Well I’ll jump on the big bandwagon of the day by talking about Sarah Palin. She’s certainly one who hasn’t been able to stay out of the news for more than a few moments. Perhaps she’s been jealous of all the coverage Michael Jackson’s passing has been receiving and needed to put that limelight back upon herself. Today Sarah Palin announced that not only would she not run again for Governor of Alaska, but she is going to step down at the end of the month.
I suppose the obvious feeling going through the online community is jubilation. She’s that political whacko everyone (at least everyone who didn’t vote for her) has loved to hate since her nomination as a Vice Presidential candidate. Alaska is one of those states we barely remember is there let alone can believe that they have some form of organized government up there. Palin entering the headlines showed us we were all right – there’s nothing at all organized about it. However the news out of Alaska has certainly kept us entertained the past year.
The majority of pundits on both sides of the fence seem to feel her leaving office is part of a program to begin rebuilding her image in preparation for a 2012 Presidential run. It certainly makes a lot of sense. While some camps still support her she certainly doesn’t have the public support to be a viable Presidential candidate at the moment. She has plenty of time to begin a campaign towards creating an image with far more universal appeal. It might be a hard sell after lining herself up with some serious conservative powers as well as coming off as one of the least intelligent women to ever enter the political arena. It’ll take a lot of work to turn it around, so removing herself from active office may give her the time and focus it would take to start laying the ground work for 2012.
Other people have speculated that this stepping down is a pre-emptive move to help deal with a scandal that’s about to break. It seems like a far classier move than I’d expect from her – to actually remove herself from office rather than continue on while embroiled in scandal. It would have to be one hell of a scandal for that to happen. I think we can probably discount this theory, though it does open all sorts of interesting possibilities if it is true. It would certainly give the media plenty of new fodder for slow news days.
Finally I’ve heard that perhaps this is a move so she can spend more time with her family. If this is true it seems more like its part of a publicity campaign that would support her working on her image. I’m not saying she isn’t family oriented, nor am I saying that she doesn’t truly want more time with her family. I’m just not sure she is the personality type who would step out of their political career in order to have more time with her family. However it is a great way of making headlines, softening her image towards the more moderate crowd, and backing up her strong family value platform.
I guess in the coming months the truth will start to unfold – it’ll be good timing, Michael Jackson conspiracy theories will have started to lose their appeal by then.
Just a Man with a Mash Paddle 