"I, Sarah Palin, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Alaska. And that I will faithfully discharge my duties as governor of the state of Alaska to the best of my ability, so help me God." — Sarah Palin, December 2006
Sarah Palin followed her bizarre, rambling press conference with a bizarre, rambling Facebook rant.
On this Independence Day, I am so very proud of all those who have chosen to serve our great nation and I honor their selflessness and the sacrifices of their families, too.
Funny thing about the military. When you make a commitment to serve, you don’t just get to quit whenever you feel like it.
Yesterday, my family and I announced a decision that is in Alaska’s best interest and it always feels good to do what is right. We have accomplished more during this one term than most governors do in two – and I am proud of the great team that helped to build these wonderful successes.
In other words, I’m doing such an awesome job for the people of Alaska, it’s really much better for them if I only serve half a term. WTF?
The response in the main stream [sic] media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. 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. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.
I have no idea what that last sentence means, but since there are "countless others" — I’d really like Sarah Palin to name three high-profile, national politicians who quit in the middle of their first term, for no good reason. Or how about just one?
As for bemoaning the "politics of personal destruction": kiss my ass, ‘Cuda.
Abandoning your office and your state, while patting yourself on the back and framing your dereliction as some sort of selfless, patriotic act isn’t narcissistic. It’s pathological.
Related posts:
- Sarah Palin is Quitting AGAIN — Now It’s Her Marriage!?
- BREAKING: Sarah Palin to Resign; Alaska Governor Stepping Down in “A Few Weeks”
- Sarah Palin Resigns To Spend More Time IN YOUR FACE
- Limbaugh’s Syndicators Turn Up Their Noses at Sarah Palin
- Sarah Palin Thinks Being President Would Be Awesome Because Ass-Kicking “Department of Law” Would Protect Her from Lawsuits
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Zed
Sarah is leaving so she devote more time to hunting Wolves from
Helicopters!
“It’s pathological.”
It’s the GOP. What’s your point?
The pathology is that of today’s Republican party, or at least its nuttiest wing.
I see a connection to the lesser though still extraordinary narcissism of Governor Sanford, who seems not to recognize the dereliction of his sworn responsibilities involved in his AWOL jaunt to Argentina, which he had originally planned to be 10 days.
This is the government you get from people who disdain government. Public morals and responsibilities don’t exist for them. The only vow they can respect is a personal one, like a marriage vow.
Like a spoiled child, she wants what she wants when and how she wants it:
Publicity? Yes, please, only of the positive nature. No questioning my decisions, no shining lights where I say the dark is preferable.
Adoration? Yeah, that’d be nice, thanks. Lots of it. On cue.
Accountability? Well, not so much, including that whole “thanks but no thanks on the Bridge to Nowhere.” (See “Publicity.”)
Lather, rinse, repeat.
As usual for baby Sarah, it’s all about her. To aid in that cause, she uses glittering generalities about being held to a different standard because of her “courage”. The reality is that whatever standards are left after Bush and this give the Goopers what they want Democratic Party, Palin is being held to the same low standard as any other politician. The fact is she fails to clear even that low hurdle. Whatever her motivations, she deserves the invisibility that will descend on her like an Alaskan winter.
and we have no idea how many times her inane ramblings that defy grammatical diagrams have inspired that short phrase.
“I will faithfully discharge my duties as governor of the state of Alaska to the best of my ability”
She did. She quit.
Part of the GOP strategy is to use the term “family” as much as possible, especially when you’ve just fucked up.
What is this higher calling you speak of, dear Sawaha? Are you hearing voices again?
Rumor that Sarah’s pregnant by Bristol’s squeeze (—- Johnson?)–just rumor?
Like a TPM reader pointed out, if she ever runs for political office again, all her opponent has to say is, “Will she stay to complete her term?”
Is there anyone who thinks that Ms. Palin not holding public office is a BAD thing?
It’s pathological.
Thank you. This needs to be stated very clearly.
The family they invoke is not the family they serve. Of course, the double entendre does not register with Sarah Smile. Though, I’ll bet it registered with smarter parasites like Bugman Delay.
Wow. I can’t remember two weeks in which so much has happened. And I thought we were hitting the dog days of summer early. Obama is never going to get his agenda through Congress if famous people don’t stop dying and Gooper Governors don’t stop their craziness.
Now, this makes more sense than her Friday speech…
I saw G Will on ABC today and he said after viewing & reading her statements, he still didn’t understand what she was trying to get across. Oh, and he saw no future for her in politics, it’s just weird to agree with George.
Her family must be traumatized. Imagine living full time in Sarah world.
Rove said the same thing. We haven’t heard from Newt yet…
This is the part that galls me the most… (aside from the lie that ‘countless others’ have abandoned their office and their oath… what a crock of shit)…
“of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.”
She loves to play the pity card… poor Sarah… everybody is being mean to her.
She can incite her true believers (scary really) to say “kill him” at her rallies… and when people criticize her for clearly abandoning Alaska to move on to greener pastures and idolatry (not to mention millions of dollars), she can’t take it.
She is a great Republican… lying constantly and truly disgusting.
Read that some friends of hers said that she was very unhappy with her life – whatever that means. Maybe it’s all those kids, or Todd, or the weather, who knows. She’s a flake and a nut.
Late Palin twitter (via Marshall):
Can anyone make sense of that?
I love my Firedog Friends, but there seems to be some obtuseness out there when it comes to basic RepublicanRhetoric.
Sarah’s reference to “others” who have not completed their terms of office is a direct reference to a certain Illinois Senator who never completed his first term of office in that post, opting instead to pursue other opportunities. It is a secondary reference to a certain junior Senator from NY, who rather quickly dropped her commitments to the dairy farmers and ghetto denizens of that great state so she might accept high office in Washington. Other examples litter the landscape, in both the Dem ad Rep cliques.
No question that Pancake Head Will heavily favored the Corporate/Fascist Wing of the R Party. Will was a bit embarrassed by the Christian Fundies. Not embarassed enough to make it clear, because above all, he is a Whore for the R Party.
The long knives of the Beltway R’s were out for Palin. They don’t like Huckabee either. They’ll run him if they have to but they don’t prefer him.
and this woman has a college degree IN ENGLISH COMMUNICATIONS ???
she can’t write a decent 5 paragraph essay
and that’s just BASIC ENGLISH
she’ll never rise above the level of gibberish
One more thing…
Her abandoning Alaska is completely analogous to the way she used people on the Wasilla city council and at the state level to get elected, and then abandoned them completely.
She’s used her governorship to propel her onto the national scene (thanks to Bill Kristol’s hard-on for her and to flakey (or is it mavericky?) McCain)…
and now she needs more bright lights and big cities and adoring crowds than AK can provide… so now she’s ditching the state, just like she did the people who helped her get elected at the lower echelons of AK politics.
The truly scary part in all of this is that there ARE adoring crowds… the fact that so many Americans can idolize her is very disturbing.
To be clear, those long knives were not the cause of Palin’s Failin’. She did it on her own. She did it her way.
From the desk of the editor – the Firedoglake style guide has been updated to reflect the new reality in the State of Alaska; henceforth, Governor Sarah Palin will referred to as Little Miss Cut’n Run
Of course, the glaring fallacy in her comparison is that both of those people were moving on to new offices, while she is moving on to ignominous failure and obscurity, aside from the flood of parody to come.
So which of these politicians quit their job to campaign???
Just wondering whether the politics of personal self-destruction is included in her list of “oh noes,” because if that’s so . . . well, you know.
As Darth would say, “So”?
With all due respect, laborite, those examples do not stand up to scrutiny. Obama and Clinton did not just “resign” and not finish their terms… they decided to run for the presidency of the US.
Palin just “resigned” period… with no anounced plans for what her “higher calling” is. It’s clear she wants to make mega$$ from her book deal and the lecture circuit… and she has simply outgrown AK and it’s time to ditch the state. No matter which way you look at it, there is no compelling reason … she’s obviously doing it simply for personal gain and glory.
OK, let’s assume Sara’s in this for herself, so, what to do now? If I was Sara,I would have my agent beating on Clear Channel’s door tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. Reason? Sara is ready for her very own radio show. Think of it, Rush is still popular but his act is tired and he costs a lot of money and he’s fat, ugly and a general pain in the ass. Sara would be a breath of Northern fresh air, cost less, at least to start, and would bring in the listeners, especially new listeners, who are the dearest to Clear Channel’s heart. Rush would still have his show but with some in-house competition. She could even broadcast from her lovely home on the lake. It’s a win-win situation…except for The Big Fat Idiot.
She could practice sucking the chrome off a trailer hitch too.
Sarah is as stupid and unlearned as Dubya in the English Department. Both speak gibberish, but she can do it extemporaneously where he cannot.
Each are demonstrative of the fact that attending college does not guarantee that a person will learn anything.
Is our children learning?
We hold this truth to be self-evident.
hackworth… as I posted elsewhere… she is George Bush in a skirt… clueless and malleable… altho I think she is SO clueless that she is actually an embarassment to the more erudite Republicans… even those that supported W.
I wonder if FOX would have her. She has a face for television…
And boy is it crowded in that elevator.
I need to add that the mere presence of ‘Can’t take the heat” Palin on the national scene really makes me mad.
I really didn’t think they could foist someone WORSE than Bush on us… when McCain nominated her I discovered they could.
Fucking idiots.
and you assume that the problem mis in OUR court ???
princess pandora’s cowardly retreat in NO WAY resembles the career path of Barack Obama
so it ain’t OUR fault we can’t understand this ditz
as an astute observer pointed out yesterday, resigning for a “Higher Calling” usually involves a “Higher Calling” along with the resignation
it ain’t our fault princess pandora’s jibberish doesn’t resemble reality
ha… I struggled as I wrote that! oxymoronic I know.
I’ll take a shot at it: She’s nuts?
Careful, you are coming very close to saying something positive about Obama.
but with no brain, I doubt that would work.
Being in the “State” of Blago – no tears shed on his demise, but I wonder how the good folks in Alaska feel to have their Uber Patriotic Gov bail on them going into the 4th Holiday when there’s troubled waters ahead. We knew we had problems – a lot from Blago but he didn’t hold title to Chi politics, but having ‘no’ Gov has been a hard hit, but Quinn is doing better then hoped so far with a real mess left him. Bailing in easy times is one thing – in hard times it’s gotta hurt.
Imagine the probing questions and witty repartee on the Sarah Palin Radio Show?
Q. Which model Buck knife do you prefer for moose skinning?
Q. Is it a breach of international treaties if I chase a wolf into Canada and shoot it while leaning out the door of Todd’s Piper Cub?
That she is an “empty vessel” (like Duhbyah) is the reason Smirking Billy Kristol sucked up to her for so long. What’s he saying this weekend, I wonder?
Must read from NYT’s Dowd:
Caribou Barbie is One Nutty Puppy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07…..5dowd.html
I think the clinical term would be narcissistic personality disorder with paranoia.
tiny, cautious little lol
Shoto… Kristol’s saying it’s a brilliant tactical move to set her up for a 2012 run… still got his hard-on for her.
Especially a Faux face, given the cast of characters there. I’m thinking yes on this.
Maybe we’re misunderstanding. Maybe “setting her up for a 2012 run” means sealing her fate once and for all. Lord all Friday, tell me this nation has not descended to as low a low as this low.
I’m not so sure… after reading this week’s Vanity Fair article on her describing the adoring crowds at some recent public events (anti-abortion of course!)… I think she’s gaming for the lecture circuit and of course her book deal.
But I suppose she could also squeeze in a talk show, so who knows….
Why am I not surprised? On the nuttiness scale, he’s right up there with her. He’d make a great running mate.
snow machine trailer hitches are generally chromeless.
That’s the part that truly gets me… what was it, 40 million or so who voted for the McCain/Palin ticket?
That we have so many idiots in our country (sadly some are my relatives) is quite disturbing.
That was one of the first things I thought. I can’t wait for the cat fight between her and Megan Kelly. Hell, this stuff is so good you could almost make it pay-per-view…
I love her spokeperson’s (Meg Stapleton) statement:
“The world is truly her oyster.”
Ain’t it great?
Sociopath Sarah is just going where the real political payoff is- punditry; where you can be wrong all the time, say the stupidest things that pop into your head, and never loose your job. Yes, Uncle Pat, I’m looking at you.
The world is her oyster and she (and her minions) are our Quagga mussel…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga_mussel
She’s definitely going to get into fights with lots of people ’cause she is so defensive. ….and offensive.
Quote from Dowd, after chronicling the paranoid tendencies of Nixon and Johnson:
‘Why not? Palin/Sanford in 2012, with the slogan: “Save time — we’re already in Crazy Town.” ‘
Sad to say some of them are in my family, too. I just don’t get it.
Like watching a bad traffic accident. You know it’s neither polite nor healthy to stare, but you just can’t help yourself…
I’ll get the popcorn.
Ditto.
Yes… bottom-feeding invasive species… quite appropos.
dang, do ya’ll have golf balls and garden hoses?
Playin “Born in the USA” on Tiger’s tourney at the Congressional!
Taken from Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor,” to wit:
I feel like I’m already there… after the election I told friends I never wanted to hear Palin’s name again or think about her again… she was so horrific. … maybe if we ignore her she will go away? jk
Our only hope is that she has committed some crime so egregious that they will actually send her to prison… otherwise I’m afraid she will always be around…
There is so much that is fallacious, or just stupid, in Sarah’s statement that it’s hard to know where to start in dissecting it all.
But my point was simply that the particular turn of phrase was an effort to equate herself (at least among the Holy Rollers and wingnuts who already like her) with more prominent and successful political leaders.
depressing that Shakespeare and Palin would ever be linked in any way at all… poor guy is no doubt turning over in his grave.
True enough. But I think the second part of the quote, i.e., “which I with sword will open,” is about raining blows and wreaking havoc rather than garnering a precious pretty pearl.
I think it’s safe to suggest that she hasn’t written her last check to a lawyer. And speaking of lawyers:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..25817.html
I heard Shannyn Moore is scheduled to do KO’s show tomorrow. Should be interesting…
It just occurred to me that the scandal soon to break… and the reason can’t-take-the-heat Palin had to resign is….. drum roll…
she and Joe the Plumber have been having an affair and she is pregnant with his love child… this is just a rumor mind you.
Isn’t it strange thinking that she has any friends? That seems hard to imagine the way she acts toward anyone that questions her, or has a past relation that doesn’t directly involve money or political power. Any friendship would likely mean money or power, just to make it “ongoing”.
Not a lot of nice in anything she or the family has done or said about anyone or anything.
I think wreaking havoc is an accurate characterization of what is to come.
Do you suppose that scandal is going to break at about the same time it becomes public that Greta Van Susteren is carrying Todd Palin’s love child?
Eeeeek. Brain bleach please!!!!
[This is a response to Booyah’s comment @ 26]
Sarah is answering a higher tweeting.
Certifiable.
She should become the princess of Neverland.
-G
They don’t respect that one either. (Sanford, Gingrich, McCain ….)
I think she IS the princess of neverland!
Yes… they will have a joint press conference… ha!
I have a question and I don’t know the answer…is anyone familiar with the world of beauty contests and the backstage maneuvering to get the judges’ attention or to make some other contestant look bad or whatever goes on in order to come out looking good?
The rambling non sequiturs and the strange syntax reminds me of many of the vapid ‘answers’ to questions put to contestants.
The whining “victim” mentality reminds me of Carrie Prejean.
The attempt to be ‘charming’ and the constant smile tells me Palin has gotten a very long way on her looks and has no idea what to do (and gets very angry) when it doesn’t work. It has always worked before…and now this. So, confused and scared, she’s going to take her dollies and go home.
I don’t know about backstage back-stabbing, if that indeed goes on. And how much does one have to lie to themselves and others in order to be a part of such a thing, but if someone does know, I’d like to know how much the ‘beauty contest’ thing has influenced Sarah’s thinking and weird behavior.
Someone over @ HuffPo refered to her as running the Iquiterod.
I suspect a double entendre, but then what do I know.
Did you ever read his column where he described the first time he met her… ? it’s worth googling.
he said something like “we all fell for her.” and he meant in a sexual way.
Sounds about right to me – plus I read something she wrote where she talked about the governorship as a “title”.
Why oh why did Jon Stewart & Colbert choose next week to be on vacation?
I’m sure hoping that at least Rachel’s back. This is too good to leave to the second string.
David Letterman ought to be pretty damn good as well.
Kristol’s kids went to the same school as my daughter, and I saw him at far too many parents’ events. That’s quite close enough for me.
Sarah Failin
If I remember correctly, Sarah couldn’t finish any of the 6 colleges she went to. It’s a pattern in her life and as stated above….it’s pathological too!
i just can’t help thinking this is Palin’s laying of the foundation upon W.’s “fake idiot” act. Not that W was smart, but he did grow up in privilege, good schools, etc. and successfully countered that in his political career. Pandering to dummies is very Rovian, and Palin is someone who doesn’t already have Yale and family money to overcome.
You never forget it if you have been rolled or challenged by someone with N.P.D. A faculty member I worked with in psychiatric nursing, no less, leveled us all to the ground before we knew what hit us. And we should have known better since we are very aware of the personality disorders.
Almost ex-governor Palin seems to share many of the same characteristics as the person we experienced.
Your logic is faulty.
It is true that both Obama and Hillary Clinton went directly from their senatorial positions to higher office. But they did not abandon their constituents completely in that they continued to serve the citizens of Illinois and New York in other capacities. Unlike them, Palin is not leaving the governorship to continue to serve the citizens of Alaska in another capacity at the federal level. No one knows quite what she means to do (or what her speech meant) except finish the $11 million book that fewer people will buy because she is now a private citizen. She will never again hold public office because no voter can be guaranteed she will actually serve out the term of any other position. Buh-bye, Sarah!
Well, me being a Socialist, after seeing this clip of her and Hannity cheering for Socialism, maybe I do want her as President.
Not really, but check this clip out. She doesn’t even realize what she is saying.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2025
Obama never resigned. He would have continued to be the Senator from Illinois if his Presidential run had not been successful. The Constitution requires that a President not hold any other office at the Federal level.
Here’s where I am with this:
I think yet another scandel was brewing for Ms. Palin. I think it was ugly and probably even worse than Sanford’s current debacle. It could have been ethics, it could have been personal, but it was something and it was real ugly.
I think she was given a choice: you resign or we blow the whistle on this latest scandel and you might have to leave the country, it’ll be so bad.
She obviously chose the easy way out and the scandel will be buried under the deep snow and ice of northern Alaska. It might come out some time down the line, but I think she was pushed out the door on a legitimate issue and given a chance to save herself. In no way do I believe her to be a hero. But her delivery of the resignation was that of someone under a bit of duress. Don’t go away mad, Sarah – just go away.