Why not? Palin/Sanford in 2012, with the slogan: “Save time — we’re already in Crazy Town.”

On Palin’s surprise resignation announcement Dowd writes:

What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued: Sarah wanted everyone to know that she’s not having fun and people are being mean to her and she doesn’t feel like finishing her first term as governor.

She can hunt wolves from the air and field-dress a moose, but she fears being a lame duck? Some brickbats over her ethics and diva turns as John McCain’s running mate, and that dewy skin turns awfully thin.

Maybe there’s another red Naughty Monkey high heel to drop — there’s often a hidden twist in Sarah’s country-music melodramas. Or is this a reckless high-speed escape from small-pond Alaska, where her popularity is dropping, to the big time Below?

Read it in full.

First, the FBI quickly shot down reports suggesting that Palin is being investigated on corruption charges. Meanwhile, Palin’s lawyer issued a stern warning to the news media that Palin will go after those who pick up and publish defamatory, speculative material from weblogs. Fading away, this exactly ain’t…

The FBI:

A day after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resigned, a federal official in her home state dismissed one potential explanation for her sudden and unexpected resignation: a rumored FBI investigation into the former Wasilla mayor on public corruption charges.

Despite rumors of a looming controversy after the Republican governor’s surprise announcement Friday that she would leave office this month, some of them published in the blogosphere, the FBI’s Alaska spokesman said the bureau had no investigation into Palin for her activities as governor, as mayor or in any other capacity.

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we’re investigating her or getting ready to indict her,” Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. “It’s just not true.” He added that there was “no wiggle room” in his comments for any kind of inquiry.

The FBI has been active in mounting corruption investigations in Alaska, some to see whether local, state and federal lawmakers illegally received favors, money or free construction work from businesses or people seeking favors.

Palin’s attorney:

Ratcheting up her offensive against the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin’s attorney threatened Saturday to sue mainstream news organizations if they publish “defamatory” stories relating to whether Palin is under federal investigation.

In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print.

“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.

Much like Palin did in her Facebook statement Saturday, Van Flein savages the news media in his letter.

“Just as power abhors a vacuum, modern journalism apparently abhors any type of due diligence and fact checking before scurrilous allegations are repeated as fact,” the Anchorage attorney wrote.

Neither the Times or the Post made any mention of the embezzlement rumors in their Saturday editions, but sources close to Palin consider the letter a warning shot to stay away from the topic.

This could cause some blogs to think twice, but it’s going to be unlikely to stop infooutlets such as the Huffington Post, TV/cable networks, or big newspapers to (a) not republish material that is already on the Internet and being widely quoted and (b)sending out their own teams of reporters to look into every nook and cranny of Palin’s life. And if this did succeed, would Democrats then follow suit and go after conservative blogs running unfounded rumors and those outlets that print or broadcast them?

An ongoing open “war” between Palin and the media, spilling over into courtrooms and being covered by the new and old media, would help Palin shore up her base. But Palin’s her problem as a politician with aspirations is that she doesn’t want to run for President of the base but for an office that will require that she wins over some others who either don’t like her or have doubts about her, too.

And in terms of seriously expanding her supportive constituency polls since the election show that she has a failing grade. Her crossover appeal so far seems limited to crossover listeners from Rush Limbaugh to Sean Hannity.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24521.html#ixzz0KOuI1kZU&C

Eric Allie, Caglecartoons.com

This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

When you’re busy not catching a single fish for dinner, the family will have to find other ways to feed themselves. To the left you will find another of my nephews, Riley by name, solving the problem in a new way. The kids are fond of the old smores treat, where you put chocolate and a freshly toasted marshmallow between two crackers and melt the whole thing down a bit. This is done regularly at our camp fire on the point. Somebody brought along a bag of massive, over-sized marshmallows and I made the mistake of opining that nobody could get a treat that size into their mouths. Never one to shrink from a challenge, the kid did his best. Thankfully, I’m not responsible for cleaning either him or his clothing.

Cross-posted at Conventional Folly

It’s madness for the service to discharge gay translators and the like. But the military leadership still seems to believe that the core of the policy must be preserved in order to maintain the effectiveness of combat units — politicians from both parties are unlikely to question that assessment.

Forgive the double entendre, but I wonder if the threat to unit cohesion is any different on the front lines than it is in the rear. The scenario often brought up with regard to gays in the military is “What if he’s looking at me in the shower?” No one I know asks, “What if he’s looking at me instead of firing back at those insurgents over there?” In that regard, the analogy to women doesn’t hold; there is a physical reason that women are restricted from serving in combat units (although when you’re fighting an insurgency, any unit can find itself in combat).

Leaving aside the logic, I’d be more than glad to support a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for non-combat units, if there’s a consensus behind that approach in the military. If gays can serve openly in non-combat units, I’m fairly confident that their service will earn them the right, in the not too distant future, to serve in combat units as well.

Cross-posted at Conventional Folly

The MSM has one standard for covering captured American journalists and another for captured American soliders.

The New York Times has one standard for covering the current president’s town-hall meetings and another standard for his predecessor’s “town hall” meetings.

But what you really wanted to know is that Gwyneth Paltrow has one standard for loving America and another for loving Europe.

Cross-posted at Conventional Folly

As has already been well-established, huge portions of the world are in mourning over the death of Michael Jackson. This news item from the state-controlled SC News, a Web site of the Chung Shan Daily News Newspaper Group, recounts Michael Jackson’s first and only visit to Mainland China, which took place in 1987.

The report consists of an interview with Michael Jackson’s tour guide that day around the environs of Zhongshan City, the birth place of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, one of China’s most revered figures known as the father of modern China.

The CS News report says in part:

“Most of his fans in China regret that he never performed on the mainland. However, 22 years ago, he stepped on Chinese ground. He was fascinated by the rice fields, water buffalo and ducks in the pond. … Jackson took a group photo with children in Yongmo Village. On his face there’s a free and sweet smile, which makes him look like the ‘King of the Kids.’ Michael wrote below the photo: ‘When I saw the Chinese kids, I couldn’t resist them.”

Translated By James Chen

June 29, 2009

ZS News, People’s Republic of China, Original Article (Chinese)

At 5:26am on June 26, Michael Jackson, the ‘King of Pop” passed away at the age of 50 when his heart stopped. His Chinese fans feel deep regret that he was never able to hold a concert in mainland China. However, what few people know is that the pop star visited Zhongshan City 22 years ago. In 1987, when on holiday in Hong Kong, Jackson visited Zhongshan as a tourist. This was his only one visit to mainland China during his lifetime.

On the evening of June 27, with the assistance of the Zhongshan China International Travel Service [Zhongshan CITS], our reporter contacted Liu Guangzhi, who now lives in the United States. He is a Zhongshanese and once worked for Zhongshan CITS. On October 23, 1987, he accompanied Michael Jackson as a tour guide during his one-day visit to Zhongshan.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

In my “Gail Collins Interprets Palin’s Resignation Speech,” we discussed how “disjointed and garbled” Palin’s prepared text remarks are, and, referring to her resignation speech, how incoherent even her prepared remarks are.

Well, Politico.com has just published the text of a message Palin posted on Facebook just a few hours ago that is just as incoherent.

According to Politico, the message describes reactions to her indecipherable resignation speech as “predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the ‘politics of personal destruction.’”

In her Facebook message, Palin bemoans: “How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”

However, she does not disclose what this “higher calling” might be.

For the complete Facebook message, please click here.

Iranian leaders say they have obtained confessions from top reformist officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a “velvet” revolution. Such confessions, almost always extracted under duress, are part of an effort to recast the civil unrest set off by Iran’s disputed presidential election as a conspiracy orchestrated by foreign nations, human rights groups say.
[...]
The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and torture, according to human rights groups and former political prisoners. Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of people have been detained.
[...]
In 2007, Iran produced a pseudo-documentary called “In the Name of Democracy,” which served as a vehicle to highlight what it called confessions of three academic researchers charged with trying to overthrow the state. “They don’t like new ideas to get to Iran,” said a researcher once investigated about his work, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “They don’t like social and cultural figures in Iranian society to become very popular.”

In 2001, Ali Afshari was arrested for his work as a student leader. He said he was held in solitary confinement for 335 days and resisted confessing for the first two months. But after two mock executions and a five-day stretch where his interrogators would not let him sleep, he said he eventually caved in.

“They tortured me, some beatings, sleep deprivation, insults, psychological torture, standing me for several hours in front of a wall, keeping me in solitary confinement for one year,” Mr. Afshari said in an interview from his home in Washington. “They eventually broke my resistance.”

The problem, he said, was that he was not sure what he was supposed to confess to. So over the next several months, he said, he and his interrogators “negotiated” what he would say — and, more ominously, whom he would implicate. Once his confession was complete, he said, he practiced it for 7 to 10 days, and then it ran on state-run television.

Three years later, Mr. Memarian, the journalist and blogger, was arrested in another security sweep. He said that his interrogator at first sought to humiliate him by forcing him to discuss details of his sex life, and that when he hesitated, the interrogator would grab his hair and smash his head against the wall. He said the interrogator asked him about prominent politicians he had interviewed, asked if they ever had affairs, and asked if he had ever slept with their wives.

“I was crying, I begged him, please do not ask me this,” said Mr. Memarian, who is in exile now in the United States. “They said if you don’t talk now you will talk in a month, in two months, in a year. If you don’t talk now, you will talk. You will just stay here.”

The pressure was agonizing, he said, as he was forced to live in a small cell for 35 days with a light burning all the time and only three trips to the bathroom allowed every 24 hours. He was forced to shower in front of a camera, he said. At one point the interrogators threatened to break his fingers.

Not a trace of irony anywhere in this litany.  No “balancing” interviews with Iranian government officials and leaders to get their “side of the story.” No suggestion or hint anywhere that the former detainees subjected to these enhanced interrogation techniques — indeed, no use of that euphemistic term — might not be telling the truth, might have been “trained to lie and exaggerate.” Not that I believe they were — not for one instant. But they would not have been granted that credibility if they had been detainees in U.S. custody.

Keep in mind that every single technique described in this article has been done by CIA interrogators (or American contractors working for the CIA) to prisoners at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and secret CIA detention centers around the globe. Keep in mind, additionally, that sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation and solitary confinement for long periods of time, and sensory manipulation — which are presented as serious human rights violations when done in Iran by the Iranian government to Iranian detainees — are treated with great skepticism and even mockery by the media and by conservative bloggers and pundits when done to inmates at Gitmo and other U.S. facilities.

But for U.S. news organizations like the New York Times, NPR, and so many others, interrogation techniques such as being forced to stay awake for weeks or months, and being confined in a tiny cell with no human contact and a light burning at all times, also for weeks or months, are only torture when done by other countries — and preferably countries we don’t like. When those same techniques are sanctioned and usued by our own government, they are “enhanced interrogation techniques” or “harsh interrogation techniques,” or they are “thought by some people to be tantamount to torture.”  When the recipients of such treatment are in Iran, the New York Times calls them “reformers”; when they are in Guantanamo or Iraq or Afghanistan, they are “terrorists” or “suspected terrorists.”

Glenn Greenwald has more:

Virtually every tactic which the article describes the Iranians as using has been used by the U.S. during the War on Terror, while several tactics authorized by Bush officials (waterboarding, placing detainees in coffin-like boxes, hypothermia) aren’t among those the article claims are used by the Iranians.  Nonetheless, “torture” appears to be a perfectly fine term for The New York Times to use to describe what the Iranians do, but one that is explicitly banned to describe what the U.S. did.  Despite its claimed policy, the NYT has also recently demonstrated its eagerness to use the word “torture” to describe these same tactics . . . when used by the Chinese against an American detainee.

Notably, the NYT article today seems to take particular offense that the Iranian Government is putting people on trial using confessions they obtained via torture (”the government planned to put on trial several Iranian employees of the British Embassy — after confessions were extracted”).  Just two days ago, The Washington Post reported:

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ACLU is asking a federal judge to throw out those statements and others made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who may have been as young as 12 when he was captured. His attorney argued that Jawad was abused in U.S. custody, threatened and subjected to intense sleep deprivation.

“The government’s continued reliance on evidence gained by torture and other abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the current administration is not really serious about breaking with the past,” said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit challenging his detention.”The government’s continued reliance on evidence gained by torture and other abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the current administration is not really serious about breaking with the past,” said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit challenging his detention.

Just read the details of what we did to this adolescent to marvel at what the NYT (and, of course, NPR) refuse to call ”torture” when done by us.  Though the human rights abuses of the Iranian Government are well-documented and severe, there’s also no mention in the NYT article of these interrogation tactics being applied by Iran to teenagers (such as Jawad) or resulting in numerous detainee deaths (as happened during the Bush era).

During the presidential campaign, Rudy Giuliani was widely ridiculed for arguing that whether these tactics are ”torture” depends, at least in part, on who uses them (it’s torture if They do it, but not when We do it).  But he could take that definitive moral relativism to any leading American newspaper, become an Editor, and fit right in, since that’s exactly the editorial policy of our leading media outlets.  What’s most striking about all this media behavior is that people around the world — outside of the U.S.  — aren’t fooled by these sorts of blatant double standards, whereby the U.S. even claims the power to change the meaning of words based on whether it or another country is doing something.   The target of this government and media behavior is purely domestic.

As I don’t understand half the time what Palin is talking about (I know, it’s my fault), I won’t even attempt to analyze her introductory remarks of : “Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly TO you, the people I serve, as your Governor.”

But I am sure there is some hidden message in those words—especially in the “caps.” Someone will tell us sooner or later.

However, I sincerely believe that a woman could probably best scrutinize and interpret Palin’s remarks and, more important, her real intentions.

Who better to do this than veteran New York Times Op-Ed columnist Gail Collins—the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times’ editorial page.

In her Times “Sarah’s Straight Talk” column today, Collins provides the best “translation” of Palin’s “I am not a quitter” speech I have seen so far.

And it wasn’t easy, as Collins herself points out in her opening paragraph:

Truly, Sarah Plain has come a long way. When she ran for vice president, she frequently became disjointed and garbled when she departed from her prepared remarks. Now the prepared remarks are incoherent, too.

But, thanks to her experience as a journalist and as a woman, Collins ably dissects Palin’s contradictory remarks.

For example:

“And a problem in our country today is apathy,” she said on Friday as she announced that she would resign as governor of Alaska at the end of the month. “It would be apathetic to just hunker down and ‘go with the flow.’ Nah, only dead fish ‘go with the flow.’…Basically, the point was that Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter. Or a deceased salmon.

She babbled about her parents’ refrigerator magnet, which apparently had a lot of wise advice. And she recalled her visit with the troops in Kosovo, whose dedication and determination inspired her to … resign.

“Life is about choices!” declared the nation’s most anti-choice politician.

As to a possible reason for Palin throwing in the towel: “Perhaps there is some new and interesting scandal that Palin has yet to let us in on. (If so, I hope it involves a soul mate.)”

As to one of Palin’s possible future aspirations:

Otherwise, it would appear that this is all about her desire to start raising money and setting up operations for a presidential run in 2012. Her fans immediately interpreted the resignation as a canny move to get her back down to the lower 48, with as much time on her hands as Mitt Romney. (Mary Matalin called it “brilliant.”)

And, on some of the obstacles facing her:

And there is no sign, Purdum reported, that Palin has made any attempt to bone up on the issues so that next time around, she could run as a candidate who actually had some grasp of the intricacies of foreign and domestic policy.

So if she’s starting to run, it will be as the same reporter-avoiding, generalization-spouting underachiever that she was last time around.

Finally, on what many of us may be in for, should Palin pursue her ultimate aspiration:

On Friday, Palin said that finishing out her term would be just too easy. “Many just accept that lame-duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck and ‘milk it.’ I’m not putting Alaska through that,” she said.

Apparently, she’s going to put the rest of us through it instead.

Sarah Palin, who can see the Russian troops from her home in Wasilla, finished her “I am quitting speech” by quoting the military, apparently General MacArthur: “In the words of General MacArthur said [sic], ‘We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.’”

The thing that is not quite clear is in which direction Palin will be retreating advancing.

Even this quote is being widely analyzed.

The web site healpastlive.com provides the following interesting information on the authorship of the quote.

“We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.”
- General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea (often attributed to General Douglas MacArthur)

Gail Collins is the author of “America’s Women,” “Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics,” and “The Millennium Book,” which she co-authored with her husband, Dan Collins. Another book, “When Everything Changed,” will be published in October of 2009.

The flag was still there. And so are we Americans in the United States. We are a radical, radical people. It’s no wonder the world often says, Oh, Ach, Ay! Those Americans. We were not founded on fluffy words, but on blood-drenched ones.

Dont forget: We are still here, not by luck, but by hard-won “luck” in a mysterious land that often has wide margins for error, a self-healing fabric often, open wounds that still require medicine, and millions of hearts and hands and backs that still bend to try to bring to fruition the original vision of this North American Nation… which is actually a union of 50 nations with numerous sovereign nations of Native Americans within it.

That nearly 100 nations can survive each other, row the ships more or less together, even though sometimes in circles, it is an amazing miracle, a 233 year long event of possibilities, downfalls, upraising from the ruins, and unleashing incredible creativity and heartfulness anew.

So thus then…
For wherever needed in this wide world where people have to spend a month’s earnings on rice for one week, where self-appointed kings knife each other out in order to be ‘the only one,’ where elections are subverted, where just writers, humorists, teachers and holy people are tortured and imprisoned, where children have no chance to know the world or means of escape…… let these 233 year old words be a prayer for continuance, for ‘we the people’ of our nation and all other nations to continue to rise and rise and rise anywhere the score is Despot Shirts 62% vs The People Shirtless, Foodless, Powerless, Zero

We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,
it is their right,
it is their duty,
to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Happy Independence Day Everyone !

A couple videos to help you enjoy, one from Ray Charles and the other from those who help keep us free.

Journalists, Democrats, many independent voters might answer a huge “NOT!!!” to that one (for many Democrats, Palin heading the ticket would be Christmas, Chanuka, Kwaanza and Festivus rolled into one with Passover, Easter, confirmations and bar mitzvahs and brises added to boot) since the last election showed she does not attract crossover voters but seems stalled into being a conservative niche candidate. Levin told listeners that if people criticize her for not completing her term, didn’t Barack Obama not complete his Senate term? So she only served two years. Didn’t Obama also only serve two as Senator?

Levin predicted Palin would be around for a while — and that this move could make sense since it now frees her to define herself.

Or does it?

Sarah Palin is again doing it her way — but the question is whether her way is on the same wavelength as America’s overall polity and the way the political system operates. Is she trying to get a message across on FM when the political system operates on AM? Is this a political move or is she being hounded out of office? Does this show political smarts? Or if she can’t stand the heat and is getting out of the kitchen, should Republican primary voters make sure she stays out of the GOP Presidential ticket kitchen?

Her biggest problem may now be this: is the way in which she resigned has now defined her even more.

To be sure, the left, right and center (which is always divided into center, center right and center left) will argue over that — yet another sign of how polarizing a figure she has become.

And then there’s this: there is a growing feeling that perhaps the announcement — which took even some of her closest supporters by surprise — suggests that yet another shoe will soon drop.

Perhaps a big one.

Will it be a glamorous shoe — or one that effectively gives her the political boot?

Will there be news of a Sarah Palin TV show? Will she go on a massive tour of the U.S., pitching her book, collecting huge speaking fees, whipping up, shoring up and organizing her conservative movement base? Or is there a new scandal about to burst that will take all of her energy, public relations abilities, and shoring up her base for spin control?

And the final question: no matter what comes next, Palin’s resignation is not something that will help her but adds to a general image not shared by Levin or his listeners that she may be a loose cannon. Will Republican primary voters in a majority go for damaged goods — particularly if those damaged goods are being dissed profusely now by other GOPers?

Just look at some of the quotes in this column by New York Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Thomas DeFrank:

“If you aspire to the highest office in the land, then suddenly think your lieutenant governor can do a better job - not exactly a profile in courage,” one party pro told the Daily News.

Few GOP insiders were surprised Palin decided against running for reelection. The Alaska statehouse is too isolated a locale for any politician aspiring to high national office, they said.

“You need to be in the Lower 48 to be credible politically,” a senior adviser to several Republican Presidents noted.

But quitting mid-term with a rambling rant is not the way to get there.

“She proved she couldn’t play in the big leagues last fall and now she’s proven it again,” one of the party’s most prominent kingmakers said. “If you can’t even handle a governorship, there’s no way you can handle the White House.

“She couldn’t win - but now she can’t even run,” added the official, who once was among her most fervent boosters.

“She has an incredibly thin résumé, a serious lack of gravitas, no coherent philosophy and the people around her are amateurs,” another top Republican pol argued. “She’s finished.”

The news about Palin reportedly stunned one of Palin’s biggest cable talk show host supporters — Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. Crooks and Liar’s John Amato has the details here. Among other things, Van Susteren articulated what some conservative talkers said yesterday - Palin was under terrible verbal and legal assault in her state, and also by the old mainstream media and the new media, meaning bloggers.

Writes Amato:”If she can’t handle criticism from bloggers, then how could she handle al-Qaeda?”

Palin’s problem: that’s a line that some GOPers who aren’t smitten with her (which means many Republicans who are not part of the talk radio political culture, Republicans who liked the first George Bush better than the second George Bush, anyone associated with Arizona Senator John McCain’s campaign, and her potential GOP rivals for 2012, if she plans to run).

How bad does Palin’s move look at first glance? Bad enough that even Dick Morris — the former Clinton advisor and present Clinton nemesis who has become a favorite expert quoted by conservatives (even though he is often wrong) says she made a bad move:

But Morris, a Newsmax columnist and one of the leading political minds in the United States, said he would not have advised Palin to resign in the middle of her term. It opens her up to charges that she is a quitter and reinforces an image of her as “flaky” in the mainstream media.

Morris declined to speculate what effect this could have on the GOP, which he said should be focusing on stopping President Barack Obama’s policies in healthcare and other areas. Palin is a formidable figure, he said, and if the GOP mounts a strong defense against Obama she’ll be one of many promising candidates in 2012.

“I think she felt too moored to Alaska and she had to get out of there to solidify her national and international credentials,’’ Morris said. “But that opens yourself up to the attack that you’ve only served half your term, two years. What kind of basis is that to think you could be president?

“I think it would have been better to serve out her term

On the other hand, parhaps Palin should be pleased to read this: perhaps Morris is wrong — again.

But he offered four scenarios that could explain it. Then added:

“I don’t see how this helps her other than to take her out of the line of fire as a governor, but she did need all the experience she can get,” Morris said. “She’s been the mayor of a town of 7,000 people except for two and a half years as governor.

“It’s not at all clear how this helps her.”

(There’s a lot more so go to the NewsMax link to read it all).

Bush political maven Karl Rove also wonders how this makes Palin’s task easier, if she wants to run in 2012:

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said Palin may find her retirement more politically demanding than her old job as governor.

“Everybody’s going to want to have her come campaign, or appear or make speeches and she no longer has the useful excuse of saying, ‘Look, I would love to help you on that but I got to pay attention to my job,’” Rove told FOX News. “Now she’s going to be torn. It’s going to be very hard for her to say no continually to people who want her to get on the long flight out of Alaska and come down to lower 48.”

Rove said if Palin is interested in running for president in 2012, she’ll have to find a way to maintain her visibility for three years.

“And in the next year or so it’s going to be hard for her to have the same sustained attention that people are going to come to expect now that they see her freed of her responsibilities as governor,” he said.

Longtime GOP consultant Ed Rollins didn’t think it was a terrific idea, either. On CBS he had this to say:

“I think the premise that she doesn’t want to be a lame duck governor — there’s people like Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana, (Miss. Gov.) Haley Barbour, Gov. (Tim) Pawlenty, of Minnesota — they’re all gonna run for president, and they’re finishing their job. The job’s very tough now, and for her to bail out at this point in time, I don’t think it is fair to Alaskans and certainly, I think, damages her long-term career…..Most political people fight to the end. It’s now tough. She didn’t finish the job.”

Rollins pooh-poohed political pros warning that people shouldn’t underestimate Palin’s ability to come back from any position of relative obscurity she may be risking falling into, saying, “You have to remember, everybody else climbed the mountain; she got put on top of it by John McCain. We would not be talking about Sarah Palin if John McCain hadn’t picked her as the v-p (candidate). So, at the end of the day, she’s still gotta earn her stripes.”

Rollins also dismissed thinking that Palin could be better off out of office if she starts seeking the White House next time around. “The new (Alaska) governor, the legislature will move right beyond her,” Rollins asserted, “and I think, to a certain extent, she certainly will have a voice among conservatives, as a viable, political person who’s gonna help the Republican party, (but) I don’t think she can do it as effectively if you’re not a governor…..

….Every step from here on out has to be one that has a strategy to it. This is tactical. She got up (Friday), went out, surprised the political world, which you shouldn’t do, surprised the media world, which you shouldn’t do and, at the end of the day, no one knows why. She’s gotta go answer all the questions and not run away from them: ‘Here’s why I did it, it was for my family, it was for this, and for that reason.’ But the idea, it’s speculation, ‘I’m gonna run for president, I can do it more effectively from outside,’ is not true.”

….She diminished the job of governor. I think, at the end of the day, I’ve never — I’ve been in the business four decades, I’ve never seen a governor ever walk away from the job at mid-term, and I think, at the end of the day, that’s what’s gonna affect her.”

Is Palin rewriting the conventional political wisdom rules — or breaking the conventional wisdom rules and about to become a negative political role model akin to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who decided not to run in a bunch of primaries and put all of his efforts into a sure win (NOT!) Florida primary?

Writes Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist:

Sarah Palin’s announcement on Friday to step down as Alaska’s governor looks even more bizarre the day after.

Now, even Republicans are speaking out about how Palin cut and run from political office. In other words, they are painting her as a quitter.

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said: “I am deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded.”

Others were coming to the same conclusion, that Palin’s decision to quit as governor wasn’t exactly a profile in political courage.

As they point out, Palin didn’t give any concrete reasons for quitting, other than not wanting to face the heat of ethical accusations over the coming months.

And her decision to be the “point guard” who passes the ball so her team can win doesn’t make much sense. Sure, the point guard can get an assist on a crucial basket or two.

But in the political world, the governor is the leader, with plenty of political power to make things happen. If Alaska really were humming along under the Palin regime, her decision to quit would be a great loss to the state.

L. A. Times blogger Andew Malcolm has this MUST READ IN FULL post which contains original reporting on why Palin made her decision. Here’s just part of it:

What she’s decided to do, as a former championship basketball player who sees the bipartisan opposition has gained momentum, is take a timeout, get out of the line of fire awhile, write her lucrative book, take care of her children, blog and travel a lot without the responsibilities of elective office. Free her family from scrutiny. And avoid any criticism for ignoring an official job in Anchorage and Juneau.

And see what happens.

Her new SARAHPac remains intact, however, and is still accepting donations to fund her travels. In doing so, she can refine her political style, learn more about more issues, become less naive, hopefully find savvier political advisors more loyal to her than themselves for a change, people accustomed to a larger national stage that she’s willing to trust.

And rebuild her image over the next few years. That’s the thinking. Unlikely perhaps, but not outrageous if a previous elected official can survive a scandal over oral sex in the Oval Office and lying about it.

Her departure now also gives her successor 16 months to be seen as an incumbent for the 2010 gubernatorial election he says he’ll seek to win.

In one sense, in the world of national American politics this is all incredibly naive. For whatever reason — including incalculable unfair criticism and stereotyped media coverage that would never ever be tolerated for a male officeholder – she’s in a huge hole, partly of her own making.

She’s made numerous mistakes, partly from inexperience, partly from poor strategic advice. While Mitt Romney goes quietly about the business of building up political owe-sies by campaigning tirelessly for others all over the country, building his contacts and allegiances out of sight and using his long experience to appear statesmanlike, Palin is publicly squabbling with the likes of a grumpy, fading late-night TV celebrity who made a rape joke about her daughter.

It’s so soap-operey. Those awful slings about looking like trailer trash wouldn’t be aimed at a male Gomer Pyle. But it comes with the turf. Hillary Clinton’s long experience with that thickened her skin.

And what can this other shoe that many think is about to drop be?

Right now it’s all sheer speculation or informed reporting speculation (which means it’s being trumpeted and out there now but the writers and news outlets won’t talk about it much if it proves to be wrong) but here are the key scenarios:

*A TV SHOW: There’s a lot of new and old media speculation that Rupert Murdoch might gobble Palin up because she’s not just a popular conservative commodity, but also has charisma and journalism background. Will she get her own show? FREE ADVICE FOR SARAH PALIN: Here’s a title for your show that you can use, at no charge. Palilng Around With Palin or if it’s entertainment You Betchya Life.

*A REAGAN/HILLARY CLINTON STYLE LISTENING TOUR: She’ll be hyping her book, speaking far and wide — do op-eds, model herself after Newt Gingrich and create some kind of group or even think tank, maybe even become a blogger (hey, doyawannaexchangelinks?). She’ll re-define herself as an issue person and start pulling away from her present media image that partially defines her as someone involved in spats with comedians and sons-in-laws. Will we see a Palin Contract For America?

*A NEW SCANDAL: Several reports suggest one might coming. The Daily Beast’s Max Blumenthal:

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.

SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

Prior to her sudden announcement, Palin gave every indication that she intended to complete her tenure as governor.

But the bottom line is this:

The election results clearly showed that, if Palin was to go beyond her showing in 2008 and truly wanted to have a serious shot at 2012, she needed to expand her base, and be seen doing things or saying things that would put her in a better light with women voters, moderates, centrists and Democratic voters who don’t belong to the party’s farthest left wing.

Her resignation — and the negative publicity and speculation surrounding it — won’t help her to that end one bit.

BUT THAT’S JUST OUR VIEW. HERE ARE A FEW MORE VIEWPOINTS ON THE SARAH PALIN STORY:

–Glenn Reynolds offers a National Review quote and a comment of his own:
JIM

GERAGHTY: “The lesson that the ruthless corners of the political world will take from the rise, fall, and departure of Sarah Palin that if you attack a politician’s children nastily enough and relentlessly enough, you can get anybody to quit.”

And I don’t want to hear any of that dishonest have-you-no-decency posturing from the usual moral poseurs if that happens to somebody they like. They have sown the wind.

–Andrew Sullivan offers this video of him reacting to it.

–My DD on Palin’s press conference speech:

Washington’s Farewell Address it’s not. The speech is rambling and incoherent, full of meaningless platitudes. Count the number of times she mentions “no more politics as usual.”…She does hint a continuing role in politics. I’m sure that the among a certain subset of conservatives, Sarah Palin can do no wrong. Thankfully, there is a saner set.

–Joe Katzman:

I will say this. The 2 most common analytical mistakes people make when thinking about the GOP are (1) thinking in terms of the last election; or (2) thinking in terms of the 1980s. Both are common inside the party - and neither is really relevant. This next Presidential election is going to be strongly driven by events, and by the America we’ll be looking over the next 2-3 years. Which could well be a rather different, and less happy, place. One in which Reagan’s solutions are only partly applicable.

I see few signs that the GOP is really coming to grips with this, but eventually it will. The party that begins to come together within the malestrom of upcoming events may not be like the party of today, in important ways. And it may not happen by 2012. If Palin accelerates or catalyzes that process somehow, it would be a huge contribution - whether or not she runs.

–Obsidian Wings:

Well, this should end the whole “Sarah Palin is bizarre and erratic” meme…..Today only makes sense if she either (1) is done with politics entirely, or (2) is a looney toon. The whole thing was just so poorly timed — and the press narrative so bad — that it’s hard to believe a credible presidential candidate would do it.

And lest we forget, this is the person the 72-year John McCain selected to be the Vice President of the United States.

–The Gun Toting Liberal:

And now, Alaska Governor Todd Sarah Palin has announced she has made the decision to further her media scrutiny career by leaving her governorship, effective July 26th of this year (KTTU.Com). Let me tell you — NOBODY saw this coming, by the way — or I’d have reported it. Speculators say she’s gambling it all on “Red” for the presidency, which would in a way be sort of cool — a former classmate becomes president. On the other hand, it “ain’t gonna happen”. Her extremely UNPRESIDENTIAL reaction to David Letterman’s bad joke about her daughter followed by not only one, but TWO apologies has guaranteed she will slip into the “black hole” of American politics; a place shared by Tom Daschle, Rick Santorum and more than a handful of other “use ta’ be’s”. That’s not an “insider prediction” (although, my “insider” does agree it’d be tough for her to come back from that one) — that’s an official GTL™ prediction.

–skippy (who writes all in lower case and invented the term “Blogtopia”):

she probably needs to find some writers to come up w/jokes about dave letterman’s family.

but seriously folks (we love saying that after making a joke about jokes…it’s all so “meta”), it’s no surprise that maggie o’connell decided not to run for re-election. everybody this side of ron paul knows she’s planning to go for the presidency in 2012, and, as she proved last year, it’s hard for her to run and chew gum govern @ the same time.

however, nobody has any idea why she’s quitting early. maybe she wants to set a good example for mark sanford. maybe she’s got her own appalachian trail to hike. maybe she can’t take all the heat from that flaming liberal rag politico.

personally, we would not be surprised if it had somethign to do w/embarassment over todd’s affiliation w/the alaska secessionist independence party. but we will have to wait and see if the truth comes out.

–Hilzoy on Washington Monthly:

My unfounded speculation: I do not believe for a moment that this is about taking time off to prepare for 2012. Nothing I know about Sarah Palin leads me to believe that she would give up power voluntarily, let alone for something that is such a long shot, and in such a transparently self-destructive way.

I think that there’s something we don’t know about: either a serious health problem or a serious scandal. In either case, it would, I think, have to be a really big deal to make her react in this way. She has shown herself to be more than capable of brushing off smaller scandals, national embarrassment, and a whole host of other things. She did not step down from the governorship when she gave birth to a child with special needs, or when she was asked to be McCain’s running-mate. She did not decline McCain’s offer because of the potential embarrassment, either to her or her family, of her daughter being unmarried and pregnant. She is no shrinking violet.

Nor, as I said earlier, does she strike me as someone who would give up power without a very, very compelling reason.

–Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey thinks this is it for Palin:

I’ve seen a myriad of excuses on Twitter and e-mail for this bizarre resignation: her legal bills are too high, she’s putting her family first, she doesn’t want to distract Alaskans because of cheap-shot ethics complaints that are distracting everyone. None of those make any sense. If the spotlight was too much, then she shouldn’t have run for office in the first place. If she’s quitting because people are taking potshots at her, then she’s not the kind of political fighter we thought she was. The legal bills might be a rational reason, but thoroughly insufficient for betraying the people who put her in charge of Alaska — and her memoirs would have paid for her legal bills many times over, had she completed her term.

There’s really no excuse, and what Rich Lowry also calls her “terrible,” “rambling,” and “not at all persuasive” statement showed that. Unless there was a serious illness or a serious scandal, the resignation on the grounds Palin gave is simply incomprehensible. She has destroyed her own credibility in a single day.

I liked Sarah Palin and supported her inclusion on the GOP ticket last fall. I thought she had more toughness than this. It’s a big disappointment, and it’s the end of any hope of Palin getting taken seriously as a politician on the national level in the future.

–Time’s Mark Halperin offers 9 Pieces of “Analysis” About Sarah Palin’s Decision That Are Flat-Out Totally Wrong
–Democratic strategist Paul Begala offers a must-read-in-full take on The Huffington Post. Here are just two sections of it:

It was an almost impossible mission, but in resigning from office with 17 months to go in her first term, Sarah Palin has made herself the bull goose loony of the GOP.

Let’s stipulate that if there is some heretofore unknown personal, medical or family crisis, this was the right move. But Gov. Palin didn’t say anything like that. Her statement was incoherent, bizarre and juvenile. The text, as posted on Gov. Palin’s official website (here), uses 2,549 words and 18 exclamation points. Lincoln freed the slaves with 719 words and nary an exclamation; Mr. Jefferson declared our independence in 1,322 words and, again, no exclamation points. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1,796 words — still no exclamation points. Gov. Palin capitalized words at random - whole words, like “TO,” “HELP,” and “AND,” and the first letter of “Troops.”

Gov. Palin’s official announcement that she is resigning as chief executive of the great state of Alaska had all the depth and gravitas of a 13-year-old’s review of the Jonas Brothers’ album on Facebook. She even quoted her parents’ refrigerator magnet. (Note to self: if one of my kids becomes governor, throw away the refrigerator magnet that says: “Murray’s Oyster Bar: We Shuck Em, You Suck Em!”) She put her son’s name in quotations marks. Why? Who knows. She writes, “I promised efficiencies and effectiveness!?” Was she exclaiming or questioning? I get it: both!

His ending:

Again and again in her statement, Gov. Palin returned to the nettlesome ethics inquiries that have been visited upon her since she signed on to be John McCain’s running mate. No doubt they are annoying. But does anyone believe that’s why she’s resigning? No, there’s more to this story. And Ms. Palin’s resignation only increases the chances that we will all know the rest of the story soon. Or, as she might put it:

We will all KNOW the “rest of the Story” *((SOON!))*

–Talk Left offers building pictures that suggest there could be an upcoming “housegage” scandal. Jeralyn writes:

As to theories she’s resigning to hit the lecture circuit or become a cable news pundit to pay her legal bills, didn’t she just get a fat book contract that should take care of those?

Whatever her reasons for resigning, I suspect her political career is over. She can run around the country from now until 2012, and she’s not going to be nominated for President. Memo to Mrs. Palin: We’re just not that into you.

–Josh Painter at Red State is enjoying the media scramble and says GOPers should trust Palin. It’s a long post that must be read completely but here are a few parts of it:

If Sarah Palin had intended to make media heads collectively explode, she couldn’t have planned it better. She called a press conference on short notice, then announced that not only would she not seek a second term as Alaska’s governor, but she intended to resign later this month. All that would remain for her to do is pop some Orville’s, sit back and enjoy the show as the punditocracy begins wildly speculating about that which it does not know. As crazy as this sounds, consider how crazy the reaction has been so far to her announcement…

…And speaking of acting, people are throwing fits left and right. On the left the anti-Palinists are mocking and taunting the Palinists. Some of the more cultish Palinists find their undergarmets much more twisted than some more thoughtful conservative observers who are angrily denouncing the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate for “letting us down” after “we defended her.” As if she didn’t deserve defending regardless of her future political intentions. The same political opponents are denouncing her for quitting her job that were trying to see that she doesn’t keep it. That would be the hypocrite wing of the Democrat Party.

And:

…..Some in the hostile media are speculating that another running shoe is about to fall. They talk wistfully of impending scandal. Some less hostile observers wonder if, God forbid, there is some medical issue either with the governor herself or someone close to her. CNN’s Rick Sanchez has even questioned if she may be pregnant with her sixth child. Some have asked if there is some other impending crisis in Gov. Palin’s family that she may need to deal with. Others speculate that she just wants to take a time out, spend some time with her family, write her book and return to the political wars with her batteries recharged. Whatever her reason or reasons for resigning her governorship must be good ones. This is not a woman who likes to quit or has shown much propensity to do so in the past.

This speculation business is easy, but unfortunately, it’s accomplishes little. It will not stop until Sarah Palin makes it stop by telling us what she plans to do. I’m willing to give her time to do that. I will neither condemn her nor cry in my beer if she decides not to run for president. God knows she has given much and received little reward and much punishment for herself and her family. Gov. Palin saved the GOP and John McCain from an electoral blowout of McGovern proportions, and she made Saxby Chambliss’ return to the U.S. Senate a sure thing with a safety margin of 10 insurance points. She’s been fighting for missile defense, fiscal restraint and energy security, among other things. She’s defended young girls and women of all ages against misogynistic attacks by dirty men both young and old. And she has been a source of encouragement to women everywhere to be all that they can be, and not just in the U.S. Army.

–Jonathan Turley:

That is a curious rationale since voters probably thought that they were voting for a full term — since that is what she was running for when she asked for their vote. Under this logic, every term would be cut short by roughly a year if the incumbent was not looking for a second term. Moreover, instead of serving as a lame duck governor, she has given Alaska a governor who was not elected to that particular office. Since when is completing one’s promised term “another dose of politics as usual.” That would seem more like a promise as usual.

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The cartoon by Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons, is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

In public schools from the age of 6-17, in PS 177, Boody Jr. High and Lafayette High School, all in Brooklyn, New York, the same lunch was served every thursday. Franks, mashed potatoes, and sitting in a dollop of these potatoes, a pool of brown gravy smothered in sauerkraut.

It has left its mark. Each July 4th since then, when someone cries out the traditional “Have a dog,” I’m thrown back to a vision of those franks. Swimming in a brown gravy mix that has leaked from its dollop cone like molten slag from an erupted volcano. With strands of sauerkraut swirling in the ooze.

I do not know if this particular food horror was a commonplace elsewhere in America. And I’m sure visitors to this web site who may have been public school educated in other parts of the country have their own tales of culinary abuse practiced on kids too young to adequately defend themselves and perhaps, as was the case with me, so unsophisticated at the time of these feedings that I actually viewed this meal as edible. So maybe my angst here seems exaggerated.

Yet, it occurs to me there’s an issue of nationalism here that can’t be totally ignored. On July 4th a guy’s got a right to enjoy a heavily nitrated frank in a toasted but otherwise tasteless white flour bun smothered in cheap mustard and topped with kraut. O.K. I never learned much in those early years of education that made me a significantly better or smarter adult. But did they really have to take the dog out of my Fourth, too?