Here is one reason, as noted by Nick Ayers, the executive director of the Republicans Governor’s Assocation, in HuffPo.
While Ayers may have had a direct heads up as to Palin's intentions, he wasn't entirely on cue with the Governor's talking points. Asked why Palin was stepping down as opposed to finishing her term (which ends in 2010), the RGA header cited pesky bloggers and activists as the reason. Palin had insisted she didn't want to put Alaskans through two years of a lame-duck governorship.
"I don't think this is buckling to pressure," said Ayers. "I think this is her coming to the realization that the legislature in Alaska and that some bloggers and activists in Alaska are going to do everything they can to stymie her progress. This is a governor who didn't run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state. She realized that that was no longer going to be able to happen, because things had become so partisan there."
She can’t do her job as governor of a relatively small state (in terms of population) because bloggers and activists are giving her such a hard time, but she wanted to be Vice President of the United States? Does she not think that might be a little bit more visible position than governor? And as for the compliant that “things had become so partisan”, does she not remember her contribution to the entire “partisan” thing? Obama “pals around with terrorists” and such? People in the crowd at her rallies were recorded yelling, “terrorist” and “kill him!” That’s not partisan? By engaging in such tactics, does she not open herself up to criticism? By getting into a high profile dust up with David Letterman, after Letterman apologized several times for the rather nasty joke about one of Palin’s daughters, doesn’t she just add fuel to the fire? She’s the one who made her family into a campaign issue, after all.
I also think her use of the term “lame duck” is really unusual. I have never heard of an official call himself or herself a “lame duck” after only 2 ½ years on the job. That term is normally applied to someone in their last term in office and can’t run anymore, and everyone knows it so there is no real reason to go along with that person because everyone knows there will be someone new coming along very soon. She’s the one who said she wasn’t going to seek a second term, so that automatically qualifies her as a lame duck after 2 ½ years? That’s really weird logic.
I have no doubt that some “bloggers and activists” go beyond the pale when it comes to Sarah and her family, and they have the ability to make Sarah Palin’s life difficult, but only if she lets them. Myself, I have real doubts that someone as narcissistic as Sarah Palin appears to be would just step down voluntarily from the office to which she was elected, just because bloggers are saying nasty things about her. She said some pretty nasty things about others. I guess this means that if someone has particularly thin skin, then they shouldn’t be in politics. I couldn’t do it, for instance. But unless Sarah Palin goes into seclusion and stays there, I can’t see the scrutiny by all those pesky bloggers diminishing any time soon.
One way of looking at this is the old saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” A slightly different way of looking at that is this. If you are going to say and do things on a national stage that makes you look like a moron, but don’t like the negative publicity, then maybe you should either stop looking like a moron or else get out of the game entirely.
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