The Anchorage Daily News hasn't exactly been on cordial terms with Sarah Palin. It zinged her several times during the Walt Monegan affair, and gave a ringing endorsement of Obama in which it said rather bluntly that Palin simply wasn't ready in case anything happened to McCain.
So it isn't entirely surprising that when the Daily News' editorial board had a chance to look at Palin's resignation speech, it asked the same question a lot of people are asking: "What was she thinking?"
Gov. Palin baffled Alaskans with her explanation that, having decided not to seek a second term, she doesn't want to be a lame duck until December 2010. That explanation is more lame than the duck. The governor spoke as if her decision not to seek a second term automatically left her irrelevant, when the fact is that the rest of her term's quality was up to her.
Ouch--that probably left a pretty good mark when Palin saw this on the morning of the Fourth.
The Daily News then reminds Palin of the work she was elected to do--and the fact she was elected to do it in four years, not two-and-a-half. Also, the paper clearly isn't buying Palin's explanation that she's standing down for the good of the state.
She spoke as if she were making a sacrifice for the good of Alaska, but it's hard to see how.
It's one thing when an elected official tries for higher office, wins and leaves the old post. It's another when an elected official, eyeing higher office or some other pursuit, decides to quit in midterm. That looks like self-service, not public service. Lacking any other family or political reasons for resigning, the governor's explanation simply doesn't make sense.
The Daily News also seems to think Palin squandered a lot of opportunities to really make a difference in the state. She accomplished a lot in her first year-plus as governor, and was riding a tsunami of popularity. Then came 2008--and the vice-presidential run.
Her vice presidential run -- and the circus of Troopergate -- changed her life and changed the political landscape in Alaska. Relations with the Legislature, never ideal, grew worse. She was often described by lawmakers as "disengaged." She seemed to keep looking south even after returning north in November, and she was a more fierce partisan of the Republican right.
In the end, while the Daily News seems to think Palin's ambitions for higher office are admirable, she forgot about the minor detail of the fact she was still governor of Alaska.
Digg it up ...