I agree with Cenk that this was not some sort of publicity stunt or moment of clever political theatre.  She resigned on one of the most anemic news cycle days possible (Friday, July 3rd).  I'm surprised her announcement didn't come tonight (July 4th) at 9:30 PM, opposite half the country's fireworks displays.  When you make news on a holiday Friday, you are begging for people to forget it by Monday.

  But if the Governor resigned for any of Cenk's 3 theorized reasons, it was a terrible move for her in each case (not to mention a laughably-written speech delivered terribly in front of a low-qualty and poorly attended setting, but those are all beside the point.) 

If Sarah's resignation was based on wanting to run for President, not only does it make her look like a quitter (BTW, did she actually imply in her RESIGNATION SPEECH that she was not taking a "quitter's way out"?), but it is wayyyyy too early to campaign.  Her term would have run out in 2010.  She has PAC money, she is a fairly recognized national name.  She needed more than a full year getting to know Iowa and New Hampshire?

If she resigned to make money, wouldn't being the Governor of Alaska be a bigger draw than ....the  ex-Governor of Alaska?  It's not like she needed to be glued to Alaska 350 days a year because she would have to keep governing--she took two full months off from being in Alaska during the campaign.  She governed by Blackberry, essentially.  Why would she not have been able to stay as Governor and still make big money and have ghost writers write her book and appear on TV 3 times a week, like--she already has been?

And if she resigned over pending scandal, why not wait for the scandal to actually break?  Republicans don't resign over scandals any more, and if she had just ignored it and told Alaska that "God had told her to stay in her job", eventually the scandal would have probably faded into the "Schwartzenegger groped a bunch of women" ether, along with Troopergate and the 25 lies she told about her record during the campaign.

 I am beginning to side with the "impatience" theory that others have been knocking around in here.  Palin could not even stomach McCain and his staff for the 65 days they worked together.  She could not keep her face off of television in the weeks afterward, as though she just needed to start the next image makeover RIGHT THEN instead of the ideal time, March or so of 2011.  She picks fights with everyone all the time--it is her main political weapon and a clear sign of impatience.  I think that maybe she saw that 53% approval is not as fun as 83% approval, and she couldn't wait another year to burn her bridges and start with something fresh (i.e. doing the same things she has been doing, but now with a FOX analyst job.)

Or maybe that's it, plain and simple--FOX (or the Weekly Standard or CNS or whoever) offered her a cushy full-time job starting August 1st--"take it or leave it".