Ouch! This article nails Palin.

Anyone who is in any way surprised by Sarah Palin's announcement today that she will not be seeking re-election, and, even more significantly, is stepping down as Governor of Alaska, has not been paying close attention. The signs have been everywhere.

Palin has absolutely zero interest in running the State of Alaska. She steadfastly refused to live in Juneau after her first year there, had the gall to charge the state for residing at her home in Wasilla 600 miles away, and she basically mailed in her performance as the state's top administrator during Alaska's most recent legislative session. She has alienated virtually all the key legislators in her own party -- that's right, Republicans -- and had failed to move any key legislation forward since her return to Alaska from the national campaign trail last November.

In fact, her bizarre appointment for Attorney General, Wayne Anthony Ross, was rejected nearly unanimously by the state legislature -- a first in Alaskan history. Even in respect to energy policy, her supposed bailiwick, she has been categorically ineffective. When I asked those in-the-know what role Palin had played in putting together the recent pipeline deal between TransCanada and Exxon, their response was simple: "None."

None. That about sums up Palin's accomplishments as Governor of the Last Frontier.

The evangelical right can wallow in denial all they want about Palin being victimized by liberals or Democrats or even George Soros (some illiterate wingnut recently tried to link me to him), but the fact is that most of the people with really bad things to say about Palin -- from John McCain's staff to conservatives in Alaska -- come from the Republican Party. The charges of a left-wing conspiracy are so ridiculous as to be absolutely absurd.

But then what coming from the Palin camp isn't?

Moreover, Palin was facing what would have been a hugely embarrassing veto override by the Alaska legislature at the beginning of the next session in January over her politically postured refusal to accept Federal stimulus funds. If this past legislative session was a setback for Palin, the upcoming session would have been an absolute public relations disaster -- hardly the proper entree for her presidential campaign.

My sources in Wasilla tell me that Palin's father, Chuck Heath, has spoken repeatedly about the "liberal press" and dreaded "bloggers" taking their toll on his daughter. I recently discovered an early, telling email by Palin complaining to her pal Meg Stapleton about something a blogger had written in the Anchorage Daily News and how significantly it bothered her -- "kind of makes my stomach turn over," she wrote. Palin can dish, but she can't take it. She's got a terribly thin skin. When I reported here less than a month ago that Palin had clearly lifted passages from an article by Newt Gingrich and Craig Shirley (whose name she didn't even bother to mention) she and her entourage went apoplectic. What she had done was blatantly obvious and she would have been tossed from any reputable college or university for such slipshod citation. Palin, and the sycophants with whom she surrounds herself, simply have no moral compass.

Some pundits have said that Palin's resignation is out of character. Hardly. Don't forget that she resigned from her last statewide office -- that as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Sarah Palin is a quitter. She fancies herself something else. But, in the end, she quit her position at AOGCC and she has now quit her governorship. That's two-for-two at the statewide level. In Wasilla, there was nearly a recall launched against her as mayor. Trouble and turbulence have followed her everywhere.

More importantly, there are rumors in Alaska that more Ethics Act charges are in the works and that there is also a more serious Federal investigation focusing on Palin during her tenure as mayor in Wasilla and the building of her home and a sports complex in Wasilla, long speculated to have been linked. It's the one very touchy subject whenever you bring it up in the MatSu Valley. As someone who is writing a book on Palin, I can attest to the fact that there are always rumors flying about her, not all of them true, but this seems like a real possibility, especially given the timing of her announcement today.

Palin also has a multi-million dollar book project for Rupert Murdoch that she needs to complete in time for a spring release. That's some serious cabbage, and there were grumblings in Alaska about the book deal as well. There will be other lucrative, high-visibility media options for her shortly down the road. Don't be surprised to hear of one of those popping up soon. This frees her up to reach for the gold ring without her minions being able to register any complaints. In that respect, it's a logical move.

A longtime Republican in Alaska who has known Palin since she ran for lieutenant governor in 2002 told me that Palin "enthusiastically embraced" her trip to Georgia last year in which she campaigned for Senator Saxby Chambliss. She sees herself doing that around the country in 2010, raising money for conservative Republicans and, by so doing, building support for a presidential candidacy in 2012. "She was absolutely adored in Georgia," said the GOP operative, "and she loved her role there --preaching her particular brand of conservatism to the already converted." And make no mistake about it: Sarah Palin is by far the biggest ticket item that GOP has in its dwindling catalog of candidates.

All of the recent public donnybrooks have taken their toll: First the article by Mark Purdum in Vanity Fair and then the even nastier revelations of emails leaked by the McCain campaign which showed her to be an utter liar regarding her husband Todd's membership in the Alaska Independent Party. Even the seemingly innocuous interview in Runner's World, with its bizarre, braggadocio boast of her having more endurance than Obama, revealed her penchant for duplicity at every turn: the assertion that an injury she had sustained while jogging in Arizona had been kept top-secret, a contention thoroughly disputed by the inimitable Mudflats.

One of my favorite lies spewed by Palin today in yet another poorly scripted speech was that she campaigned for governor "four years ago...," when she, in fact, ran for governor three years ago and held her position for little more than two-and-half years. It's the little lies she always tells, the twists of truth, the distortions. Four years sounds like nearly a full term; three feels incomplete. So why not just call it four?

For all her projected toughness, Palin loves to play the victim. "Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt," she whined, implying that her problems are from out-of-state (yet another big lie). "Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations..." It wasn't quite Richard Nixon's "Checker's Speech," but it was close. In her own awkward vernacular, the Governor was essentially saying to Alaska, "You won't have Sarah Palin to kick around any more."

Here's a little bit of Alaska inside talk for you. Those close to the governor have consistently indicated to me that they privately blame Mitt Romney & Co. as the source of a lot of the media hits on Palin. It may even be true. But with today's announcement, Palin will soon be on equal footing with Romney -- no longer saddled by statewide office and free to travel and maneuver however and wherever she damn well pleases. Today's statement was a great equalizer for 2012.

By being a lame duck, Palin would have exposed herself to more negative coverage, more public failure. By stepping down she allows herself to regroup, get out from under the microscope and re-emerge as a national figure without the constant strain of serving as governor.

Some news sources are claiming that Palin is stepping away from politics permanently; perhaps. But I didn't hear that today. What I heard were typical Palin code words that she has her ambitions set for higher office, for a national stage. Her shots at Obama's stimulus package were just one of many signals aimed directly at Washington.
So do not think for a moment that this is the last we will be hearing from Sarah Palin. The Federal Election Commission will soon be reporting how much money Palin's SarahPAC has raised over the past four months. You can bet that Palin has a lot of gas left in her tank. She is the gift that John McCain gave us that will not go away.

Look what the left wing loons did to Caroline Kennedy and Palin.

Why is the left anti woman? No, Pelosi is not a waoman.

Dems backed Kennedy in 68 after the death of Mary Jo. Dems are phoney big time. It is power over country, Party over country and money over morals. Dems are the most Hypocritical folks around.

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Face it the majority of us are never in the position to earn substantial money. I cannot blame her for wanting to cash in via book deals and speeches.

The article (Huffington Post) posted without credit by the OP shows that it's author has a financial interest, and is not objective. But then, he is one of the 21% of the country that is leftist (except for his own interests, cause he will not be publishing that book for free) and feels that anyone who does not share his views is OK for character assassination.

Geoffrey Dunn is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker and historian. Raised in a working-class, Italian-American fishing colony in Santa Cruz, California, Dunn was a Rhodes Scholar nominee and the recipient of a John L. Senior Fellowship at Cornell Universitys Graduate School of Government.

Dunn has produced and directed more than a dozen award-winning documentary films (three of which qualified for Academy Award nominations), including Dollar a Day, 10¢ a Dance: A Historic Portrait of Filipino Farm Workers in America; Chinese Gold: The Chinese of the Monterey Bay Region; Mi Vida: The Three Worlds of Maria Gutierrez; Missor Myth?; and the recently completed Calypso Dreams.

Dunn is the author of Santa Cruz Is in the Heart and Chinatown Dreams: The Life and Photographs of George Lee. He also wrote the original screenplay for the feature film Maddalena Z. The winner of a 2002 Gail Rich Award for artistic contributions in Northern California, Dunn earned a Ph. D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has served as a Lecturer in both the Community Studies and Film & Digital Media departments at UCSC and was the winner of an Excellence in Teaching award there in 2001.

Dunn currently serves as a regular contributor to Metro Newspapers and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is also at work on a book about Sarah Palin and her role in American politics, to be published by Macmillan/St. Martin's in 2010.

Are you living in 1992 or do you realize this is 2009. The Dems have widened their advantages not only in the senate and house, but also in the American voting block. The current advantages are historic. Last I read, 53% of the country considered themselves Democrats versus 35% Republican. Even Wikepedia shows 77 million registered Democrats compared to 55 million Republican and 42 million Independents.

Might want to check your facts before making such outlandish posts.

or leftist. re-read, and see what the post said.

35+ percent consider themselves conservative and the rest consider themselves moderate.

And polling still indicates that the country is right of center, no matter what party they are affiliated with.

This country right of center? I hear that on Hannity almost daily. What a crock. You want to spin polls further, why don't you just throw in Progressives too. Yeah, let's see how much of the country considers themselves progressives. I think my point remains, that the gap between Democrats and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives, is as wide as it's been in the past 100 years. And that gap, my friend, is continuing to grow in favor of the Dems/Liberals!

i can only provide you with the data, i can't make sure you have the cognitive ability to understand it. neither can the government. i'll look for some data on your 'divide', but i don't know that i can find any..... maybe you can enlighten us?


Rasmussen Reports has taken a look at how conservative or liberal the voters are in different aspects of their every day life. They found that 41% of the voters think of themselves as conservative when it comes to the issues of taxes, government spending and the regulation of private business while 41% consider themselves to be moderates and 12% say they are liberal.

Meanwhile, when it comes to social issues, 37% think of themselves as conservatives, 30% say they are moderate and 30% liberal. This includes issues like abortion, praying in public and the separation of church and state.

Breaking it down by political parties, 67% of the Republicans think of themselves as being conservative on fiscal matters while 50% of the Democrats and 49% of the independent voters think of themselves as being moderates when it comes to fiscal matters.

When it comes to the social issues, the figures are a bit different with 61% of the Republican voters considering themselves to be conservative while 43% of the Democrats say they are liberal. With the independent voters, they could not be split any more evenly than they are with 30% saying they are conservative it comes to social issues, 35% considering themselves to be moderate and 33% liberal.

Then they took the fiscal and social issues and put the results together. The largest segment of the population, 24% say they are conservative on both the fiscal and social issues while 17% consider themselves to be moderate both fiscally and socially, 14% who say they are moderate on the fiscal issues and conservative on the social ones 10% who consider themselves to be fiscally conservative and moderate on the social issues, 9% who say they are liberal on both the social and fiscal issues, and lastly, 6% who say they are conservative on the fiscal issues, but liberal on the social ones.

As is to be expected, there are differences when it comes to the political affiliations. There is 47% of the Republican voters who consider themselves to be conservative on both the fiscal and social issues. The Democrats, however, are much more split in their opinions with 29% who say they are moderate on the fiscal issues, but are socially liberal, 19% who think of themselves as moderate all the way around, and 16% who say they are liberal on both the fiscal and social sides of life.

Source: Rasmussen Reportshttp://www.rasmussenreports.com/

"Might want to check your facts before making such outlandish posts."

And YOU may want to check out the difference between Democrat and "leftist" before you go off half-cocked and make yourself look like an idiot.

I guess you haven't turned into your beloved Fox News lately my friend. Only those few on the fringes are in any supporting Sarah's latest ploy. Is she a complete nutjob or what!

Kennedy, Freezer Jefferson, Cynthia mcKinney, Barney Frank, John "lurch" Kerry and the other clowns. Lets not forget Chuckie Schummer.

I would trust Palin before any of these clowns.