I Have to Quit in Order to Lead

I've never been a big Sara Palin fan. She's not book smart and appears to have a disdain for those who are. Oh, and she's a big fucking hypocrite when it comes to her family and she's not afraid to whore them out for her political career.

Listening to her rambling quitter speech yesterday was off the charts. It's like she's channeling Richard Nixon's paranoia. She's obviously made a lot of enemies in Alaska, or else there wouldn't be so many ethics charges against her. Now she's seeing them around every corner. I go the sense from her remarks that there's a big charge looming that she doesn't want to deal with.

Also, remember how she chided Obama for not being a decision maker? Now she's going to try and convince us (oh, yes, she is DEFINITELY going to run for prez--her PAC's website is begging for donations as I type this) that being mayor of a tiny town and governor of Alaska for less than two years qualifies her for the highest office in the land. I don't think so.

The worst part of her speech was it shows how much of a quitter she is. The people of Alaska voted for her to do a job and she's being pretty cavalier about blowing them off. I don't mind her deciding not to run in 2010 so that she can focus on 2012. But, this idea that she can't be effective as a lame duck is ridiculous. She could have used that freedom to push for things that are politically unpopular as she wouldn't have to run again. Her message? If you can't have things your way in the statehouse, just leave. I loved how she said that the service people she visited inspired her to do this. What, they're living in a hellhole and they inspired you to quit when things were tough? Hunh?

She also has a very inflated view of how seriously people take her. She says she can affect change on security and energy independence by not being in the governor's mansion. Really? And what are these ideas, cuz I missed them during the campaign. And, considering that her supporters in the lower 48 are anti-choice gun nuts, do they really care what she has to say about anything else? I don't think there are too many people who don't already support her who give a shit about what she has to say.

She obviously didn't consider that front runners did retty poorly in 2008. If I asked you a year before the election who'd be competing for it, you would probably have said Romney and Clinton. If she's doing this to make a ton of cash on the speaking circuit (which I think she is) and position herself in 2010 (which she definitely is). As usual, she needs to be careful what she's wishing for. Or, to put a more religious spin on things, if you want to see god laugh, tell him your plans.