Sarah Palin: 'Time-out or flame-out?'

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HPY 4TH FOLKS-DON'T HAVE THE VIDEO LINKS TONIGHT. SORRY ABOUT THAT. HAVE A NICE WEEKEND. SARAH PALIN-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said this afternoon that she is stepping down from her office July 26. She didn’t give a reason why she...
Sarah Palin: 'Time-out or flame-out?'

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin's stunning declaration of independence from "politics as usual,'' standing up for her "beloved state of Alaska'' while standing down as governor 18 months before the end of her first term, has been interpreted variously as a bold venture into a new realm of political leadership or as an irreversible, destructive act of political self-immolation.

"Being right is better than being popular,'' Palin declared with characteristic defiance, standing by the dock of her lakeside home in the tiny town where she got her start as mayor and announcing that she will hand over the governor's office to Alaska's lieutenant governor by month's end.

Ed Rollins, a Republican consultant who traces his work to Ronald Reagan's heyday, has offered a blunt assessment of what Palin has done to herself: "It makes her look flaky, which is one of the dilemmas she's had to face all the way through this.'' He raises the question, too, of what's the "next shoe to drop'' in the Palin story.

Palin's supporters say the former mayor of Wasilla who represented her party on a presidential ticket, a self-styled political pitbull, has simply reinforced her credentials as a maverick.

"Time out or flame out?'' one of our newspapers is asking today. Our own Mark Z. Barabak writes of the governor's "disjointed and cryptic remarks'' explaining how, by quitting the office that she won in 2006 after failing at a campaign for the vice presidency in 2008 and being held out by many in her party as a prospect for 2012, she hopes to "effect positive change outside government.''

"Many took that to mean a full-fledged run for the Republican nomination, without the encumbrance of her office and the difficulty of navigating a national campaign while running a state thousands of miles from the action,'' Barabak writes. "But the fact that Palin, 45, will vacate her elected post without finishing the four-year term -- which would have bolstered a political resume already thin enough that it hampered her 2008 bid for vice president -- led some analysts to suggest that she had badly damaged herself, perhaps irretrievably.''

The Washington Post, still recovering from its own embarrassing misstep with "salons" for high-level officials which the newspaper hoped to make money on, notes today that Palin offered "few clues about her ambitions but said she arrived at her decision in part to protect her family, which has faced withering criticism and occasional mockery, and to escape ethics probes that have drained her family's finances and hampered her ability to govern. She said leaving office is in the best interest of the state and will allow her to more effectively advocate for issues of importance to her, including energy independence and national security.''

The New York Times' Adam Nagourney notes that Palin's "tone and some of her words in an often-rambling announcement... sounded like someone who was making a permanent exit from politics after what her friends have called a rough and dispiriting year. But her remarks, delivered in a voice that often seemed rushed and jittery, sounded at times like those of a candidate with continued national aspirations, as when she suggested she could "fight for all our children's future from outside the governor's office."

He offers some understatement here:

"Ms. Palin's announcement was another unusual marker in what has been a tumultuous year for this first-term governor since Mr. McCain turned her into a national figure overnight by surprising his own party and naming her his running mate. It also underscored the instability in the Republican Party as it tries to find a strategy and voice in the wake of losses in 2008.''

Mitt Romney, a Republican who sought his party's presidential nomination last year and is expected to seek it again in 2012 -- and who is looking more and more like the survivor of a party reality show after two weeks of sex-scandals that sidelined a couple of prospects, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, and now Palin's withdrawal from public office -- offered only a terse statement from his "Free and Strong America PAC:''

""I wish Sarah Palin and her family well, and I know that she will continue to be a strong voice in the Republican Party."

The leader of that party still struggling to find its voice after 2008, Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, said this:

"I plan on talking to Gov. Palin very soon. She is an important and galvanizing voice in the Republican Party. I believe she will be very helpful to the party this year as we wage critical campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey. I am certain this has been a difficult decision for her to step down as Alaska's governor. She has been a good governor for her state and I wish her and the Palin family the best during this transition."

Ed Rollins, who reached the peak of his party's political machinery in the management of Ronald Reagan's reelection campaign, but who also knows the lows, as a leader of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's failed bid for the GOP nomination last year, has offered some particularly blunt comments about that "transition'' period in which Palin now finds herself.

On the satellite radio station, SIRIUS XM's POTUS Channel, Rollins, who now hosts a weekly show there, had this to say about Palin's party-rattling announcement:

"It wasn't smart under any circumstances. It wasn't set up properly. I don't know what her reasons are. But if her reasons were, 'I'm gonna run for president and I need two years, three years to do that,' it was very foolish...

"You don't call a press conference and raise questions. You call a press conference to answer questions. She has basically left out there everyone asking, why is she doing this? There must be another reason. There must be another shoe that's gonna drop. There's something else.

"This is something you set up, you don't drop on Friday of a holiday weekend, unless it's terrible news or something like that. In this particular case she's left more questions unanswered. It makes her look flaky, which is one of the dilemmas she's had to face all the way through this.

"So if this was an effort to get out of a very difficult time in the state's history with the financial crisis the state has, to go run for president, she hasn't helped herself one iota, and has probably damaged herself severely.''

Redefining Citizenship In The Digital Age

What does it mean these days when when the government makes something public? Just print it and put it on a shelf somewhere until somebody slips it to Bob Woodward? Host Scott Simon speaks to Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, about redefining citizenship in the digital age. Rasiej also talks about what social media and technology experts have learned in the aftermath of Iran's disputed elections.