Dropping the ball
Jul. 3rd, 2009 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matthewdalySo, Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska in time for it to be the water-cooler keg talk at everyone's Independence Day parties. I'll say right off the bat that I have contempt for anyone who quits an elected office mid-term for some reason other than being elected or appointed to higher office or being driven out by scandal in such a way that indicates that you have lost the confidence of your constituents. Just deciding that you're tired of it, or perhaps calculating that you want your protege to have the comfort of incumbency is highly disrespectful of the people who voted for YOU. I'm glad to say that it doesn't seem to happen very often; the last time that I recall this happening at a national level was Newt Gingrich deciding that he would resign from the House after just winning an election because he didn't want to be Majority Leader after the Republicans lost seats, but even then the worst that could be said is that his district had to pay for a special election and the winner would be at the bottom of the seniority ladder.
I hope that she actually does take the opportunity to return to public life and that this isn't just a Ross Perot-esque stunt to allow her to stay in the news without having to answer any of the questions or have a legacy of trying to balance a state budget now that oil is in no hurry to get back to $140 a barrel. I know many don't, but I feel bad for her; she's a small-town politician (and what is Alaska but one of the largest small towns in the world?) who is unprepared to campaign across the nation, and she wouldn't have been placed in that situation so early in her life (if at all) if John McCain hadn't decided to use her career as collateral on his fairly desperate gamble. She could have turned down his offer, but I think most people wouldn't have. But my pity has its limits, and deciding that she actually can run for President of the United States on her own terms is likely to exhaust it.
I hope that she actually does take the opportunity to return to public life and that this isn't just a Ross Perot-esque stunt to allow her to stay in the news without having to answer any of the questions or have a legacy of trying to balance a state budget now that oil is in no hurry to get back to $140 a barrel. I know many don't, but I feel bad for her; she's a small-town politician (and what is Alaska but one of the largest small towns in the world?) who is unprepared to campaign across the nation, and she wouldn't have been placed in that situation so early in her life (if at all) if John McCain hadn't decided to use her career as collateral on his fairly desperate gamble. She could have turned down his offer, but I think most people wouldn't have. But my pity has its limits, and deciding that she actually can run for President of the United States on her own terms is likely to exhaust it.
