Analyst says Palin could be done with politics
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's decision to step down during her first term could signal that she's done with elective office, a Virginia political analyst says.
"You shouldn't dismiss that possibility if she's fed up, and that came across at the press conference," the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato said last night.
If she does plan future campaigns, Sabato thinks Palin has made a major error. "This will prove very useful to her opponent -- she's up and quit the only statewide office she's ever held, in midterm. That's not much of a qualification if you're running for president," Sabato said.
"The Harry Truman rule applies: 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.' Once you're out of the kitchen it's hard to get back in."
Palin campaigned in Virginia four times last year as the running mate of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
"Bob McDonnell is sure this was a very tough decision for Governor Palin and her family," said Tucker Martin, a spokesman for Virginia's Republican gubernatorial nominee, who served as co-chairman of the McCain-Palin campaign in Virginia.
"He wishes Governor Palin the very best as she moves forward. He is certain she will continue to play a prominent and positive role in American politics in the years ahead," Martin said.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement that Palin is "an important and galvanizing voice" in the GOP and will help the party's gubernatorial candidates this fall in Virginia and New Jersey, according to The Washington Post.
Tim Murtaugh, spokesman for the Republican Party of Virginia, said, "We wish her luck on her future endeavors and think there's little doubt that she will have an impact on policy discussions in the future."
Palin campaigned with McCain on Sept. 10 at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax City. On Oct. 13, Palin joined McCain in Virginia Beach for a rally, then appeared solo before a crowd estimated at 20,000 in a field at Richmond International Raceway.
On Oct. 27, she held rallies in Leesburg, Fredericksburg and Salem, and stopped by a gourmet deli in Ashland.
On Nov. 1, an estimated 8,000 McCain-Palin supporters spent Saturday night at the Deep Run High School football field to back the GOP ticket in western Henrico.
Contact Andrew Cain at (804) 649-6645 or
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Staff writer Frank Green contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
Follow the money. Was that a fifteen or twenty five mil book deal?
Considering every day she is in office she racks up more legal bills and can’t collect until she is free of the shackles of state.
I call 26 July payday for free-ride palin.
Poor Joe Biden the resident court jester.
And while John and Joe were slogging it out and growing old and Sarah was a little girl, our esteemed leader was at Punahou wearing a panama hat and learning to smoke cigarettes.
And yes Sarah come back like a bad penny to ruin your catharsis. But maybe she is sincere. What if she was actually telling the truth? Nah, that idea is far too novel. There must be some big scandal brewing.
I am afraid that there will be no catharsis for me for a while. No relief from the vision of Obama supporters wearing Nazi tee shirts on the mall in Washington DC. And shouting their support and approval of our new leader.
Perhaps she will retire to Alaska to finish raising her family. If only Mr. Obama would take his spendathon back to Hawaii and take up surfing.
Jimbo08-Do we know each other?
Greta: I’m glad you are thankful! God created Joe Biden just for people like you!
When you take into account that McCain would have been the oldest rising President ever, and the toll his POW time took on his body, and the fact that Biden has been in office since Palin was a little girl, yeah, I guess you could thank god for Biden. As far as politicians phoning it in, I guess that was Sarah Palin’s stunt double on the campaign trail for those months leading up to the election. She is just as guilty as the rest.
I feel a certain sense of catharsis watching what will probably prove to be the end of her political career, although the same was said of Nixon after the 60’ election. Of course we all know how that turned out. But I digress, the catharsis is brought on by memories of her at campaign rally’s riling up the crowd by insinuating that Obama was a terrorist to the screams of “Kill him” from the crowd. In the end she either folded like an old dollar bill under pressure or quit her job half way through her term for higher political aspirations. The only thing she could do to show real thoughtfulness in her decision is to spend her time helping her single teen daughter raise her child, and also focus on raising her own child who suffers from Down syndrome.
i know that I for one thenk God every for Joe Biden!
Well, there are two ways to look at this. She either was fed up with the media scrutiny and stepped down, ie. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”, which in that case, thank god she didn’t get elected as VP. If you fold that easily, you have no place in the White House. Or, she is thinking of running against Murkowski for senate, of course she would have to win the Republican primary first. Either way, it seems like a bad political decision. For everybody that is saying she is stepping down for honorable reasons so her jobs as Governor and Republican booster won’t conflict, that is highly dubious. Being Governor of Alaska is basically akin to government liaison to oil companies and glorified land manager. Alaska has approximately the same number of citizens as the city of Baltimore, with nearly half of the populace in Anchorage. So you could really say that Mayor of Anchorage is at least as an important job as Governor.
i am not a fan of Sarah Palin. And i do not believe that she will ever be elected to high office. But I do believe that she is a true rarity in this day and age. An honest politician.
I think that is one reason why the liberal media had such a tough job making heads or tails of her. They were always looking for the angle waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I believe that her announcement yesterday, however incoherent, was honest.
She strikes me as someone who is just fed up and tired of the whole game. I believe that she believes the people of Alaska will get a better deal if she resigns. Could she be sacrificing her present political career so that Alaska can be better served? Could she be concerned that her family is in jeopardy because of all the debts that are piling up? According to the media it can’t be that simple. There must be an angle. They have always treated her so shabbily why not kick her now while she is down.
And for all out there that are howling about her leaving her state in the lurch. Just think about Obama and McCain and Romney and Kerry and all the rest,phoning their jobs in for 3 years while they campaigned.
At least she has appointed someone to take over her job and see to the state’s business.
Hey Mikey, thanks for the laughs!
Sabato is such a liberal idiot. He apparently thinks Sarah Palin is a limp-noodled, passive little girl who simply takes what’s thrown at her and moves on. He calls himself a political analyst? He used to be; we now know from his “analyses” that he’s just another flaming Charlottesville liberal.
Sarah Palin did the honorable thing. She realized she can’t run for president and do her job as governor at the same time. She gave the people of Alaska respect, unlike Democrats like Obama Kerry, Clinton and others who run for president but are too scared of losing their political stature to do the right thing and resign their seats so their constituents will have representation.
Sarah Palin is a bulldog (no, liberals, I didn’t say she looked like a bulldog). She has spent the last 10 months watching the liberal left slander her and her family. I suspect Letterman calling her daughter a w-h-o-r-e on national television was the last straw. Don’t think for a second that she’s going away. Anyone remember the saying about a woman scorned? Sarah Palin is now the poster child for women scorned, and I suspect she will take a few months to organize, then come out after the liberals with both barrels loaded and firing.
So many liberal “analysts” have so misread this woman. It’s gonna be a pleasure to watch her lead the charge to kick Obama out of office in 2012.
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