The way I see her life is now is like when a person's in-laws come to live with them. After so many years of doing what you want, walking around the house naked, having ice-cream for breakfast, and having loud sex, suddenly there is someone breathing down your shoulder, telling you what you what to do, what not to do, and how to do things etc.

The fun is over.

That's how Palin has been living it up in Alaska. Up until a year ago when McCain "tapped" her to become VP no one cared what was happening in Alaska: wolf hunting? whatever. Scandal? who cares? Ethics violations? Not our business. I mean, just look at how long Ted Stevens lasted up there without ever being investigated or bothered by the lower 48? Before now, what happened in Alaska, stayed in Alaska.

Since last summer though the national media has been on her, and after a year she's realized that it sucks to be scrutinized so much. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sympathizing with her, and I do think that ALL of the points Cenk brought up abive are completely valid. I just think its funny that now that the grown-ups are watching, Palin can't keep up her previous lifestyle of not giving a fuck and "bending" the law left and right. The bottom line is, among other things, its no more fun to be governor:( So sad...

That, and, all the national media attention has only served to uncover the real Palin. Turns out, she's really really stupid and can't even piece two words together to make a sentence. She was able to fool the Alaskan people, but not Katie Couric.

Looks like the queen is naked.

y

"People who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them." LL

 isn't the case. She would have to be more of an idiot then we all thought to resign a major position to run for another. That looks really bad.

  She sounded almost scared to me, like she what she was doing was not what she wanted to be doing but was being forced for some reason. This is why I think 3 is most likely.

The point that this must inevitably be bad news in Palin's perspective is absolutely sound.  If this was a long time coming as Palin states then the timing is not advantageous to furthering her appeal throughout the US.

 Honestly I don't think this has anything to do with traveling the country and campaigning.  She did just fine at denigrating herself world-wide and access is really no problem with her.  In fact, part of the image that I think appealed to many republicans was her down home wolf huntress facade.  Even many of her screw ups were passed by as amusing but irrelevant by reasonable republicans for one main reason.  The Sarah Palin that people were willing to vote for was an empty image.  It was the archetype which made republicans feel progressive.  This allowed a detachement from guilt (which I speculate existed subconsciously if at all) without a concrete reality based candidate for the vice-presidency.

 This is my theory on Palin's reasoning.  Whomever is directing her political path has decided that the closer Palin is to the realization of Republican politics the mor eunpopular she will become.  Her purist outsider (maverick dare I say) image will become fettered along with the rest of the unpopular republican party.  By resigning as Governor she has secluded herself from any political damage that may occur to the republicans in the next 4 years.  This is the ideal situation for Palin.  As governor, the political eye was focused on her at least in its perifery ever sense the election concluded.  Now she is free from some scrutiny.  Her image can grow without being damaged along with her republican (counterparts? or is she just bailing ship to tell the world what republicans were all about?) 

This is the damage of Palin removing herself from politics (which I doubt will last).  The further she can separate herself from the messy stubborn republicans of today, the easier it will be for her to convince people that she wasn't part of the specialized polarized party that was voted unpopular.  She will give another opportunity for people to relax their economic woes and to focus on the social conservatism that usually loses the election for Democrats.

 If this is the case though, why is she jumping ship now? As Cenk pointed out, this isn't good news for her.  If it were she would have waited for the news to slow down drastically before announcing this strange decision.  If I'm right which obviously isn't for sure in any way... the only reason I can see for her to follow through with this plan that's been in the making for so long now as opposed to a more appropriate time is that there either is a scandal as Cenk mentioned, or they're actually looking at the polls that they supposedly ignore...  I guess the election of the president and the senators were a creditable enough poll to affect her decision making.  If republican popularity is on the decline then if she jumps out now and goes on a charity drive or osmething then she can keep her image separate.

I hope I'm wrong because I could see that making a massive difference in her popularity.  If there's nothing to complain about between now and the next election then the li ne that she's an idiot is going to run dry fast..

I think that #3 (scandal) is probably the most likely.  If you watch her press conference closely, her mannerisms are all very nervous and even more "Palin-esque" than normal.

 While it is true that the Palins are significantly in debt (a couple 100k), it just doesn't make logical sense why she can't continue to do all these speaking engagements and cavorting about that she's managed to do for the past 9 months.  Let's even take her word for it, that there is nothing for her to do until the next session of the AK legislature, isn't that an obvious excuse to continue flying around the country?

 And if her family was so strapped for cash that she would do something like jeopardize/ruin her political future, why would she artificially craft a principle that public servants should resign when they are ineffective (an idea few agree with or at least would never hold her to)?  She should have just kept her AK payrolll, transportation accommodations, health insurance etc etc.  She's got two infants and a pile of debt and now no health insurance, isn't that a totally irrational position to put yourself in?

Now, in engaging in speculation on what scandal is the root cause of Palin's departure, I think we should take stock of the times and go with the wildest suggestions possible.  Here are some ideas I've heard floating around and also some of my own

1) She's pregnant again.  Obviously this makes her look like a lunatic and would really jeopardize her political future.  Maybe she thinks she can hide it like last time or at least downplay it.

2) Her youngest daughter Willow Palin is pregnant (hey don't put anything past these Palin's when it comes to birthing).

3) The federal investigations Cenk mentioned/ the AK police chief probe / any of the alleged corruption.  These all seem possible, but I think her control over them would be greater if she remained governor.

4)  Levi Johnston's "tell all book."  News of this book coincidentally broke at the same time.  Maybe Levi is going to reveal some terrible secret and the Palin's people caught word it was coming out.  This might be even more likely if the secret involved: 4 b) Sarah Palin's son Trig was actually Bristol's child (there were rumors of this during the campaign).

 If Republicans have taught us anything as of late it's to expect the worse.

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".