Sarah Palin’s Surprise Resignation
By Hillary Taft - Sunday, July 5th, 2009
I know a lot of Sarah Palin supporters are actually excited about her resigning as Alaska governor by the end of July. I have mixed feelings.
On the one hand, with all the ridiculously frivolous lawsuits being filed against her by rabid partisans, maybe this is what she needs to do to step above the fray and finally start to lead on a national scale. On the other hand, she has also spent a lot of political capital by not finishing her term as governor. It will give her critics a valid reason to label her as a quitter. It will raise questions as to her ability to stay the course in tough times. And you can’t help but wonder, if she can’t do her job as governor because of attack dogs hounding her every step, will she be able to do her job as president, assuming those same people will continue to dog her?
I remember how hard it was for Bill Clinton to do his job during his second term when partisan interests kept slamming him on everything from Whitewater to Lewinsky. So I am deeply concerned Palin will never be able to fully share her talents with the world, due to the combined efforts of completely duped liberals who see her as the “enemy,” and the elite establishment, which apparently wants her gone because she doesn’t kowtow to big money.
Palin is at least not going away into that good night – I was very pleased to her that she’s threatening lawsuits against bloggers who print false reports about her as truth. The latest smear was that she was leaving because she was under federal investigation, which has been already debunked and dismissed in the LA Times by a federal representative.
I have to say, I was completely horrified by the treatment Hillary Clinton got by the media and men on the left during the election; the treatment of Sarah Palin now is one hundred times worse. I feel sick when I see men I know – men who claim to be enlightened liberals – slamming Palin as a beauty queen dropout on Facebook. I feel even more sick when I see women I know unwittingly play into the misogyny simply because it is “trendy” in my neck of the woods to be a Democrat.
If Palin does decide to run for president, she already faces a huge amount of opposition. I am not sure if her current actions will help her. However, the partisan people who dismiss her and call her a bimbo won’t be swayed no matter what she does, so perhaps it was right and fitting that she just gave them a big middle finger by resigning as governor. She won’t ever please them, and those crazy partisans would never in a million years step across the aisle and vote Republican anyway, so why bother with them?
It’s the moderates and independents she needs to convince. If Obama continues spending America into oblivion, she may find herself riding a backlash against Democrats all the way to the White House. Time will tell.
July 6th, 2009 at 2:46 am
I was very upset to learn she resigned, but with all the nonstop abuse being tossed at her and her family it’s understandable. It’s my hope that she will not suffer politically and, at least, become an Independent and run as President as such. The Republican Party has been a failure at standing at her side – sexism and misogyny is running in both political parties. Obama has brought out the worst in people: racism, sexism, agism, etc. Everything us old Democrats fought against has slid back into the Dark Ages and the participants seem to be doing this all with insane glee…and as you noted its “trendy”. These are trends I’d prefer not to partake in – I remember the bad old days all too well.