53:54 AM

Most people have fluorescent bulbs in their house already, that contain mercury.

7/5/2009 11:53:54 AM

^^^^

What you've posted is entirely in line with everything I've read about CFLs previously, and it's still entirely nuts, and ought to give everybody second thoughts about using them. Seriously, read what the EPA says: you have to clear everybody out of the room, ventilate it, and shut off your central air BEFORE cleaning it. You can't use a vacuum.

Dude, this is a fucking LIGHT BULB. You shouldn't have to clear out a goddamned room if one breaks to avoid mercury poisoning. And keep in mind, most of the analysis about the "real" impacts of the CFL's mercury involve the "average" case scenario where a single bulb breaks.

But moving on from that -- look, this is ridiculous. If somebody wants to hazard mercury poisoning or what have you from a CFL, that's fine by me. But it should be a matter of choice.

What Congress has done is the household equivalent of phasing out all cars on the market and requiring that everybody drive a Prius. They "sell" it to the consumer with egregious statements like "well, it'll save you energy! It'll cost less!"

Hey, guess what? Some of us, we really don't freaking care about how much our light bulbs cost us in terms of energy. Some of us, we make enough money that if we spend an extra couple of bucks for that glorious incandescent glow, we can pay it. Some of us, we grew up in a free country where we have the choice between an SUV and a Prius, and we buy depending on our tastes and budget. Some of us, we don't need a nanny government limiting our choices and telling us how to save energy whether we want to or not.

This is egregious; even if the CFLs were powered by magical Jesus Juice it'd be bad government policy to strip the market of any options for consumers. Capitalism works by giving people choices and letting prices control how those choices are made. This is pretty basic stuff. And if the logic here is "saving the planet" -- which is what the arguments for it boil down to -- please, do tell me, where is the line in regulating household consumption from the Congress down? I don't see it. You can justify anything in the name of saving the planet.

[Edited on July 5, 2009 at 11:55 AM. Reason : foo]

7/5/2009 11:55:13 AM

^ the issue of choice, and the issue of mercury are completely separate issues.

It's ridiculous to be afraid of the mercury in a CFL, especially since you have to break it to be concerned. I've never in my life broken a bulb, and if I did, i'd imagine the shards of glass would be of a bigger concern than the tiny amount of mercury. Not to mention CFL generally have thicker glass walls than regular incancesdents.

7/5/2009 12:12:43 PM

wow didnt mean to start this shit storm... i was just mentioning it because it was a random ass tangent at the end of a dumbass paragraph.

7/5/2009 12:24:56 PM

The problem isn't personal exposure to a single broken bulb (or even multiple bulbs over a lifetime).

The problem is the accumulation of mercury in land fills.

7/5/2009 1:14:51 PM

from digg
http://wonkette.com/409650/insane-sarah-palin-late-at-night-on-july-4-threatens-to-sue-entire-internet-via-twitter

Quote :

" TRAIN WRECKS Insane Sarah Palin, Late At Night On July 4, Threatens To Sue Entire Internet, Via Twitter 'Now when all the clowns that you have commissioned, Have died in battle or in vain, And you're sick of all this repetition, Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?' How did you spend the Fourth of July? Maybe having a BBQ with friends and family, watching a fireworks show, and generally enjoying a happy patriotic holiday? Batshit-insane American Quitter Sarah Palin ended her own special “Independence Day” by posting a series of desperate grammar-challenged nonsense and vicious threats on her Facebook and Twitter pages. Really. (Also: Sarah, you idiot, when do you plan to give up your Twitter name AKGovSarahPalin? Because, you know, you just quit being governor ….) It is unwise to dwell on the past or be obsessed with an unknown future, but we should all appreciate the wonderful present — a present in which Sarah Palin is nothing more than a punchline. Because, had things gone very differently in November, this dangerous delusional numbskull would’ve been just an Ambien overdose away from the presidency. Thank you, America, for steering clear of the Sarah Palin disaster. So, after crazily quitting her elected position as governor of Alaska, via an alarming backyard last-minute press conference void of any explanation , at the classic 4 p.m. hour of the Friday-Holiday news dump, Sarah Palin is now twatting on the twitter about how her Anchorage attorneys are going to SUE THE AMERICAN MEDIA, for saying “WTF?” Honestly, this is what Sarah Palin twatted on Saturday Night, July 4th, Independence Day, in America. Her link goes to (of course) Scientologist nut and sub-literate weirdo Greta Van Susteren’s blog on FoxNews.com, where Greta has helpfully (?) posted seven pages of legal threats from Palin’s lawyers, although you can’t actually read beyond the first vague page of whining bullshit, because Greta/Fox can’t figure out how to operate the Internet. But, from other websites, we gather Palin’s lawyers plan lawsuits against MSNBC, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, individual bloggers in Alaska, and other such anti-Palin forces such as “rain on your wedding day” and static cling. Just go read this entire Anchorage Daily News article, which is hilarious. Sarah Palin, a snowbilly grifter who spent her entire adult life desperately trying to become a Public Figure, apparently wants her attorneys to stupidly and pointlessly threaten American practitioners of free speech regarding our public figures and elected officials. Happy fourth of July, you daft racist moron!"

http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/07/04/from-palins-lawyer/comment-page-7/?action=late-new
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/04/palin-facebook-message-sl_n_225772.html

haha holy shit, read the comments from the gretawire link

[Edited on July 5, 2009 at 1:18 PM. Reason : .]

7/5/2009 1:17:08 PM

oh shit, there are some gems there

Quote :

"If there is one more insult wailed at Sarah or her family, I am going to POP! I am so, so, very happy that the independent and clever Sarah has shown her independence. She is above the fray of Washington elites. And from San Francisco to Scranton let freedom ring. And she has become one of the real superstars and I hope that she won't need too but if insulted and her family is defame in one single way....SUE SUE SUEDIO!! Please, this country is disgraceful the treatment they have manifested towards, YOU! It urks the left and they are tiny parasites with no true journalistic abilities to see what you have accomplished casting party lines aside. Thank you, Sarah!!!"

Quote :

"nasty world mad world.Mrs pahlin is an american true and good. bo however and that mob are the total opposite. congress and senate total mess and self serving. . Shes gonna do something and I cant wait.If she connects with anyone of our reps, now,you can bet they are the good guys. She will start the ball rolling.Someone has to take the lead. I do believe she will be the one to start a serious revolt on this corrupt sick and intimidating grossly abhorant white house. I dont give a damn what color this creep is he is a menace to all americans and christians."

Quote :

"Gov. Palin made a difficult decision. Politically, her speech was brilliant, a sad day for Alaska, liberty for PALIN."

Quote :

"I want to see Palin in Playboy, so we can finally see what's under all that stupid."

Quote :

"If a blogger can get to her this bad, I'm sure glad she's no where near the most powerful and stressful position in the world."

Quote :

"The queen of ignorant, ugly americans has stepped down. God Bless America!! no trailer trash,jerry springer family should ever come close to the White House."

Quote :

"GO PITBULL WITH LIPSTICK!!!!! I love the comment below about the Pitbull is off leash, and out! Go Sarah, we AMERICANS need YOU!!!!! Don't back down, Pitbulls fight til the end! and I do believe the evil people attacking you and your family will be brought down"

7/5/2009 1:47:32 PM

Quote :

"^ the issue of choice, and the issue of mercury are completely separate issues."

Are you nuts? COMPLETELY separate? The government FORCES everybody to use bulbs that have explicitly dangerous characteristics and that has NOTHING at all to do with the issue of choice? What planet are you from!?

Quote :

"i was just mentioning it because it was a random ass tangent at the end of a dumbass paragraph."

Well, I think some issues are symbolic, and so I disagree that it's just a "random ass tangent." The Democratic congress is systematically pushing a domestic agenda that some might call "elitist" from the top down. The CFL issue is emblematic of what the GOP ought to be fighting like Hell against: a real and immediate deprivation of consumer choice, not an abstract issue like the deficit.

Sarah Palin is actually a pretty good stump speaker, and she could make an effective grassroots campaigner against issues like CFL, card check, cap and trade, etc. She shouldn't be let anywhere near the executive office or any office with real importance. But as a media personality, her cachet could prove very influential.

7/5/2009 2:06:40 PM

except for the fact that she can't think on her feet.

7/5/2009 2:15:22 PM

CFLs are a non-issue. The phase out date is well beyond when the manufacturers said they were going to stop making them anyway.

7/5/2009 2:16:16 PM

Quote :

"posted seven pages of legal threats from Palin’s lawyers, although you can’t actually read beyond the first vague page of whining bullshit, because Greta/Fox can’t figure out how to operate the Internet."

lol

[Edited on July 5, 2009 at 2:44 PM. Reason : .]

7/5/2009 2:44:07 PM

Quote :

"Are you nuts? COMPLETELY separate? The government FORCES everybody to use bulbs that have explicitly dangerous characteristics and that has NOTHING at all to do with the issue of choice? What planet are you from!? "

You are drastically overstating the mercury hazard from CFLs. You could very likely make a milkshake out of your CFL and nothing would happen to you regarding mercury poisoning. Not to mention the likelihood of your exposure to mercury is extremely low, just from having CFLs. Millions and millions of CFLs have been sold, and maybe billions of fluorescent lights have been sold over the past few decades, and people aren't worried about mercury issues as a result. Mercury was in every single TV, ever, across the globe, until LED backlight LCDs.

To freak out on CFLs because of mercury is really pathetic, or really naive, depending on your angle. It would be like freaking about about incandescents because of the fire risk from the heat. Everything you use, government mandated or not, has very dangerous properties in the wrong situation.

If merely using a CFL were inherently dangerous, you'd have a point. But it's not.

The issue of choice is completely separate than your mercury concerns regarding CFLs. Try to be a little less reactionary, please.

7/5/2009 3:05:00 PM

isn't tungsten (in incandescent lights) dangerous too? i'm finding mixed things on google now but i swear i remember reading an article at some point talking about the dangers of tungsten in ammunition.

7/5/2009 3:41:02 PM

he did a cost benifit analysis and made a decision

seriously...

her prize is the presidency

in 2012

the end of the world

7/5/2009 4:09:08 PM

i just listened to a Fresh Air podcast from July 1 (Wednesday) titled "Assessing The State Of The (Republican) Nation". They, of course, talked about Palin for a minute, and I thought it was funny that Terri Gross said this:
"I really kinda' half-thought after the election that she would kind-of officially enter the land of celebrity and give up politics, and either do a television show, or just some kind of more celebrity-oriented thing. But.... she's staying in politics."

maybe she was right after all, just 2 days early in her assessment.

7/5/2009 4:49:05 PM

another huffington post article from digg:

The Real Story Behind Palin's Bombshell
Geoffrey Dunn
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/the-real-story-behind-pal_b_225636.html

Quote :

"The evangelical right can wallow in denial all they want about Palin being victimized by liberals or Democrats or even George Soros (some illiterate wingnut recently tried to link me to him), but the fact is that most of the people with really bad things to say about Palin -- from John McCain's staff to conservatives in Alaska -- come from the Republican Party. The charges of a left-wing conspiracy are so ridiculous as to be absolutely absurd."

Quote :

"Here's a little bit of Alaska inside talk for you. Those close to the governor have consistently indicated to me that they privately blame Mitt Romney & Co. as the source of a lot of the media hits on Palin. It may even be true. But with today's announcement, Palin will soon be on equal footing with Romney -- no longer saddled by statewide office and free to travel and maneuver however and wherever she damn well pleases. Today's statement was a great equalizer for 2012."

Quote :

"Some news sources are claiming that Palin is stepping away from politics permanently; perhaps. But I didn't hear that today. What I heard were typical Palin code words that she has her ambitions set for higher office, for a national stage. Her shots at Obama's stimulus package were just one of many signals aimed directly at Washington. So do not think for a moment that this is the last we will be hearing from Sarah Palin. The Federal Election Commission will soon be reporting how much money Palin's SarahPAC has raised over the past four months. You can bet that Palin has a lot of gas left in her tank. She is the gift that John McCain gave us that will not go away."

7/5/2009 5:15:30 PM

The real story is that Palin knew people were going to talk about her like we're doing, and that we're now going to be following her next moves very closely, with the media hanging off every word, to see what's up. It's almost brilliant...

And we're far enough away from 2012 that if she wanted to make a move then, people would have already forgotten how weird this is. And if the republican part is in the same level of disarray then, as they are now, then they would be desperate enough to nominate her as their candidate. And just like how Schwarznegger won California, people might "flock" to the celebrity Palin; or perhaps people will vote for her as a joke, and she'll end up getting elected like that dork guy at the high school prom that becomes the prom king.

7/5/2009 5:20:30 PM

Quote :

"And we're far enough away from 2012 that if she wanted to make a move then, people would have already forgotten how weird this is."

no way, i don't buy that. this move was so abrupt and her reasoning so irrational and disjointed, whoever her political opponents in a republican primary turn out to be, they'll never let her live down straight up QUITTING. never. she's finished.

7/5/2009 5:31:29 PM

^ you overestimate the memory span of the American public.

No one remembered Bush smearing McCain for having an illegitimate black baby, did they? Or the swift-boating of Kerry orchestrated by the Bush admin? He got elected anyway. No one is really talking about Obama's association with that shady real estate guy (i can't even remember his name now...). If palin is doing well even 6 months from now, trying to bring this back up will ring very hollow.

I think Palin's achille's heel though is that she really doesn't know what she's talking about. She can put on a good show, and is otherwise a great attention whore, but when it comes to actually saying something meaningful and serious that people like Gingrich or Kristol can get behind, she is never successful. She'd make a great sidekick to Rush Limbaugh though.

7/5/2009 5:35:28 PM

Quote :

"If palin is doing well even 6 months from now, trying to bring this back up will ring very hollow."

yeah, 6 months from now.... when she still has 1 year left on her original term!

I hope that Americans won't forget that she up and quit her first state-level job barely 2/3s of the way through, for, so far, no discernible reason.

7/5/2009 5:47:17 PM

yeah thats whats annoying...its like no matter what she does ppl still support her etc

7/5/2009 6:01:49 PM

Quote :

"I hope that Americans won't forget that she up and quit her first state-level job barely 2/3s of the way through, for, so far, no discernible reason."

not a first, she also resigned as chair of the alaska oil and gas conservation commission and there was almost a recall when she was mayor

[Edited on July 5, 2009 at 6:21 PM. Reason : .]

7/5/2009 6:21:39 PM

i just got around to reading todd purdum's Vanity Fair piece. it's pretty amazing, really. this woman is astoundingly irrational. Never knew about this little gem:

Quote :

"But there were ominous signs—indications of an erratic nature. This is the third thing McCain could have discovered about Palin—a woman, after all, who kept a pregnancy secret for seven months, flew all the way home from Texas to Alaska with a near-full-term baby while leaking amniotic fluid, and then finally drove the 45 minutes from Anchorage to a hospital in Wasilla, all so that the child could be born in the 49th state"

Quote :

"More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”"

wtf??

7/5/2009 7:43:27 PM

Quote :

"No one remembered Bush smearing McCain for having an illegitimate black baby, did they? Or the swift-boating of Kerry orchestrated by the Bush admin? He got elected anyway. No one is really talking about Obama's association with that shady real estate guy (i can't even remember his name now...). If palin is doing well even 6 months from now, trying to bring this back up will ring very hollow."

That's because those were all things that would have been difficult to bring up in a 30 second ad or 10 second soundbite. In the cases of Bush/Rove's campagin tactics, you'd actually have to get people to listen to the link between them and the mentioned actions and then explain in a sentence or two what the actions were. The biggest problem was that you can't directly tie Bush to the decisions involved and can't prove he had prior knowledge or even real awareness after the fact. It's a difficult argument to make to anyone not already familiar with what you're talking about. If they're already familiar, then there's very little point making the argument.

The same goes for the link between Obama and said "shady real estate guy." The argument is too nuanced and complicated to make in a short commercial and pointless to make to anyone already aware of it.

In this case, regardless of whether people remember it or not, you can say "Palin quit with no significant advanced notice with 1 and a half years of her first and only term as governor remaining." You can fill up the rest of the attack ad with goofy palin quotes and stock footage of her being exorcised.

7/6/2009 12:55:50 AM

I'm really afraid.

This incompetent nutjob has a real chance of being president in 2012.

We're the country that has already elected an incompetent failure FOR TWO FUCKING TERMS.

...

AND IN 2012 of all years...

this is not cool, please someone make it stop

7/6/2009 10:24:52 AM

I don't know what you're afraid of. Barry's doing a hecukuva job.

7/6/2009 11:48:30 AM

I was out in the country for the 4th and I lol'd when I heard this happening. The response from the country folk: "I'd still vote for her over Obama".

7/6/2009 11:59:32 AM

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/06/sarah.palin.fbi/index.html

well looks like those people waiting for some shit to hit the fan will have to wait a little longer.

7/6/2009 1:12:50 PM