[vc318]

^ I guess so.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

Rove: Palin's resignation lacks clear strategy
Posted: 11:08 AM ET

(CNN) — The "architect" of George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns has questions about Sarah Palin's resignation as governor.

"It's a risky strategy," Republican campaign mastermind Karl Rove told "Fox News Sunday."

Palin's unexpected announcement Friday that she will step down with 18 months left in her first term has left many in her party "a little perplexed," said Rove, whom Bush dubbed "The Architect" for managing his two victorious campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

Palin, who was John McCain's surprise vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, said she already knew she would not seek a second term, and decided against being a lame duck governor for the next 18 months.

She also complained that too much time and taxpayer expense was going toward fighting ethics investigations, and that the mainstream media continued with unfair attacks on her and her family.

Some analysts believe Palin will seek the 2012 Republican nomination, and that her resignation is intended to free her to prepare.

Rove said stepping down now won't lessen the media spotlight, and in fact takes away her platform as governor for controlling her agenda and message.

"The media, if she wants to run for president, is going to be following her for the next 3-1/2 years," Rove said.

He called her move unclear and therefore a potentially harmful strategy for a politician.

"Effective strategies in politics are ones that are so clear and obvious that people can grasp," Rove said. "It's not clear what she's doing and why."

Oh well. I guess some care about her resigning and some will just move one so...

[*Raine*]

It'll be interesting to see where she goes, and how far the American people let her get.

[sunnykerr]

I would like her to go AWAY.

Plain and simple.

[vc318]

I wonder if she resigned because of this news:

FBI spokesman: We're not investigating Palin - CNN.com

FBI spokesman: We're not investigating Palin

(CNN) -- The FBI, in a rare response to rampant rumors on the Internet, said it is not investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on public corruption charges.

Normally, we don't confirm or deny those kind of allegations out there. But, by not doing so, it just casts her in a very bad light," said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, who confirmed for CNN the statement he made to the Anchorage Daily News. "There is just no truth to those rumors out there in the blogosphere."

Gonzalez told The Los Angeles Times that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry.

The speculation began almost immediately after Palin's unexpected announcement on Friday that she would step down as Alaska's chief executive with 18 months left in her term.

Palin, who was John McCain's surprise vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, said she already knew she would not seek a second term and decided against being a lame duck governor for the next 18 months.

She also said too much time and taxpayer expense were going toward fighting ethics investigations, and that the mainstream media were continuing with unfair attacks on her and her family.

Some analysts think Palin will seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, and that her resignation is intended to free her to prepare.

Immediate reaction to Palin's resignation among fellow conservatives was not positive.

Karl Rove, the "architect" of George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns, said the resignation left many of Palin's fellow Republicans "a little perplexed."

"It's a risky strategy," Rove told "Fox News Sunday."

"Astounding," was the pronouncement by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and conservative columnist George Will said Palin was declaring herself a quitter.

"The one that rings most hollow is she doesn't want to put Alaska through the terror of [her] being a lame-duck governor," Will told the ABC program "This Week." "If she is just weary of it, one can understand that. Still, she made a contract with them [voters] to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter."

"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," Palin said in a statement attributed to her on her Facebook page.

"And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family."

I didn't even know it was a possibility that she'd be pinned up on these charges.

[sunnykerr]

I guess it tells you something how just how many ethics violations she's racked up. That, or the gravity of the ones she's committed.

Either way, let her go away. Let her stay away.

Blaming the mainstream media... bleh. Does she not know what the word "mainstream" stands for?

When the job of President is up for grabs, zealots need not apply.

[wanderer78]

I was surprised by this. I don't like her at all though. And like Sunny said, I wish she would go away as well.

[sunnykerr]

Embattled Senator Will Not Run in 2010 WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Roland Burris, D-Illinois, is expected to announce Friday that he will not run for a full six year term next year, a well-placed Democratic source tells CNN. Burris is currently serving the remaining two years of President Obama’s Senate term, but he has never been embraced by Democratic leaders in Illinois or Capitol Hill. A Burris spokeswoman would not comment on the senator’s future political plans, but his office did release an advisory Thursday stating that he would make a “major announcement” during a speech Friday afternoon in Chicago. A spokesman for Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, said that Burris had spoken to Durbin but would only say “we will let him speak for himself” on Friday. Burris was appointed to the seat in late December by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who had been arrested on federal corruption charges for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s seat to the highest bidder. Democratic Party leaders urged Blagojevich not to make an appointment, but he disregarded those wishes by naming Burris, a former state attorney general and state comptroller, to the seat. Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office in January and Democrats grudgingly recognized Burris as the junior senator from Illinois. But he still faced an investigation and scrutiny at the same time he was trying to learn the ropes on Capitol Hill. In June, the state attorney in Sangamon County ruled that it would not charge Burris with perjury in connection with his testimony for the alleged “pay for play” scheme with Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat. John Schmidt, the state’s attorney, said that Burris gave incomplete but truthful answers to questions about his conversations with Balogjevich’s representatives. Without the backing of national and state Democrats, it would be a difficult, if not impossible, campaign for Burris to run for his own six year term. Now, the question is who will run for Burris’ seat? A top candidate for the nomination, state Attorney Gen. Lisa Madigan, announced earlier this week that she would run for reelection of her current office. Other Democrats reportedly eyeing the seat include Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson, and Chicago businessman Christopher Kennedy. Kennedy is the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-New York. A senior Senate Republican source tells CNN that Rep. Mark Kirk has told GOP leaders that he plans to run for the seat. A Kirk spokesman could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Embattled senator will not run in 2010 � - Blogs from CNN.com

Oh, what will he have inscribed on his mausoleum Wall of Accomplishments?

[Callace]

I really wonder how it will be if Palin does indeed run for prsident in 2012. She proved herself unsuitable already this time. I really hope she cant convince too many to give her a second chance to get that job. (or, perhaps she should? From what I can gather, she is not very popular for the time bein, so having her as the R candidate might make it easier for Obama to get re-elected)

[ceilirose]

Palin is very popular with the Republican Conservative base but I don't know how that translates to the rest of the party. Although I did see a poll last week that said something like 7 out of 10 Republicans would vote for her for President.

The thing is that she can't be elected with just the Conservative base. She doesn't really have a broad appeal across the political spectrum.

I have no idea what her stand is on health care reform or immigration. I do know that she constantly portrays herself as a fighter, a maverick etc., etc. but I don't see much proof of that. Palin criticizes the media non stop but after her resignation speech she was interviewed by all the major networks and posed for the cover of Time Magazine. Who knows?

[vc318]

NYT: Palin's route to resignation - The New York Times- msnbc.com


ANCHORAGE - In late March, a senior official from the Republican Governors Association headed for Alaska on a secret mission. Sarah Palin was beset by such political and personal turmoil that some powerful supporters determined an intervention was needed to pull her governorship, and her national future, back from the brink.

The official, the association’s executive director, Nick Ayers, arrived with a memorandum containing firm counsel, according to several people who know its details: Make a long-term schedule and stick to it, have staff members set aside ample and inviolable family time to replenish your spirits, and build a coherent home-state agenda that creates jobs and ensures re-election.

Like so much of the advice sent Ms. Palin’s way by influential supporters, it appeared to be happily received and then largely discarded, barely slowing what was, in retrospect, an inexorable march toward the resignation she announced 10 days ago.

Ms. Palin had returned to her home state from the presidential campaign as one of the hopeful prospects in her struggling party, even if she had much to prove to her detractors. Standing before the Legislature in January, she vowed to retake her office with “optimism and collaboration and hard work to get the job done.”

But interviews in Alaska and in Washington show that a seemingly relentless string of professional and personal troubles quickly put that goal out of reach.

Almost as soon as she returned home, the once-popular governor was isolated from an increasingly critical Legislature. Lawmakers who had supported her signature effort to develop a natural gas pipeline turned into uncooperative critics.

Ethics complaints mounted, and legal bills followed. At home Ms. Palin was dealing with a teenage daughter who had given birth to a son and broken up with the infant’s father, a baby of her own with special needs and a national news media that was eager to cover it all.

Friends worried that she appeared anxious and underweight. Her hair had thinned to the point where she needed emergency help from her hairdresser and close friend, Jessica Steele.

“Honestly, I think all of it just broke her heart,” Ms. Steele said in an interview at her beauty parlor in Wasilla, the Beehive.

Yet to the dismay of some advisers, Ms. Palin dived into the fray, seeming to relish the tabloid-ready fights that consumed her as the work of the state at times went undone.

Her public feud with David Letterman over a tasteless sexual joke he made about one of her daughters spun into a broader fight at home with a fellow Republican over state efforts to combat sexual abuse.

She had a political aide issue a news release condemning Levi Johnston, the teenage father of her daughter Bristol’s newborn, for his assertion that Ms. Palin had known the unwed high-schoolers were having sex all along.

Sounds like her resignation is tied to a mental breakdown or something. Then I guess it was a good time for her to step down.

[sunnykerr]

I don't know... maybe she did get a taste of the "good life." We all know public servants don't make all that much, at least in comparison with how much someone with her brand-name recognition could make.

Hey, join the ranks of the Ann Coulters of this world or fade into obscurity. Either one works for me.

[wanderer78]

As much as I dislike her, I don't think a male in her position would get as much scrutiny and criticism over the same actions.

[sunnykerr]

Be that as it may, she is courting the attention quite a lot.

[ceilirose]

Well any woman will get more scrutiny than a male. Just remember Hillary Clinton last year.

The difference is that Clinton can hold her own in terms of temperment and political knowledge with the top politicians in the Democratic Party. She was that close to getting the nomination.

Palin can't do that.

[wanderer78]

Which is why I always wondered how she got the nom in the first place. Surely, there was a more qualified woman in the Republican party?

I still fear her becoming President one day. If there's one thing the Republicans are good at, it's getting dangerously underqualified people into the White House.