Big news Friday
The big news Friday afternoon was that there would be a lottery for Michael Jackson memorial tickets.
On a serious note, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she would be resigning in a few weeks.
The left wing fever swamps are convinced that this is a pre-emptive move because a big embezzlement scandal is coming soon. Apparently the previous 14 ethics complaints that were dismissed as baseless were just a set-up for #15.
Is Palin's national political career over? Assuming that there's no scandal in the offing, not necessarily, but her decision to step down makes her political future tougher, not easier.
While serving just 2 years in the senate did nothing to hamper President Obama's future, he didn't resign his seat for nothing. Choosing not to run for re-election is one thing, but resigning with nearly two years left in a four-year term is odd. In fact, if Palin ever runs again, you can bet her failure to finish out her gubernatorial term will be among the first things brought up -- and it's a valid criticism. This move means that all that she's accomplished as Alaska governor is largely irrelevant. She's going to have to re-invent herself and that will take time.
That means 2012 is out -- and maybe 2016 too.
That is if she wants to stay in politics. Frankly, I wouldn't blame her if this was nothing more than just throwing up her hands and walking away. The garbage Palin and her family have had to go through ever since she was picked to be John McCain's running mate is disgusting. And the normally politically correct media that is pre-occupied with never offending anyone decided that she was fair game. Serial killers get treated better than Palin has.
As usual, Mark Steyn has said it best:
As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it.
So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this?
In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".
Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.
Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?
National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.
The country's loss.
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I don't know her plans. I'm not sure she does. But if she had national political ambitions, think of her predicament. She would have to simultaneously be the chief executive of an important state (regardless of how the elites describe Alaska), travel around the country while originating from a remote location and be a mother to a large family, including one child with special needs.
Mere mortals would have a difficult time doing one of those three tasks. She has shown she can do two of those things, but I think she decided even she couldn't handle all three. Despite what her detractors say about her, she really is an amazing human being, but even she has her limits. By the way, where was she going to find the time to study the issues she needs to have down cold so that the next time she takes on Katie Couric she kicks her butt?
I'm not saying that she is running for national office, I am just saying she probably realized she couldn't do so while living her current life. So she decided to give herself options.
I liked her from the very beginning. She has her weaknesses certainly, but her strengths are amazing. That is why the left detests her. They know she is a threat.