Leaving Politics For Good?

Whether or not she plans it, that’s the result — I’m hearing a lot of “two-and-a-half years into her first term as governor” this afternoon.

After all, last fall she bragged about having more “executive experience” than Barry.

@nojo: Mittens already has his knives sharpened. Happy day in Mormoni land.

From that wingnut website, THE BEST SARAH PALIN COMMENT EVER:

Folks. This is no time for negativity. Sarah Palin is going into the wilderness.

Think Moses, Jesus and Ronald Reagan.

This is the beginning of the taking back of America.

That’s riiiiiiiight, she’s Moses, Jayzus and Ronnie, all wrapped up in the best Nordy’s skirt-suit that RNC/Alaskan tax dollars can buy.

Bill Kristol – still smitten.

@blogenfreude:

Well, I was smitten by Lenny in Of Mice and Men but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t know from early on that things couldn’t possibly turn out well for the bumbling simpleton.

Seriously, though, bailing on your state in the midst of the nation’s biggest economic crisis in 80 years doesn’t breed confidence. Palin is toast, now.

The more interesting question is not whether Palin has a future, but whether the GOP has a future. I mean, it was bad before the election, but right now we’re seeing a chorus line of the party’s most prominent figures completely flaking out.

Wingnut revisionism … an amazing thing:

At 4:06 ET, when news first broke that Sarah Palin was resigning the governorship, Fox News got Palin’s Svengali, Bill Kristol, on phone who said he was “real surprised” by the decision. “[Y]ou know when I first heard it I thought that’s a little crazy, giving up the governorship for a year and a half,” Kristol told viewers.

What a difference an hour makes.

At 5:06 ET, Kristol posted on the Weekly Standard website: “If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It’s an enormous gamble – but it could be a shrewd one.”

Is it a huge gamble or a shrewd move? Kristol leaves himself a big out there.

Late Update: Fox is coming around, too. A little while ago, Stuart Varney said, “Let’s get back to this resignation,” before pausing to correct himself. “Not the resignation but stepping aside from the governorship.”

@blogenfreude: Team Sarah shot off an email, but it’s not worth quoting yet. Except for this remark from Rep. John Culberson:

“Let’s dare to take Sarah Palin at her word.”

If you believe in a congenital liar, why stop now?

Even better – K-Lo doubles down:

Mother Palin [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Who knows all the reasons — Todd and Sarah Palin, presumably fully understand.

Listening to her, it seems like this is a combination of stepping back and moving forward. Stepping back, because it’s way too overwhelming to be Sarah Palin, political phenom, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and Sarah Palin, wife and mother. I don’t know that anyone can fulfill all those roles well, simultaneously. And we’re unrealistic, I think, when we assume people can or should.

One reservation I’ve always had about Sarah Palin has to do with her family. If she is stepping down because of what politics has done to her family, because of something in her family life she doesn’t want to see as David Letterman fodder, because it’s impossible to be governor, a star, and a mom to an infant … this is good. It demonstrates good judgment and priorities.

@blogenfreude:

And we would all go down together
We said we’d all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

@blogenfreude: Besides, only dead fish go with the flow.

Alaska GOP chairman buys in. Parlor game: Who’s cynically spinning, and who actually inhales?

The only thing that could make this day better is if she’d been caught ‘hiking the Appalachian Trail’ with Mark Sanford.

@blogenfreude: Or her face in the Poon Tango herself.

Among the many beauties is that Saturday was supposed to be Teabagger II. And it may still be, but nobody will pay attention.

@nojo: Speaking of which…

Wasilla, AK July 4th Patriot Tea Party
Wasilla Park, Wasilla Alaska
Time: 4:00pm – 7:00pm

Contact: info@alaskalive.net

Website: http://www.alaskalive.net

Youtube video located here: http://www.youtube.com/alaskalive

My two cents: something big is coming down. You don’t quit on a no-news day unless (a) you have to or (b) you want to make a big announcement, such as stepping down to run for president. It does not appear to be (b),so expect (a).

@SanFranLefty: Not true, actually. Steelhead start life in fresh water, head for the sea, return to reproduce, and being studly ass fish, can head back to sea after a season of bow chikka bow up in the forest home waters.

Hopefully I’m done with housework and hanging doors and shit for the day.

@redmanlaw: It’s been noted that SarahPAC sent out a fundraising email on Monday, supposedly to fill out the quarterly goals. I have it, but nothing sufficiently ironic to post here.

With all this shit going down, NOBODY is thinking about John Ensign and his wayward little soldier. He’s a happy man.

@redmanlaw: That was a quote from her resignation speech, m’dear.

@SanFranLefty: Wait. She’s from Alaska and doesn’t know the difference between steelhead and salmon?

“Suck it, Jayzus,” Palin screamed before brandishing both middle fingers towards the stunned assembled reporters, “I’m bigger than YOU now!!”

Let’s all take a moment to think of poor Tina Fey. I thought her Palin schtick would be a comedy goldmine for years to come.

@Dave H: Fey herself was happy Palin lost — running a sitcom is busy enough as it is. So I imagine she’s relieved today.

Another thought – is she so broke from legal defense, penalties, fines, etc. that she’s looking at a well-paid think tank gig (per her “outside government”) line.

@redmanlaw: Got it: She learned that the Daily Show is on break next week, and made her move.

@redmanlaw: Or this: “August 29th last year, the day John McCain tapped me”

(Okay, it ends “to be his running mate.” Like I say, Jon’s on vacation.)

My only disappointment with her speech was the complete lack of anybody slaughtering turkeys in the background. The blood would have complemented her outfit so well.

@redmanlaw: She got a book advance, did she not? Besides, wingnut welfare pays her legal fees …

@Dave H: You didn’t hear the ducks and geese honking on several occasions? She was standing in front of a pond, complete with a floatboat.

@blogenfreude: $7 million reported contract. Although by the time it’s published, will she still be in the headlines?

@nojo: Jayzuz Ache Cristo, I try to go on walkabout and find this?

We’re misunderestimacating Palintilogy; she may honestly think this her only way to escape the fact that she gets more and more unpopular in Alaska the longer she tries to be bigger than Jeebus hisself. She’s going to save Washington by joining it.

Speaking of Teabagging Part Deux, we’re in front of Independence Hall right now and word has it that the baggers will be on parade here in the AM.

Um sorry, I can’t seem to edit my dangling tags from this here mobile device. Mil disculpas…

Either someone is about to get arrested or she’s got some Fox tv gig she’s about to announce.

Or hell, maybe she’s the father of Michael Jackson’s children. I wouldn’t put anything past her now.

Will the publishing house still be quite so keen to publish ‘her’ book, I wonder? I smell renegotiations.

@Benedick: The WSJ is asking the same question…

Tina Andreadis, a spokeswoman for Harper, said Friday evening that the book is going forward. “We think the book will be huge,” she said. “Even though she’s stepping down, people will want to hear her story. This is her opportunity to tell her own story her own way.”

Publication scheduled for next spring. I think interest will remain fresh, especially among her flock — wingnut volumes crowd the Amazon 100 every week.