As I ponder Palin’s announcement that she is leaving the governor’s office early, I have to wonder what she is thinking, unless she is about to exit politics altogether (which, by the way, doesn’t comport with the signals she has sent since the election last year).
Let’s consider: one of the big critiques about her was her lack of experience, that her resume too thin. By failing to even complete one full term as governor she enhances that criticism, does she not? Further, does she not open herself up to the criticism that she couldn’t handle two tasks at once, i.e., gearing up for a run at the nomination while finishing out her term? Indeed, I am not even sure she wouldn’t have been better off running for and winning a second term, now that I think about it.
Indeed, James Joyner rightly notes:
I’m not sure who her political brain trust is but the idea that resigning as governor — the only significant political office she’s had — after only two years will improve her chances of getting elected president is, to say the least, unconventional.
As such, I think Steve Benen has a point:
Palin had an opportunity to prove her critics wrong. She could have returned to Alaska after last year’s campaign, studied up on public policy, and built up some kind of record in office, preferably with some achievements. Instead, Palin has become an even more rigid ideologue. Given a chance to prove herself as leader, Palin has decided she’d prefer to walk away, blinded by a combination of ambition and misplaced arrogance.
Of course, I have noted from the beginning that her credentials and qualifications for office were dubious and that she did not present herself as someone capable of being president. I suppose she is simply continuing to prove that.
And before anyone tries to paint me as a leftist loon for making such statements, it is worth nothing that Charles Krauthammer deemed her just yesterday “not a serious candidate for the presidency” and noted:
She had to go home and study and spend a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year, and she hasn’t. She has to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes.
Andrew Sullivan has more reactions here.
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