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Former GOP Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she would be resigning her office effective July 25, 2009. The speculation is that Palin has resigned in order to prep for a run for the Presidency in 2012. I have a slightly different take on Palin's abrupt move.
First, Gov. Palin has been under fire since she was first announced as John McCain's running mate in August 2008. After Palin's debut speech at the RNC Convention—by all accounts a "home run"—she floundered on the campaign trail, giving a string of poor interviews with some of network TV's best anchors. To make matters worse, McCain's campaign lashed out at Palin, leaking sensitive information about her clothing, being a "diva" [28], and non-team player during the campaign. As Todd Purdum's latest hit piece in VANITY FAIR reports, all of this took place during and immediately after McCain's electoral thumping at the hands of now President Barack Obama.
My take is that this is one of the best strategic political moves I have seen in years. By resigning, Palin frees herself to talk openly and candidly about her experience as a VP candidate in her forthcoming memoir, which reportedly earned her a seven-figure advance. Palin now has the opportunity to get in the "arena" without getting in the arena so to speak. She will no longer be a public official, so she is free to earn as much money as she likes and raise as much money as she can for GOP candidates in 2010. This also gives her a unique opportunity "to study and show herself approved," if you will (borrowing a great phrase from scripture), and lecture at universities, travel abroad, help our troops, speak out on issues she cares about, and preach to the GOP faithful on "liberty, less taxation, limited government" and all of those issues that conservatives long to hear about from the leaders of the Republican party.
This story is not over, but I suspect that over the next few days and weeks we will learn a lot more about how and why Gov. Palin came to this conclusion to resign and reposition herself for a possible presidential run in 2012.
As a moderate, Gen X Republican woman three years younger that Gov. Palin, I am interested to see if she can "remake" her image as an ill-prepared, valley girl dingbat from Alaska to someone who is an expert on critical government policy reform, who is astute on foreign affairs, and who is passionate about the plight of all the people of the United States of America.
—SOPHIA A. NELSON
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