# Why did Sarah Palin resign as Alaska's governor?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 9, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736 "2010-08-09T17:54:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/81 "2010-08-11T01:19:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> If one of the lawsuits was over a jacket she wore, then that was frivolous. But the legal costs were not the only issue. She’s raised way more than $500,000 since she left office.
Which didn’t help her in office. She does not have the earning capacity of the Clintons.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/82 "2010-08-11T01:21:22Z")
The Clintons weren’t earning in office either.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/83 "2010-08-11T01:51:05Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> > [@Marley23](#):
> >
> > If one of the lawsuits was over a jacket she wore, then that was frivolous. But the legal costs were not the only issue. She’s raised way more than $500,000 since she left office.
>
> Which didn’t help her in office. She does not have the earning capacity of the Clintons.
How do you know that? She has a right wing book that the rich righties have supported. She makes a crap load of money giving chats to those who think as badly as she. She travels around the lower 48 gathering bucks. She .I think. is getting a TV money at Fox. bShe is doing very well, which is the reason she quit the Governorship.
Hillary is on a salary ,don’t you know. And you are comparing her income to 2 people. Cheat much?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/84 "2010-08-11T01:55:54Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> > [@Marley23](#):
> >
> > If one of the lawsuits was over a jacket she wore, then that was frivolous. But the legal costs were not the only issue. She’s raised way more than $500,000 since she left office.
>
> Which didn’t help her in office. She does not have the earning capacity of the Clintons.
She didn’t have their legal bills either. And I think she got $7 million in advance for her book.
So she’s paid off her legal bills (or rather they were paid by donors to her PAC, which I think is what the Clintons did, too). She’s still doing speaking engagements and getting paid. I think that’s a pretty good indication she didn’t quit because she couldn’t afford to pay her legal bills. And like I said, she could have raised money through her PAC while in office, or she could have either struck a publishing agreement while in office and paid the lawyers with the advance. She wasn’t sued out of office. She left to advance her career, such as it is.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/85 "2010-08-11T06:07:48Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> She didn’t have their legal bills either. And I think she got $7 million in advance for her book.
>
> So she’s paid off her legal bills (or rather they were paid by donors to her PAC, which I think is what the Clintons did, too). She’s still doing speaking engagements and getting paid. I think that’s a pretty good indication she didn’t quit because she couldn’t afford to pay her legal bills. And like I said, she could have raised money through her PAC while in office, or she could have either struck a publishing agreement while in office and paid the lawyers with the advance. She wasn’t sued out of office. She left to advance her career, such as it is.
I don’t follow your line of logic. She is supposed to stop earning money after she’s paid off her legal fees?
And her attempt at PAC money was smacked down.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/86 "2010-08-11T06:31:58Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> I don’t follow your line of logic. She is supposed to stop earning money after she’s paid off her legal fees?
I didn’t say she had to stop earning money. I said her actions show she wasn’t “sued out of office” because she could have easily made enough to pay her lawyers without quitting as governor. As a matter of fact, [she signed her book deal before she resigned from office.](http://www.adn.com/2009/05/12/793061/palin-signs-deal-for-memoir-to.html) That’s a $7 million advance on the book and $500,000 in legal costs. (She signed the book deal in May and quit in July.) So even before she quit, she’d secured enough money to pay her legal bills. She did not resign because she was out of money. She was not sued out of office. If the Clintons weren’t sued out of office when they had 20 times her legal fees, that excuse does not hold up.
> [@](#):
>
> And her attempt at PAC money was smacked down.
Cite please. I think I already showed that this didn’t happen. There was a legal issue with the website for her first legal defense fund, but the only problem was the wording. The fund itself was not illegal as far as I can tell. And with the book deal, she didn’t need that money anyway.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/87 "2010-08-11T18:54:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> I didn’t say she had to stop earning money. I said her actions show she wasn’t “sued out of office” because she could have easily made enough to pay her lawyers without quitting as governor. As a matter of fact, [she signed her book deal before she resigned from office.](http://www.adn.com/2009/05/12/793061/palin-signs-deal-for-memoir-to.html) That’s a $7 million advance on the book and $500,000 in legal costs. (She signed the book deal in May and quit in July.) So even before she quit, she’d secured enough money to pay her legal bills. She did not resign because she was out of money. She was not sued out of office. If the Clintons weren’t sued out of office when they had 20 times her legal fees, that excuse does not hold up.
It was a [$1.25 million advance](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/27/politics/main5425545.shtml) but your point is valid.
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Cite please. I think I already showed that this didn’t happen. There was a legal issue with the website for her first legal defense fund, but the only problem was the wording. The fund itself was not illegal as far as I can tell. And with the book deal, she didn’t need that money anyway.
She had to return the money collected while in office per my earlier cite.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/88 "2010-08-11T19:06:46Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> It was a [$1.25 million advance](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/27/politics/main5425545.shtml) but your point is valid.
You’re right. There was talk she was going to get something like $7 million in advance but apparently it didn’t happen. I will say I am amused by her comment in that article that she would not be writing during official business hours. Unless she was lying it sounds like she was saying she could govern and write the book at the same time.
> [@](#):
>
> She had to return the money collected while in office per my earlier cite.
She had to return the money for the reason I explained earlier. It was not illegal for her to set up a defense fund and she could have stayed in office and done that.
[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37909929/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37909929/)
> [@](#):
>
> State Personnel Board investigator Timothy Petumenos said the Alaska Fund Trust inappropriately used the word “official” on its website, wrongly implying that it was endorsed by Palin in her role as governor.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/89 "2010-08-12T04:38:35Z")
nm
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### Author:  [@pkmcd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkmcd)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/90 "2010-08-12T12:51:35Z")
I also would like to add that her motivation, at least in part, may be part of a genuine disdain on her part or the part of those who love her for government service.
The thought at least in part may have been, I now work for the government, but it is always better to be working for the private sector, thus when I have the opportunity to go into the private sector I should.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/91 "2010-08-12T13:47:50Z")
So you’re saying that she got out of governemnt, because she hates government? You think she might have thought of that \*before \*she ran for **Governor**.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/92 "2010-08-12T15:55:58Z")
She was Mayor of Alaska’s meth capitol for a couple terms. Then, she ran for governor. It does not seem that she was eschewing politics. She just got a better offer . She is a selfish cunt that deserves no respect for walking off the job. She let down everybody in her political organization that worked for her election. She let down all those who voted for her . They foolishly thought she was going to run the state for her term. They believed she was qualified to be governor. In a way, they got what they deserved too.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/93 "2010-08-12T16:25:20Z")
> [@gonzomax](#):
>
> She is a selfish cunt that deserves no respect for walking off the job.
This is even less appropriate for GD than “hillbilly.” Save this kind of stuff for the Pit.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-sarah-palin-resign-as-alaskas-governor/549736/94 "2010-08-12T16:45:05Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#):
>
> So you’re saying that she got out of governemnt, because she hates government? You think she might have thought of that \*before \*she ran for **Governor**.
You’d think that, but we now have 30 years of examples of politicians saying “Government is broken” and then proceeding to run for (and then breaking) government.
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