They called themselves conservatives.
I believe she already had a multi-million book deal, so that doesn’t really make sense. And I can’t really imagine her in a Huckabee-type show.
Spending time with the family doesn’t really make a lot of sense either, she was in trouble with AK voters because she was spending so much time in the lower 48, plus writing her book, etc. If she really wanted to spend more time with her family, she could’ve simply cut back on her various extra projects.
Even if she saw a scandal coming, it’s hard to think of a situation where she’d be better off meeting it as a citizen rather then governor.
The “attacks on her family” excuse seems pretty obviously ginned up to garner symapthy.
It’s pretty hard to conceive of any reason for this that makes much sense. Maybe she just had a mid-life crisis this morning a decided she wants to do something else.
Then what is the name of the philosophy that espouses fiscal conservatism and low government intervention? Is that still conservative or does it have a new name now that conservative has been stolen?
Surprised I’d not seen anyone mention this, and I don’t know exactly why this would make her quit…but what if she’s pregnant again?
-Joe
You tell me. Who was the last “real” Conservative President? Nixon? He didn’t really care for the law, which I thought “conservatives” were supposed to do. Eisenhower? Very much against a good chunk of the current Republican platform.
Maybe people should stop worshipping at the altar of “conservative” if they can’t find anyone to represent them.
If you have 50 million people who call themselves “conservatives” and they drool over electing people like Dubya and Palin, I think it’s time to adjust the definition of “conservative”.
Then again, I guess this way “conservative” policies and plans can never fail - since they’ll never actually be put into place. It’s the perfect philosophy!
-Joe
This is the last thing we want to get into, considering the way Palin milked the “Trigg is actually Bristol’s” story like a prize Holstein.
The story itself wasn’t taken seriously by anybody for more than a few hours, including the left-wing blogosphere, but there were still questions out there worth asking about Trigg’s birth. For one thing, Palin’s flight from Texas to Alaska with premature rupture of membranes in a high-risk pregancy was never really explained all that well.
For another thing, her campaign would not deny the alternative version of events and state for the record that Trigg is Sarah’s baby, even after it was pretty obvious that he is. They would just act all butthurt whenever anyone would ask those questions, which is an age-old way to avoid answering questions. Andrew Sullivan dogged them about this; they could have shut the whole issue down with one statement, but instead they forwarded his e-mails to the press to show how awful the liberal media was being to poor Sarah.
It was brilliant. On the one hand, it kept most journalists from asking legit questions about Trigg’s birth. On the other, if someone did ask her about it, she could wail and rend her garments over the horrible way the liberal elite media was treating her and her precious, precious family. It was so perfect that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the Bristol-Trigg story was pushed out by the Palin campaign itself.
So here’s a conspiracy theory for you: Palin brought little Tungsten (or whatever the hell) to the press conference and told her to pooch out her tummy like she’s got a baby in there. If we see Palin on TV in the next few days denouncing these vicious rumors about her child, even though no one seemed to be spreading those rumors, you heard it here first. (Not that I believe that’s even close to true, but with this bunch, who knows anymore?)
My take is she is going to start her own party. She is pissed at the pub insiders for dissing her and the pubs are mad at her for being a moron. There are enough people unhappy with the Republicans that they would be happy to call themselves something else. She might peel off a lot of (for want of a better term) trailer dwellers who want a more populist party that can rail against both big business and big goverment.
You see lots of people like who say things like “it’s all fixed, politicians are all on the take, big business is shipping jobs overseas and hiring illegal aliens here”. It doesn’t need to make sense, just be vauge, angry, and feed the ego of people who feel they are looked down on.
I think she might be a political genius. I’d beat her on Jeopardy, but I don’t have 1/100th of her political skills and intuition.
Try watching that presser with the sound turned off so you can concentrate on her body language. She’s so wired she’s practically vibrating, and her eye-blink rate is off the charts. The cords in her neck are stretched like cables in a suspension bridge about to give way.
Whatever her reasons for doing this, they are not making her happy and relaxed – quite the contrary.
No way. Palin’s an insider all the way. She’d be more likely to jump ship and join the Democrats than to start a new party.
I think we’re thinking way too much into this. I doubt a scandal has emerged so great that she needs (or wants) to resign over it. If it’s that bad, a resignation isn’t going to stop it and it won’t be forgotten in 2012.
Let’s be honest… was it ever in the cards (or in her plans) to be VP or president? Doubtful. It was a variety of circumstances that led to the 2008 campaign. Palin was way beyond her wildest dreams.
Now the dust has settled. There’s money to be made - and I think TV is one venue, but you can’t rule out radio. There was a time, remember, that Rush Limbaugh was on radio 5x a week and on TV too. The anti-Obamaites will absolutely rally around Palin: she’s gutsy! She was tired of playing politics and is all about the people! Tea party! She could easily make $100K giving red meat speeches to these idiots. She just needs to show up, say “America,” “maverick,” “pit bull,” “mom,” and collect the check for SarahPAC.
How will this play out in 2012? I don’t know, it sounds like a terrible idea now, but the cupboard is bare for the GOP. If she becomes Rush Limbaugh lite and can criticize and rail against ineffective government for the next three years, I think she will have tons of money, attention, and power. She can either wage a serious campaign (doubtful) or do enough to become the most famous woman in America. Then, TV/radio/speaker circuit, some half-baked books ghostwritten by someone else, and she’s got it made.
I think this is a money grab, and if that’s what’s important to her, a pretty good one. Nothing about her strikes me as serious re: politics and/or public policy. But she can start making millions, and as long as the GOP can’t get elected to the White House, she can take the role of complainer-in-chief. Right now that mantle is held by Limbaugh and occasionally Gingrich. Note that they’re not active in politics; they can complain and bitch all they want and don’t have to worry about implementing the policies they are certain that will save the country.
Cynical money grabbing is the best bet for anyone affiliated with the GOP for the next four years. It’s going to be a long succession of political defeats for those in the trenches, so why would you put yourself out there to deal with it? Unless, you know, you actually care about your party and country. 
I bet she will attempt to turn the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party into a national one…
What?
Cite?
What attacks on her family?
I think the suggestion that this has anything to do with attacks on her family has to dismissed simply by virtue of the fact that no such attacks exist. What we’ve had is a handful of instances of Palin herself seeking make specious or outright false accusations that her family has somehow been attacked by the “mainstream media” in order to manufacture sympathy and attention for herself. She lives for that shit. Victimhood is her only political strategy, plus she’s a raging narcissist and she adores the attention.
The siren call of money, and better yet, the sweet, sweet heroin of being a TV star would make sense as a motive to me if it wasn’t for how clearly rushed and abrupt this whole thing was.
I think it can only be that she found out something new and unexpected today. Maybe the ethics noose is closing in. She said at her press conference today that she’s been cleared of all her ethics charges, but that sounds like bullshit to me. Not that I’ve been following any of it, but if she’s ben cleared of all the charges, then why is she saying she’s quitting so she doesn’t have to fight them?
The “I don’t want to be a lame duck” thing is just to inane to even consider, plus it wouldn’t explain the sudden, scrambling rush to get out of town.
There has to be another shoe up there somewhere, even though it’s been amusing to watch Fox News try desperately to spin this as some kind of brilliant, Presidential campaign strategy.
The suggestions about her youngest daughter are ludicrous, by the way, and if anyone suggested it about one of the Obama girls people would be insensed. That kind of talk does nothing but feed the Palin martyrology.
My two cents… heck make it a quarter!
Theres a scandal in the making here, she got word of something and rushed out to the press, they said on MSNBC earlier that is was so rushed hardly any press got there in time before her statement. It does make tactical sense to dump this on a friday at that time, not only is the historical precedence of the friday night news dump, but its the holiday weekend, and since MSNBC doesnt run at the weekends the main critic will be silent until monday (of course it didnt work out that way for her but…its not like she hasnt made mistakes with the press before). She most likely hoped, Fox would back her…in anyway they could, which they certainly seem to be doing, CNN sits on the fence and cant decide if its what Fox says…or not.
With the mounting pressure on Sanford to resign, if he does so on monday, Palin might get bumped down the news cycle as its not a juicy story…yet. Bare in mind the emails with McCains campaign manager were leaked yesterday, which stated Todd Palin was in the AIP (Alaskan Independant Party) which is not going to sell well to the American public if she does intend to run for anything again. Also who leaked those emails?, the staffers are turning on her(it seems) and she could well fear what else might come out which will hurt the party even more.
Her speech was beyond awful, she was rushed, flustered and whoever staged the set should be shot. The birds in the background damaged any chance of making a meaningful point, and i do honestly wonder if the speech was actually written down, or if she just winged it.
I personally think she is finished in meaningful politics, no way she recovers from this other than to make money talking about “republican values” on the talk circuits. However it wouldnt surprise me to find out she hasnt thought that far ahead yet, if this had been discussed for awhile…you think she would have been more prepared and had a actually point to the speech other than just random sports metaphors interspersed with “huge government spending” “liberal leaning” attacks about whatever popped into her head.
The major thing i find here is, why didnt Fox news get a heads up about this. It is not like they dont get republican talking points etc delivered directly to them, why wasnt there spin more prepared and articulated?.. it is i suppose possible that the head of the republican party didnt know about this until she said it on the stage.
Agreed that the pregnancy speculation is ridiculous and frankly disgusting.
As for Palin’s announcement, she sounded like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown; it’s hard to believe that a senior politician could be so inept and incoherent while making one of the most important speeches of her career. Her entire performance in the national spotlight has been a non-stop farce and yet many in the GOP still believe she is Presidential material; a good indicator of a political party and movement which is completely unfit to govern.
“Liars”, judging from what the people who say they support those things actually do when they get actual power.
I think the party insiders are putting distance between her and the party proper.
Not Nixon. He started the EPA, remember. Not Ike. Taft was the conservative. Ike got offered the nomination from both parties, being a war hero.
The last real conservative president - Herbert Hoover. That worked well, didn’t it?
Given that Palin is a naive egotistical buffoon, it is very hard to understand why she did it. Resigning to run for president? Anyone with any sense would not run again to do it, so we can’t rule it out. Resigning to work for Fox News? Maybe, but she could do that in a year and a half. She’s not nearly as smart or funny as Huckabee, and by crushing her own chances of future power she makes herself uninteresting. She’d be funny, butchering the issues, but we know comedy doesn’t work on Fox. Still, she might be sure it would. An upcoming indictment makes more sense, but quitting now is almost an admission of guilt.
If she were smart, she’d quit because Trig needs her and that’s more important than being governor. No one would fault her for that - but she wouldn’t be able to spend a lot of time on the road.
My serious guess:
There is a scandal on the horizon, but there’s still time before any indictments come down, so she’s quitting the governorship now in hopes of raking in enough cash to hire some big shot lawyers who will do enough to keep her out of jail, maybe even get her a slap on the wrist plea bargain. Then she’ll be just clean enough to keep her political ambitions alive for the future.
My zany guess:
Tina Fey is tired of doing the Palin impression, so she teamed up with ExxonMobil to dig up dirt on Palin, and now they’re blackmailing her to step down as governor and disappear. The oil company gets its profits, Fey gets to focus on 30 Rock or whatever she’s doing, and their unholy alliance rids us all of this brunette ‘blond of the month.’
What? It could happen.
And the funny part is that both factions, the fiscal conservatives and the social conservatives, say the exact same thing about the other faction. Both factions believe that their platform constitutes the “base” of the party and that the other one, by not agreeing, is “too moderate” or “too liberal” to be REAL conservatives. Circular firing squad indeed.