Okay, I have to admit. I've been biting my tongue ever since we got pummeled the past two elections. We all know why it happened but no one wants to talk about it. Then along comes Ensign, then Sanford, now Palin. What the hell is going on? Is anyone minding the store?

That rambling excuse of a announcement and explanation made no sense to my teenagers. You know what, it made absolutely no sense to me either.

I don't normally watch CNN but somehow found myself on that station yesterday. I just couldn't stomach some of the Fox regulars trying to spin this as a positive for our party. Ed Rollins, former Huckabee campaign manager and longtime Republican stratagist, who I admire and respect, pretty much summed it up for me.

"If she is paving the way for a 2012 Presidential run, it was a very stupid methodology to go forward. She added another controversy to -- and no one has defended her more than I have on this show and other shows. I like her. I think she was an interesting choice. Not a great choice. I think at this point in time, she didn't have strong enough credentials to run for Vice President. She now has added one more demerit by quitting. And I think to a certain extent there are a lot of governors with very tough sledding right now and the ones who's going to succeed are the ones that are going to stay in there and finish the job. The only thing that may be practical is she said this is what's best for Alaska. If you don't want to do the job, maybe it is."

"First of all, you don't raise questions in a press conference. You go out in a press conference and you answer questions. Everyone now has questions. Why did she do this? She stepped all over her own story that she was quitting. But in this particular thing I think, the bottom line here, is -- if she wanted to quit and not run for re-election that's one thing, she could have done that a year from now, she could have done that four months before the end of this term and still run for president. Mike Huckabee ran for president, didn't finish up until January, won the Iowa caucus. Romney was governor, right up to the end and he ran a year later. There's plenty of time if you're going to ran for president. I think she didn't like the game. I think she got beat up. It is a very tough game. It is like saying, if you go to sports analogy, she basically talked about basketball. She quit halfway. It would be like Kobe Bryant half way through the season and says, I pass the ball, I don't like it. They are too playing too rough. I think she has basically added one more quirky side to her and I think she's now becoming more of a kook than a serious candidate. And I think that's a detriment to any candidate."

"She also raised a lot of money to pay off her legal fees. She's got a big PAC going. She was a very serious candidate for president and a lot of conservatives would have been supportive of her. I think this basically just makes people take a second look."

Don't feel bad. I've been trying to tell the yahoos on this forum how incompetent Palin was for the past year. They just kept defender her and talk about her qualifications. If anyone actually saw that botchery of a press conference, it was about as amateurish as I have ever seen. For somthing that was apparently "in the works" for months, it certainly looked like Palin was reading a teleprompter for the first time with no prior knowledge of the subject matter. She did ramble on incoherently and jumped from subject to subject, all while using the most idiotic analogies I have ever heard.

Finally, we can put her incompetence to rest. The VP candidate with the thinnest resume in US history certainly has no shot at running for the Presidency now.

With all due respect, good riddance. Now let's see, Ensign, Sanford, Palin no longer candidates for 2012. I guess Jindal isn't looking so bad after all now is he?

... will resign, too.

But, then, I doubt it. Obama is just too full of himself to give up the power.

truly unbeleivable how the Reps refuse to address the issues posed in these threads. Would you like to comment on your beloved Golden Child (aka Palin) and how she bailed (aka QUIT) with 17 months left in her FIRST term as Governor? This is beyond pathetic. Her excuses were even worse. I'm tired of skirting the issue and avoiding calling her the names that really come to mind. But after this last little act, I'll just say it, Sarah Palin is S-T-U-P-I-D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Try reading the posts above, including some of the commends from Ed Rollins, and come back when you have something to contribute to the conversation. Something other than the tired old Neocon talking points of "Palin had more executive experience than Obama/Biden combined." We're tired of being insulted with that worn our line. That dog don't hunt. Or shall I use a fishing analogy in honor of Palin?

"truly unbeleivable how the Reps refuse to address the issues posed in these threads."

The "issues posed in these threads"?? You mean Sarah Palin, John Ensign, Rush Limbaugh et al?? Those are your "issues"? You really are in the TMZ generation, aren't you? How about the issues on which you have nothing to offer? The looming health care plan? The looming energy plan? Unemployment? Where taxation is going in this country? Those are real issues that affect real people, all people. You worry about scandals, polls and future elections, while the real crux issues are either too complicated for you to understand, or not sensational enough to interest you.

Due to Alaska's "close proximity" to Russia and "energy rich" natural resources? Oh yeah, I believe she did. Not all the Reps are trying to downplay this as a non-story that only impacts Alaskans? Give me a break! You guys are the ultimate hypocrits, wanting it both ways.

Ensign, Sanford, Palin. So tell us, who is next?

Looks like you support the high unemployment rates that Obama gave us.

"We all know why it happened but no one wants to talk about it."

Most are more than happy to talk about it. Unpopular war in Iraq (2006), cratering economy (2008). The reasons are not very complicated, and have nothing to do with Sarah Palin, or John Ensign or anyone else. For some unknown reason, you, I presume a member of the new TMZ geberation, want those to be the reasons, but they are not. The reasons are both simple and obvious.