RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Sarah Palin for VP

More bad news for Palin...


or maybe a tell all book about the Palins is actually a good thing for them. What does basams think?

If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one.

After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues - and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska. I suppose she'll take a hit for leaving the governorship early - but how much of one? She's probably accomplished most of what she was going to get done as governor, and is leaving a sympatico lieutenant governor in charge.

And haven't conservatives been lamenting the lack of a national leader? Well, now she'll try to be that. She may not succeed. Everything rests on her talents, and on her performance. She'll be under intense and hostile scrutiny, and she'll have to perform well.

All in all, it's going to be a high-wire act. The odds are against her pulling it off. But I wouldn't bet against it.

you forgot the link to the Republican parties statement. Surely you werent talking out your ass again?

this is refreshing, we finally have a breakthrough you admitted you were wrong! mark it down!

you admitted that your statement was false, some fellow members questioned her but not her party. it sucks to be caught red handed lying, but youll survive.

Top Republicans puzzled by Palin's abrupt resignation
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
Sarah Palin has no intention of retiring from public life, the soon-to-be ex-Alaska governor's spokeswoman said Sunday, but top Republicans are expressing befuddlement at the decision by one of the party's leading presidential prospects to give up her job.

"It's astounding," Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican said on CBS' Face the Nation. Grassley, whose state holds the crucial first contest of the presidential campaign, said he would welcome a Palin presidential candidacy but thought it might now be harder to launch.

"I would think, if you want to run for president — and I'm not sure that's got anything to do with what she's doing — that the forum of a governorship would be a better forum than just being a private citizen," Grassley said.

Meghan Stapleton, the governor's communications director, told USA TODAY in a phone interview that she expects Palin to remain active as a speaker and campaigner. "I am listening to options for her," she said. Palin's also working to complete memoirs due out next spring.

"She doesn't have a next step decided yet," Stapleton said. "We will just have to wait for history."

Palin, who last year became the Republican Party's first female vice presidential nominee, announced plans to step aside as governor at a hastily organized holiday news conference Friday, citing the toll that her national notoriety has taken on her state, her family and her finances.

But in a Facebook posting the next day, Palin said she wants to "help our nation achieve greatness" by advancing a platform of energy independence, smaller government and enhanced national security.

Over the weekend, Palin moved aggressively to squelch rumors that her surprise decision might have darker motivations. She posted links on her Twitter account to a Los Angeles Times article quoting FBI officials saying that she is not under investigation. Her lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, threatened legal action against reporters and bloggers who suggest any wrongdoing by Palin or her husband, Todd.

Last year's Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, issued a statement expressing "the greatest respect and affection" for his former running mate, and a hope that "she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican Party."

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he'll seek Palin's help this fall for GOP gubernatorial candidates Bob McDonnell in Virginia and Chris Christie in New Jersey.

Other party leaders were not so enthused. Karl Rove, former political adviser to President George W. Bush, said on Fox News Sunday that he and other GOP strategists are "perplexed" by Palin's bombshell. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, another potential 2012 Republican presidential contender, called Palin's strategy "risky."

Even so, SarahPAC, Palin's political action committee, enjoyed a surge of contributions after the governor's announcement, Stapleton said.

Her decision caught many members of her own party flat-footed. "I didn't find out until a newspaper called," said state Rep. Wes Keller, a Palin ally. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski— whose father, former Alaska governor Frank Murkowski, lost the GOP primary to Palin in 2006 — accused Palin of having "decided to abandon the state and her constituents."

Palin's resignation becomes official July 26. She will be succeeded by Alaska's lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, a Republican.

GOP Leaders Confused, as Palin Tweets On

By JOHN HENDREN and KRISTINA WONG
WASHINGTON, July 5, 2009

Republican leaders say they're just -mailShare this story with friendsBuzz Up!as baffled as everyone else by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's sudden resignation, announced outside her home in Wasilla last Friday.

What does the resignation of the Alaska Governor mean for her career?

More PhotosKarl Rove said today that GOP leaders were "a little perplexed" and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said it was "astounding."

Several prominent Republicans have also questioned whether the 2008 vice presidential candidate was setting up an unconventional presidential run. But they questioned how stepping down now would help her in three years.
...

I'm banking on her running for senate.

(citing RAW Story) Rumors fly about Palin’s ‘iceberg scandal’...BradBlog now suggests that Palin’s resignation was due to an upcoming Federal indictment for embezzlement....Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor.....Granted this seems to be all internet rumor but I just can't see Palin just resigning without some type of reason that is essentially forcing her to do this.

back the discussion, why do you think the liberals notably the Huffington post worry about her so much if they believe her career is dead?

Their reasoning followed conventional assumptions about what it takes to mount a national campaign -- that, in surrendering the governor's office in Alaska and ending her brief tenure in statewide office, she leaves behind a thin record on which to base a national bid.

Yet it has been obvious that Alaska is a difficult place from which to participate in the national debate, both because of its physical distance from the rest of the United States and because of its culture and identity. Freed of the constraints of her office, Palin could become a more engaged participant in the national debate.

"My contrarian take is, almost everyone I talk to thinks it's crazy, but I wonder maybe it's crazy like a fox," said Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, who has been defending Palin this past week.

Kristol's view is that spending another 18 months in office in Alaska will not convince skeptics that Palin is ready to be president. Instead, he said, she can use this time to travel the country and the world, to immerse herself in policy issues and to campaign for Republican candidates, without facing questions every time she leaves the state about whether she is shirking her responsibilities.

"It's a heck of a gamble, but it might pay off," Kristol said.

Few who have watched Palin doubt her ability to attract attention, command a following and make herself a force, should she choose to run for president. Democratic and Republican strategists agree that she has charisma and a personality that connects with people.

"The skills she has are formidable and unteachable," Mark Salter, who was one of McCain's top advisers, said after he heard the news of her resignation.

All of that may mean little to the supporters who flocked to Palin during the presidential campaign and who remain loyal to her. She had far more appeal than McCain last year and drew far bigger crowds than he ever could. How they will see yesterday's announcement is not known, but they have tended to be both protective and forgiving of Palin as she has charted her unusual course through national politics.

A Republican strategist who got to know her over the past year, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to offer a candid opinion, said this: "She has a base in the party that's motivated like no one else's, and this decision won't bother them. I don't know if she'll run. I don't know if she could win if she ran. But I'm sure she has a shot.

Sarah Palin's “bombshell” holiday announcement that she will resign as Governor of Alaska managed to trump Michael Jackson as the lead on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts Friday night as NBC's Chuck Todd predicted she will now make fundraising appearances for GOP candidates where she'll draw in “car-wreck watchers.” CBS reporter Nancy Cordes reflected the tone of the stories when she described “a rambling, at times confusing announcement,” while on all three newscasts Palin's decision was called “bizarre.”

NBC News White House reporter Chuck Todd, who suggested she decided to quit so she could “make a lot of money” on the speaking circuit free of ethics complaint hassles, also predicted she will bring in big crowds at fundraisers for GOP candidates which will also entice those not so impressed by her:

She may spend the next year campaigning for Republicans all across the country. She's probably going to be the person that can attract the largest crowds, some of it is car-wreck watchers -- you know, they just are coming, kind of curiosity-seekers. It doesn't matter. She can attract a lot of people.

Audio: MP3 clip (16 seconds)

Before Todd, NBC reporter Peter Alexander applied the “bizarre” label: “It was just the latest bizarre twist for the self-described maverick...”

ABC and CBS reporters refrained from using that description themselves and left it to others in their July 3 coverage. In the World News story by David Wright, ABC's own Cokie Roberts maintained:

It's mystifying. It was a bizarre statement. It didn't make a lot of sense and it doesn't seem to be the kind of thing someone would do if someone was running for President.

On the CBS Evening News, in the piece from Nancy Cordes, the Politico's Mike Allen, a veteran of Time magazine, declared:

This is very unusual, even bizarre. Governors just don't stop in the middle of their terms when there's no clear reason.

Following Cordes, CBS News political analyst John Dickerson, also a veteran of Time, told fill-in anchor Maggie Rodriguez:

It's bizarre and there's no good explanation. And if she were trying to do away with the kind of speculation that she says has so irritated her, this not the way to do it.

I know MEM will take this as an Obama bashing but seriously, can anyone judge a good political strategy for the White House after his win? He was a guy with an Isamic name, attended a racially charged church, and his biggest claim to fame was being Oprah's pal. Conventional wisdom is on it's ear. After his win no one can honestly say their is a formula for winning the White house.

Obama didn't even do any work in his major office before pursuing presidency.

I don't see that as Obama bashing. His resume was thin. However Palin's resume isn't just thin, she also just up and quit a major office. Perhaps the gop could stick her in as head of the RNC but she won't be able to win a senate seat.

Your point is well taken. However, given that Senate seats have been won by a former First Lady who never held political office and a comedian with a failed radio show, I wouldn't assume Palin's chances for the Senate are that grim.

I don't see that as Obama bashing. His resume was thin. However Palin's resume isn't just thin, she also just up and quit a major office. Perhaps the gop could stick her in as head of the RNC but she won't be able to win a senate seat.

According to the nationwide poll, close to 67% of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future. And 71% of them say they would likely vote for her if she ran for president in 2012.

...

"To political pros [Palin's resignation] may be a problem. To the base, I'm not sure it's a problem at all," Bennett told CNN.

And Bennett may be exactly right. Just as Republicans as a whole are unfazed by Palin's move, the poll shows Democrats and Independents are as unhappy with her as they were before, with 75% of Democrats and 55% of independents preferring she leave the national stage altogether.

According to USA TODAY, public opinion of Palin has become so polarized that her surprise announcement did little to change anyone's feelings: Seven out of 10 people say their views weren’t affected at all.

She's writing a book with an anti-American Jew hater?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl435

Everyone -- especially those in the political pundit class seems to be calling Sarah Palin a loser, a quitter, a committer of political suicide by leaving office mid-term.

They are all very wrong.

What's being missed is that the usual political calculations simply do not apply to Sarah Palin, one of the most unusual public figures to come along in years.

With this decision and this announcement, Sarah Palin has been absolutely true to herself. Long-term, this will translate to a success that will leave most political pundits in the dust.

Why?

The pundit class is basing their analysis on calculations of the past (i.e., people who got elected president didn't quit as governor) and on the assumption that Sarah Palin made a political calculation in resigning.

They are simply not seeing either Sarah Palin for who she is, or what truly matters to the millions who support her, and they can't compute that there were no political calculations involved.

Her decision was one with her brand for two main reasons:

1) She's practical and holds government to the same standard. This means that when she was watching millions being spent on what seems to amount to frivolous investigations against her, she couldn't stand by and watch the money be wasted. Not only was she being hamstrung in her job, but dollars were being thrown out the window. Her frustration over this waste showed at her press conference. Not only does this point back to the sincerity of her brand and reinforce that she actually cares about every taxpayer dollar, but it puts her "quitting" in a different light -- by stepping aside and risking hurting her political career, she is actually saving Alaska money (one of her core promises she made to the people of that state).

2) She embodies family values and put them first. For the political class, a family is often an accessory, but even so, families are semi-sacred ground for the media, that is except for Sarah Palin's. By any reasonable standard, her family was dragged through the mud. The wife and mother making the announcement on July 3 was someone who could not and would not bear any more. She made a choice that came out of the deepest part of herself (her core brand) -- no wonder the political class was left scratching its collective head. They hadn't taken her claims of loving her family seriously. But the wives and mothers who make up Palin's supporters got it.

Fact is, as Stanley Fish over at The New York Times pointed out: if you just listened to what Palin said at her press conference, you'd understand that this was not someone making a traditional political calculation. This was someone being real about her choices and her pain.

And that's why Sarah Palin has just strengthened herself for the long run (if she ever chooses a political future). She wasn't erratic at all; she was true to the things she believes in.

Just look at her latest interview with the Associated Press:

You would be amazed at how much time and resource my staff and I, the Department of Law especially, spend on this every day. It is a waste. We are spending these millions of dollars not on teachers and troopers and roads or fish research and other things that are needed in Alaska."

She's a woman who means what she says and does what she believes. But the pundits simply aren't listening.

So let the pundits piece this out over the months and years ahead, but one thing is already clear: her base is still with her, and Sarah Palin is poised to grow.

.... her base is still with her, and Sarah Palin is poised to grow.