No, I don't know what the scandal is yet, but for Sarah Palin to resign so unexpectedly, something has got to be up. Talking Points Memo has the full coverage.
Until then, what is the scandal about? Any guesses?
Friday, July 03, 2009
Big Scandal in Alaska
Posted by Bell Curve at 3:20 PM
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10 comments:
OMFG! OK, the excuse that she doesn't want Alaska to have a lame duck governor is obviously BS. There has got to be some smoking gun about to be revealed. If it really is that she's just being pushed out by all the pressure and attention, then this SCREAMS that McCain was not bold but rather tragically irresponsible in appointing her as his running mate.
Oh, and let me take issue with something she said...."the State has wasted THOUSANDS of hours of YOUR time and shelled out some two million of YOUR dollars to respond to "opposition research" - that's money NOT going to fund teachers or troopers - or safer roads."
I call BULL SHIT on this. Alaska does not spend ALASKAN'S money! Alaska's state budget comes from US federal Tax payers who send billions a year in handouts to that state and oil companies that pay enormous "royalties" to the state in return for extracting Alaskan oil and natural gas. They only spend "their" money to the extent that a child's allowance belongs to the child. Alaskans are a collection of "welfare" kings and queens. The smart ones up there recognize that and are appropriate grateful. But idiots like Palin talk about balancing the Alaskan budget or protecting Alaskan "tax payers."
If Alaska didn't have oil and weren't strategically important for our ability to defend the North Pacific, I'd say we should save our money and cut 'em loose.
The conventional wisdom would be that Palin's resignation will effectively end any possible Presidential aspirations for her. But she has made a career of defying the conventional wisdom. At one point in her odd and rambling speech, she said what I think was the root of her reasoning: once she had decided not to run for re-election in 2010, she realized she did not want to serve as a lame-duck governor either.
It is hard to imagine her running for President as the, "Half-term Governor from Alaska," but stranger things have been done. When I heard this news, I did not cheer--I thought, crap, this frightening woman really is going to make a serious run for the Presidency on her own "mavericky" terms! I suspect she has not yet decided whether she will run for President in 2012. But she has declared her own independence and will probably become increasingly involved in the Republican party at the national level. We shall see. But let us not make the mistake of counting her out. The loose cannon in the Republican arsenal is now truly loose.
We'll see if her stated reasons for quitting really are the reasons.
Something else she said in the announcement - she and Todd are a half a million in debt to lawyers for the defense they've had to mount in their various court cases. My guess is that even with getting your house built by "Todd's friends" and the other perks of Alaskan politics can't pay for that without getting grotesquely corrupt.
I think her next step will be to either go on the paid lecture circuit full time or sign on as a Fox News personality.
But let's assume that she's being honest about why she quit her job mid way through her first term as the only governor in the United States who doesn't have to balance a budget or raise revenue from constituents to pay for it. She claims that she's quitting because the national media attention is so negative and distracting that she can't do her job? I think this makes her look weak, irresponsible, sulking and not a little childish.
I'll make a "gentleman's wager" with you Dr. S. In two weeks, Palin's approval ratings will be down significantly.
You're probably right about the short-term impact of her announcement on her approval ratings... But the real question is where they are two years from now, isn't it?
OK, I'll make a side wager with you. If Sarah Palin is the GOP nominee I'll buy you a bottle of coke. If she is being sworn in as President in January of 2013, I'll buy you a bottle of whiskey (because lord knows we'll both need a drink in that event).
For baseline comparison here are Palin's current approval numbers (from pollingreport.com - see link to the right):
From Pew (June 10-14): Very favorable (15%), Mostly favorable (30%), Mostly unfavorable (22%), Very unfavorable (22%).
From NBC/WSJ (April 23-26): Very positive (14%), Somewhat positive (18%), neutral (24%), Somewhat negative (11%), Very negative (27%).
As we can see, Palin was an extremely polarizing figure before quitting her job as governor of Alaska. My gut tells me that the middle of the road types will see this move by her as simply "quitting" and abandoning her responsibilities in the face of some fairly run of the mill negative attention for a national political figure.
My first thought when I heard she'd resigned, prior to hearing any of the details on here (particularly that there may be scandal), was 'oh crap, she's not going for a Senate seat to strengthen her future Presidential chances is she?'...
OK... And I'll reverse the terms. If Palin is not the nominee in 2012, I will buy you a bottle of whiskey. (And we can both celebrate!!) But if she is not sworn in as President in Jan. 2013, I'll just buy you a bottle of coke--because I think Obama is such a strong campaigner he will very likely win regardless of his opponent.
There is NO WAY she's the Republican nominee in 2012. Take it to the bank. If anyone makes a bet with you that she'll be the nominee, you take it.
Dr. S, that's very generous! I would have given you odds! :-)
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