A Curious Little Blog

An article in the Wall Street Journal today goes a long way to explaining Sarah Palin's resignation in terms that not only make sense, but actually agree with why she said she did it. She was being harassed by so many Freedom of Information Act requests and trivial ethics investigations (according to one article I read, she had been acquitted on all 15 of them so far) that she didn't have time to do her job. Resigning was therefore the best thing for Alaska, even though she knew it would hurt her politically. I can't prove this is correct, of course, but it fits both with the facts and with what she said in her resignation speech; and, by Ockham's Razor, it seems like the best explanation until someone can prove something different. Even otherwise supportive conservatives have been critical of her decision to step down, and Rich Lowry goes so far as to say that her stated reason -- it was for the good of Alaska -- is absurd. Mr. Lowry should be ashamed of himself,...

If people think that resigning from the governorship hurt Palin's chances for the presidency in 2012, I agree with them. That was my first thought when I heard about her resignation. If people think that Sarah Palin resigned from the governorship in order to run for president in 2012, however, I think they're nuts. With all the abuse she (and especially her family) has taken in the last year, I don't find it in the least bit remarkable that she would want out of public office. I am disappointed, I admit: she is the most remarkable conservative politician I have ever seen, with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, and I had high hopes for her future. I'm not convinced that she's out of politics forever, but this move certainly puts a future presidential run further into the future. But why assume that that is her goal? Journalists don't seem to understand that Sarah Palin is a person before she is a politician. She hasn't been training for politi...