On ABC’s This Week program today, conservative columnist George Will had some harsh criticism for Sarah Palin’s decision to resign from her position as Alaska governor on Friday. Will said, “Still, she made a contract with them to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter.”
In her resignation speech, Palin said, “Life is too short to compromise time and resources and though it may be tempting and more comfortable to just kind of keep your head down and plod along and appease those who are demanding, hey, just sit down and shut up. But that’s a worthless, easy pass out. That’s a quitter’s way out.”
George Will responded to Palin’s logic by wondering what she was talking about, “I read it once, and seen it twice and I still have no idea why she did this. In one phrase, she seems to say this, will help the nation. It will free her up to help the nation. On the other hand, she says it’s her family, which I understand. She’s been fairly much impoverished by litigation that’s hurt her family and she may be wary of being referred to, as for example, a retarded flight attendant, by one HBO comedian.”
He then called her a quitter, “Be that as it may, the one that rings most hollow is she doesn’t want to put Alaska through the terror of being a lame duck governor. If she is just weary of it, one can understand that. Still, she made a contract with them to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter.”
Will didn’t buy the excuse that Palin was sparing the people of Alaska the nightmare of having a lame duck governor, and no one else should either. Blunting speaking, it is a weak line of bull. Under her own definition Palin is a quitter. If she didn’t enjoy being governor, she could have announced that would not run for another term, but my guess is that this would not have provided enough drama for Palin.
She did have a contract with the voters of Alaska, and it is very selfish of her to bail out on the people in that state who supported her. There are lots of good reasons for an office holder to resign, and they include family considerations, but Palin isn’t doing this to spend time with her family. She is already talking about a higher calling and nationally uniting Republicans.
The one criticism that is likely to stick concerning her decision to resign, is that she quit on the people of Alaska. I expect that this charge will dog her for as long as she stays in politics. If she runs in 2012, it is easy to see her opponents using this against her in ad after ad. It is very possible that her Friday attempt to further her political ambitions will result in the end of her political career.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
Will gets it right on this one. I don’t think she thought this thing through. Not surprising.
Maybe the Teabaggers can adopt her, but they prolly can’t move to Alaska no ‘mo.
Alaska may cover a lot of territory, but lacks population numbers, and therefore other numbers, including electoral votes. So—- maybe Alaska has become too small for Palin now.
If you look at where she has been spending her time, it’s not in the wilderness any more. Actions speak louder than words, and in the case of Palin, more coherently.
Palin seems dazzled by the bright lights of the big cities, and the national media. Her children…. not so much.
Don’t listen to any political analyst. Let the people decide. Sarah Palin would be the most charismatic candidate for president . Palin would energize the whole nation when she runs. She is the regular true all-around American woman and the democrats and the liberal progressive women are so terrified of her and the reason for frequent attacks on her even though the presidential election is not until 2012. There is no use talking about her now either by the analysts or the bloggers since it wouldn’t influence the the 90 % of silent Americans who would surely vote for Palin because of the incompetence of Obama militarily and economically. Look at what Obama and the democrats promised. The unemployment rate won’t go higher than 8 % if the stimulus bills were passed right away and now we have a 9.5 % unemployment rate and Biden said the democrats misread the economy. The democrats are always ignorant about fiscal responsibility,national security,jobs and the economy.
Didn’t this most religious of the Christian right put her hand on a BIBLE and swear to serve the people of Alaska? If her belief system is valid I guess she is going to hell.
It fascinates me how quickly my Republican friends have forgotten the rosy economic environment left them by Bill Clinton. Unemployment hovered around 4.5%, we had a multi trillion dollar surplus and life was good. Now, Barrack Obama is struggling to pull us out of George Bush’s toilet. I think we need to give him a little time to do that as it took 8 years to screw it up.
Palin willvbe around long after ABC fails, It’s rating are already in the john.
Let the people decide? The people have already decided! They ran her and her geriatric running mate right out of Washington! Palin’s problem is not that she is a lame duck. Her problem is that she is lame!
Speaking as a progressive, the only thing that scares me about Palin is that she is simply not intellectually equipped to be anywhere near the presidency of the United States. I was hoping that as a nation we learned from Bush the younger what disasters can occur when a simpleton is president. I desperately hope hope the number of Palin supporters is small enough to justify that hope.
Palin’S run as VP with McCain was different,. Obama was running as messiah supported by the liberal -biased media and Palin was only 3 weeks in her candidacy at that time. Obama have been running for president for many years even as a community disorganizer and a “Vote Present” senator. As a presidential candidate Palin will be unbeatable after this OBAMA AND DEMOCRATIC MISREAD OF THE ECONOMY,MASSIVE SPENDING,VERY HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE,CORRUPT AND LYING DEMOCRATS AND THE MILITARILY AND EONOMICALLY INCOMPETENT PATHOLOGICAL LIAR OBAMA.
It would take a much better mind than any politiction has on their head to get us out of the mess the republicans/ George Bush/ Mr Bush senior have gotten us into. I don’t think that any of them have the mind that it would take. Then we have a little Barbie doll that can not see any thing except Russia from her front porch. I do think this is what sunk McCain and would have even sunk Jesus Christ if he would have been running. She is a dead weight around anyones neck and whom ever gets stuck with her will only fall by the wayside. How she ever became the Govener was a bad comment on the people of Alaska most of which have moved there to get away from society to begin with.
History will prove that before EVERY ressesion we have had Republican rule and before the Great Deppresion we had 12 years of Republican rule. Every balanced budget was at the end of only Demicratic rule. Yes Obama has not undone the damage that 8 years if the court jester Bush has brought us to but we should give him the same respect we gave the idiot Bush that has gotten us into this problem as he tried to help himself and all of his close friends get their piece of the pie and screw the American middle class.
Time will tell the story and every time the Dem. have ruled we have come out ahead. So give him a chance and stand behind him and try to help not just him but the Americam way with out the idiots brought to us by the republican party.
Bill Clinton gets way too much credit for the dot com effect on our economy as Bush gets too much blame for everything that went wrong during his stay in Washington. Why must we ALL be so shallow as to think/believe that the Prez is omnipotent. Sad and pitiful little children we are.
Wow…somebody needs some serious help! What a head case you are!
is there room in your phone booth for another republican to cacus with you?
She promised to serve as Governor of Alaska, that suffered while she was off playing VP prospect… Pretty much abandoning her state for the most part during the campaign just a year after being elected…
Now 2 1/2 years into her term with another year and a half left and shes quitting. I might given her some credibility had she said “I’m not running for a second term, but darn it all if I dont do my best for the time I have left”… Instead she decided she is tired of playing Governor and is simply walking out on the people of Alaska, the very people that elected her because they believed in her. It is them she is letting down.
A year on the campaign trail and a year and a half left on her term as she leaves means she basically only served 18 months as the governor of Alaska, thats not even half of her elected term.
If she cant stand the rigors of governing one state, how can we expect her to govern 50 states and various territorys?
If she cant keep a promise to the people of the state that elected her to office, how can we expect her to keep her promise to the rest of the country? So a year or two into office as president and gosh darn it things aren’t going well she is just going to up and quit and walk out of that too?
The fact she pulled this on a state level has stymied her politcal career. Anytime she runs for any position in the future this will be brought up showing she is unfit to lead the nation when the going gets tough.
I’m amazed so many people are still willing to stand blindly behind her while she is walking away without a care about her word to those very same people. And that makes me even more sad…
Face it, Palin, you can fool yourself, but not anybody else! You don’t have the brains to accomplish that! You’re a quitter! You and Cheney refuse to admit your mistakes!
High profile individuals are suppose to have lots of umbrella libility insurance to cover frivolous lawsuits. They provide all defense expenses. So let’s not trifle over such nonsense. George Will is correct. I often see eye to eye with him. But I’ll take this even a little farther. Sarah Palin should have finished out her term as Governor before seeking any other office including VP. In my opinion this applies to all candidates. John McCain and Barack Obama should have finished out their respective senate terms before seeking higher office. What’s wrong with these people? And why do we put up with this? Now back to Sarah Palin. As Governor of a state with only 700,000 people she needed a lot more seasoning as an executive herself. What gets me about these people is what they have is never good enough. They always want more. I’ve listened to Sarah Palin speak many times. She is neither a student of politics and government or deeply well versed on the issues. However, she’s no worse than many others currently serving. But we need better. Much better. Worst of all I think stepping down as Governor was an affront to millions of unemployed Americans who would be grateful to have any job, least of all Governor. What nerve. And how elitist is this? Wouldnt we all like to be in the enviable position of resigning as Governor to go on a nationwide book signing and speech making tour. This is downright ridiculous, and I really think Sarah Palin should be ashamed of herself. Isnt finishing what we start also part of the American dream? And the American work ethic?