Sarah Palin’s announcement that she’s not running for reelection for governor in 2010 and will step down and hand the reins to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on July 26th was a shock to everyone. Of course, everyone is speculating why. The Anchoress wondered if she or someone in her family is sick and she mentioned how thin she has become lately. Others are wondering if she is positioning herself for a 2012 run. Those who tend to see the world through a bit more cynical colored glasses are speculating that there’s another scandalous shoe to drop. I have to admit, being a Sarah Palin fan, I want to see the positive in her decision.
Being a mom, I have found myself furious after hearing about all the disgusting accusations Palin’s opponents have made about her family. I just don’t get the hatred that flows in some people’s veins. I would not blame her one iota if she decided to say “screw it” and leave politics in order to protect her kids. But I don’t think that’s it. She also mentioned in her announcement today that it’s become nearly impossible for her to even do her job as governor with all the frivolous ethical complaints her political opponents in Alaska keep throwing at her. Her brother in a phone call to Fox News said she told him she and her staff spend 80% of their time dealing with them. But I don’t think this is the primary reason, either.
If you take her at her word, and with her I am willing to, I think she sees a greater opportunity to advance the conservative cause outside the governor’s office. This will allow her to campaign for conservative candidates and give speeches at conservative events.
A post at the Huffington Post offers an explanation from the head of the Republican Governor’s Association Nick Ayers:
“I don’t think this is buckling to pressure,” said Ayers. “I think this is her coming to the realization that the legislature in Alaska and that some bloggers and activists in Alaska are going to do everything they can to stymie her progress. This is a governor who didn’t run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state. She realized that that was no longer going to be able to happen, because things had become so partisan there.”
She also said as much in her comments. Here’s a portion of her remarks from yesterday:
Let me speak to that for a minute.
Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.
Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn’t been cheap – the State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to “opposition research” – that’s money not going to fund teachers or troopers – or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the “politics of personal destruction” … Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime so they’re not going to stop draining public resources – spending other peoples’ money in their game.
It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with this instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more “politics as usual,” but this isn’t what anyone had in mind for Alaska.
If I have learned one thing: life is about choices!
And one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up. I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose not to tear down and waste precious time; but to build up this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!
Life is too short to compromise time and resources… it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: “Sit down and shut up”, but that’s the worthless, easy path; that’s a quitter’s way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and “go with the flow”.
Nah, only dead fish “go with the flow”.
No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time… to BUILD UP.
And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country. I choose to FIGHT for it! And I’ll work hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government; strong national security for our country and support for our troops; energy independence; and for those who will protect freedom and equality and LIFE… I’ll work for and campaign for those PROUD to be American, and those who are INSPIRED by our ideals and won’t deride them.
I WILL support others who seek to serve, in or out of office, for the RIGHT reasons, and I don’t care what party they’re in or no party at all. Inside Alaska – or Outside Alaska.
But I won’t do it from the Governor’s desk.
This sounds like a woman who is not going away.
Thomas Lifson has more at the American Thinker.
Bruce Kessler writing at Maggie’s Farm says today is Sarah Palin’s Independence Day.
