Our Beloved Sarah Is Leaving

[Todd]

The idea that Ms Palin is having a breakdown is silly.  She very clearly loves the limelight, doesn't get enough of it in Alaska, and is leaving office for two reasons.  First, she'll cash in her conservative celebrity as a paid speaker and presumably talking head on some television blab fest.  (She's too photogenic to be relegated to the radio.)  Second, she'll campaign for a variety of candidates next year, and will be owed a lot of favors by various politicians.  She may even think she has a shot at national office, at which time she would cash in those political favors.  She can't get elected, but look at the parade of non-entities who delude themselves into thinking they do.  She'll fizzle out in the early stages of the 2012 election if she opts to run.  I wish her well in making a lot of money; if she has a modicum of sense, she'll stay out of elective politics in the future.

[Brian]

if she has a modicum of sense,

That's a big if.

[Lethevich]

A breakdown would surely require some degree of introspection? I don't think she's capable of that

[drogulus]

     Ha ha. Yeah, I know, no mercy in the arena for the opponent and all that, but she's in trouble. The liberals just want a target and the conservatives just want to deny the problem (in public), so she won't get help from anyone. I hope she just gets away for awhile and calms down a bit.

The idea that Ms Palin is having a breakdown is silly. 

     Really? Funny, I thought she seemed pretty far out of it. Is she faking? Why would she do that? She just quit her job as governor on the spur of the moment, apparently without consulting anyone. IOW, she cracked.

[Brian]

And I thought Mark Sanford hit a new low of cringe-worthiness

That's only because you haven't read the transcript of Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment phone call. (WARNING: Not safe for work, or really for any kind of human consumption. I take no responsibility should you choose to click the link. If you have any standards of taste or do not wish to expose yourself to human nature at its worst, most primitive, and most vulgar, please do not click.)

[Anne]

Has anyone ever discovered why Palin changed colleges 6 (I think) times?

[Harry]

Well beauty and brains, it doesn't go often together, what a pity really, I think that would be lethal in a woman, at least for me.

[Todd]

Really? Funny, I thought she seemed pretty far out of it. Is she faking? Why would she do that? She just quit her job as governor on the spur of the moment, apparently without consulting anyone. IOW, she cracked.

So you know Palin and how she arrived at her decision?  Her speech seemed about as well prepared and delivered as some of the others I saw her give, so I'm not sure what can be concluded from it's delivery.  It's certainly not evidence that she "cracked."  The idea that delicate Ms Palin had a breakdown certainly seems as silly as ever.

[drogulus]

    I saw what everyone else saw. Or, that is, I watched what everyone else watched. And what I saw was pretty clear. Why was she hyperventilating? Yes, she's pretty scattered at her best but this was really bad. And I don't think born-again politicians that you don't like (that I don't like, I should say) are immune to this kind of trouble. I don't know how much plainer it could be.

[Todd]

I don't know how much plainer it could be.

Generally speaking, politicians are a somewhat calculating bunch.  They often make rather self-interested decisions.  I'm pretty sure Ms Palin did the same and then delivered one of her rather embarrasing speeches to explain, or obfuscate, it.  If she really leaves public life, then I might buy the idea that she had a breakdown.  If, instead, she starts in on the speaking and talking head circuit in the next 3-6 months to rake in money and publicity outside The Last Frontier, then I have very serious doubts that she had a breakdown.  Besides, I do believe she has a multi-million dollar book she needs to work on while her name is still in the news.

[Bulldog]

I don't think there is any "breakdown" happening here.  Palin knows what she's up to, and it will be interesting to follow whatever path she takes.  Regardless, there's no way I'll ever vote for her; ignorance in a President isn't what the country needs.

[karlhenning]

Naming Palin to the GOP ticket — a top-down choice by McCain — was the most reckless decision any national politician has made in the longest time, and while it certainly says something about McCain, it says even more about his party. It has lost its mind.

Recall, after all, that Palin was not McCain's first choice. That was either Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge. Both were rejected by the party establishment because of their appalling moderation on social issues over which the president has little direct authority anyway — abortion, above all — and in Lieberman's case because he had been a Democrat. In desperation, McCain turned to Palin.

Was there a scream of protest? No. Did the Republican Party demand to know of McCain what the hell he had done? Again, no. Was it okay with the GOP if the person a heartbeat away from the presidency was — pardon me, but it's true — a ditz with no national experience whatsoever? You betcha. The party had cracked up, accepting a nullity because she was antiabortion over a seasoned senator and former governor because they were not. Ideology won. The nation lost.

[ full article ]

[springrite]

Ideology won.

Now, that pretty much summed it up.

[MishaK]

Have you read this?: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908

[karlhenning]

Have you read this?: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908

Mmm.

The difficulties began immediately, with the McCain team's delivery of the bad news that the pregnancy of Palin's daughter Bristol, which was already common knowledge in Alaska and had been revealed to the McCain team at the last minute, could not be kept secret until after the Republican convention.