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Sarah Palin gave an interview to the Today Show in which she tried to explain in her nervous stream of consciousness way why she decided to abruptly resign as the governor of Alaska. She did this interview while wearing a pair of overalls and getting filmed hauling in salmon. It seemed like damage control to me, and yet another attempt by Palin to come across as an outdoorswoman who enjoys “Joe Six Pack” activities like fishing:
In her first interview since her stunning announcement Friday that she was stepping down from her state’s highest office, Sarah Palin – in the middle of a fishing trip in a remote corner of Alaska – breathlessly told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that the beginning of the end of her governor’s job took place on Aug. 29, the day John McCain chose her as his running mate in the 2008 Presidential race.
“Everything changed” that day, Palin said on Tuesday’s Today show. “Nothing would be the same for our administration.”
Once she entered the national spotlight, says Palin, “The choice I had to make was, how am I going to react to the circumstances, to the changed conditions? Am I just going to keep plugging away, keep my head down and not going to affect any more change, because every time we try to do something we get hit with an ethics-violation charge or a lawsuit, because that’s the political game that’s being played right now, even though we’ve won every one of them that’s been thrown our way.”
Palin also said that in fending off the various ethics challenges against her and her administration has so far yielded her a $500,000 legal bill.
[From People]
When asked if she was planning a run for President in 2012, Palin answered “I don’t know what the future holds, can’t predict what the next fish run’s gonna look like, much less what’s going to happen in the next couple of years.” Yes, except you have no control over how the fish are running. Palin said something in her press conference on Friday about how only dead fish go with the flow. Many pundits have said that Palin’s unwillingness to stick to her job as Governor and instability under pressure will make a possible Presidential run very difficult if not unlikely.
There’s a lot of speculation that Palin might be quitting due to a pending investigation, but many people in Alaska think she just can’t hack her job. Over the weekend NPR’s Fresh Air had an episode featuring an editor from the Anchorage Daily News and call-in comments from Alaskan residents. Many people said Palin got too caught up in being a star and didn’t dedicate much time or effort to her job as Governor. When she did show up, she tried to push her own agenda and couldn’t handle it when the legislature pushed back.
love ya Sarah
Nobody cares. Just.Go.Away.
Once Palin became a star in her own right, she dumped Alaska. It reminds me of singers like Diana Ross who dump their back-up singers after they achieve fame. So if Palin ran for president and won, would she dump the United States after a few years? The highest office in the land would be a mere launching pad for her super-stardom.
these quotes just make her sound even less capable. if possible.
it’s hard waaaaaa
j ferber is right about Palin dumping Alaska. I still think she is looking for a high $$ gig without the restraints and would not be surprised to she her hired as a spokesperson of sorts for some big corporation, maybe even the oil companiess. She’d get paid as much as she could negotiate and her perqs would be less likely to be scrutinized.
The upcoming Vanity Fair has an AWESOME article about Palin…
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908
OK, I know this is picayune, but it’s driving me crazy that Palin is being quoted as wanting to “affect change.” It should be “effect change.” To “affect” something means you influence it in some way. But to “effect” change means you actively work to bring it about — you’re the instigator.
Sanctimonious lecture over.
Good Lord, her explanation now is even worse.
1. Pure exaggeration when she says EVERYTHING she tried to do as a governor was met with an ethics-violation charge or a lawsuit. Please, woman. So untrue. Unless she only tried to do a few things, which is very possible with her.
2. BUT, but, she’s WON every single case of ethics-violation charges and lawsuits. Which sort of blows away her first argument.
3. She greatly overstated the amount of $ those charges and lawsuits were costing Alaska. At first (in her resignation speech) she said millions and it was nowhere near that figure. Now at least she’s being a bit more truthful when she says it’s costing HER money, though I doubt it’s half a mil.
4. I agree that she’s simply too lazy to be Governor. You have to do some actual work. She had only been in office a year when she ran for VP and did all that flying around, drumming up hatred (hey what terrorists have you been pallin’ around with lately, Sarah?), buying expensive clothes, getting all that attention. Then she came back and found out she’d have to actually go back to work. Bummer!
So instead she can try to do talk shows and whatnot and wink and say “you betcha” and make a lot more money and not have to do as much work. AND bonus–get more attention!
It’s win-win for her. Lose-lose for Alaskans.
None of her explanations make any sense to me. She was elected to do a job, accepted the responsiblity, and is now cutting and running. She’s gotten a lot of attention for painting herself the victim (the media! the campaign aides!Letterman!) and here we go again – everyone’s picking on her and she can’t do her job. Please. Either there’s a scandal about to hit, or she’s been offered big bucks for a book or TV deal. Either way, she’s broken the committment she made to the voters who put her in office.
Regardless of politics, I would never vote for someone who doesn’t bother to complete the job they were hired to do. So if this is some ill advised method of jumping into 2012 early, it’s even worse strategy than Giuliani pinning all his hopes on Florida and ignoring the other 49 states.
Urban Rube, your comment reminded me of a tshirt I had in college.
it was a NORML (National Org for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) shirt, and on the back it said “we CAN effect change”.
do you know how many people came up to me and said “it’s spelled with an A”?
She apparently never heard the phrase “It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Alaska’s better without her, because she wasn’t doing the state any favors when she pretty much checked out of the job during the presidential election.
It’s ridiculous to me that she would do this to the people of Alaska. They chose her to lead them and then she just hightails it out of there when things get too rough and then she cites all these random things when the bottom line was that she just wasn’t qualified and never will be.
She’s probably going to “write her book” and make money the easy way now that she’s been catapulted into the limelight. Looks like she’s trying to milk her 15 minutes for all it’s worth, Alaskans be damned.
girlfriend is batshit crazy.
Just read an article on CNN.com about this business, and there was a quote that struck me.
Her personal lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, said “The governor needed a break after being on duty now for two and a half years solid”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/07/palin.resignation/index.html
WTF?! she needed a break after two years as a governor? how the HELL would she cope with 4-8 years as a VP or president?
anyone who thinks this woman is remotely qualified for public office (outside of a small-town mayor) is delusional.
I am really indifferent to Sarah Palin. Sometimes I agree with her, sometimes I think she’s nuts – but how in the world does she expect people to elect her to the presidency if she resigned from governing Alaska?!? Scrutiny would only be MUCH worse as president; if she can’t handle being a governor, she can’t handle the presidency. Bad political move if she REALLY expects to take the office of the president….
Praise St. Angie!- that is AMAZING. her lawyers are just as stupid as she is.
God, I really hate her…;)
Apparently she said in this interview that “the federal Department of Laws” would protect her if she was president from any ethics violation charges, etc.
There is no federal Department of Laws.
BUT there is a state Department of Laws in Alaska, which does just that–it’s purpose is to shield those elected to public office from excessive lawsuits, etc so they can do their job.
Which just made her ENTIRE ARGUMENT moot. Why didn’t her Dept. of Laws there in Alaska shield her from all these ethics violations charges that she claims is part of the reason she quit?
She’s so full of hot air we oughta use her as transportation.
I saw that article too! (Gotta love trolling CNN lol) Needless to say, I was totally just like “WTF?”
You know, I wish I could’ve done that with college “Hey, I worked REALLY hard for 2.5 years here, you should still give me the 4 year degree!”
Damn…I read the headline as “Sarah Palin Does Fisting Photo Op”
she’s trying so hard its kinda sad.
hopefully now she will fade into obscurity. HOPEFULLY.
Much as Palin bothered me, what bothered me more was that McCain chose her (?) and/or that the Republicans accepted her/chose her (?). To me, it was almost proof that the President is not the one running the country, it’s a bunch of UNelected people who are influencing the position. And just how effective would McCain have been anyway…I think he would have been another figurehead like Bush, with other people controlling things behind the scenes. Also, I thought their manner of choosing her seemed cynical and out of touch. As in we’ll pick you, tell you what to do, smile and wave, and everything will be all right. Like they choose her her gender and looks and not necessarily because of anything she’d done, including proof of ability to govern. As in, they didn’t really take her that seriously anything. Everything the Republicans have done over the last couple of years is just mind boggling. For a national political party, they seem stuck light-years behind everyone else. I’m not a Republican, but there are better choices they could have made for VP candidate and the fact that they STILL haven’t heavily promoted some of these other types is beyond me. Like, get with the program guys. Palin as a political leader is a joke (put her next to Germany’s Angela Merkel and see what you get) – that the RP is still not distancing itself from her bespeaks how far behind they still are. Unbelieveable.
Clearly she simply could NOT hack it. She couldn’t stand the heat and she is getting out of the kitchen! She’s extremely confrontational and takes everything personally. You cannot be like that and be a successful elected official/politician. She will undoubtedly take a job with an organization that worships the ground she walks on, maybe the NRA or a pro-life group? She will only be comfortable when she is in a position that protects her and family from any and all scrutiny. There’s really nothing wrong with her admitting that she’s not cut out for the job of Governor. The problem is that she has not done that and will not do that.
All I know is that hopefully going forward I will be able to choose whether or not I want to hear her grating voice (cannot stomach that high-pitched, whiny voice!)instead of having it thrust upon me via the media. If she goes to FOX I can turn the channel. If she takes on a talk show I can opt to not watch. If she becomes a company spokesperson I can avoid those products.
I’m very happy that we seem to have been spared having to deal with the woman in the 2012 election. A quitter is a quitter and even staunch right wingers don’t like quitters. She’s toast politically….that is unless her new job involves heading the RNC? Would not surprise me a single bit.
I don’t like quitters. You are not a “fighter” when you quit. Period. This bitch has some multimillion dollar offer from Fox and cut and ran from her duties in Alaska. She is even more repulsive than I first thought. It amazes me that there are enough morons around to listen to her drivel.
I don’t know. I just consider her a more HONEST quitter. Obama straight quit being a senator to run for president. Hillary and John McCain did likewise. No one really says much about politicians abandoning their jobs to run for bigger and better things. I’ve always thought it was really crappy of them…and they all do it.
Palin, at least, isn’t holding onto her sure-thing job as a standby while going off to deal with other things. As a resident of Alaska (which I’m not), I would’ve been more upset about a governor letting the legal bills stack up while she was in court instead of her office.
Leaving office was the right, ethical, honest thing for her to do. That’s how I look at it. In order to see this point of view, however, one has to lay aside unreasonable hatred…so I doubt many of you will see it this way or even understand why I see it this way.
Aspen, I half agree. I just think that if she was honest, well, actually, I really do think she’s going to make a run for the presidency and that’s where I feel she’s not being honest…I mean, why not come out and say it then…but then again, I can also see how it wouldn’t be a good idea to announce it. I just get weirded out by how she whips up hatred and bigotry and how she hasn’t accounted for that. I know she’s got a lot of support but I fear what she would do or what would happen in America if she became president. For all of the sort of sensible things she says, she still seems like a throwback to me. There have got to be better candidates out there, if we’re going to look at gender.
Honestly, C, I don’t think there are many good candidates for either side to choose from anymore.
She will have a high paying gig on “Fair And Balanced” Fox News, alongside other “moderates” Hannity, Huckabee, and O’Reilly.
she stepped down because someone has something on her. something is going to break soon and it would have called for her resignation. just wait.
I agree with BlueSkies, the sheer NUMBER of GOPs who are fessing up doesnt make sense unless you think that the way any real politician would – can I get away with this, OH NO! Someone found out about (insert something NASTY here) and I cant shut them up or pay them off, they’re going to make me admit what a hypocrite I am – THEY’RE GOING TO MAKE ME TELL THE TRUTH!!
AHHHHHHHH!!! RUN AWAY!!!!!!!
Sanford, Pail, Gingrich, Condit, Airport Bathroom Boy, the Gay Governor…the hits just keep coming.
Somebody out there with money and a taste for revenge about the GOPs bag of dirty tricks and stolen elections and gross incompetence, and…has decided to take NO PRISONERS. Its ‘fess up and tell the truth in public or resign.
See how they run.
Oh and Aspen…?! WHY WHY WHY would you even consider any of the things you wrot about this nut? You seem to be thoughtful, so why would you even think about wasting your vote on this fool?
And believe me she’s a fool, she and I are the same age, and I know if she was an employee at the GAP and decided to quit like that she would have a hard getting her next gig because she wouldnt have a ref.
Where are all the soccer moms whining on and on about “a role model for the children”? How do you like this lying, quitter now?
Aspen, I can see your perspective, but it would mean a lot more if she said that herself — “I don’t want to neglect my job while I pursue another elected post” as opposed to what she did say, which was to the effect that if she’s a lame duck, then she should just quit. If EVERY elected official just quit once they decided not to run again, then who would get their work done? Anyone with term limits shouldn’t even bother to swear in for the job for their last term. “Politics as usual” gives everyone a headache but at least includes the generally accepted idea that people should complete the job they signed up for.