According to Palin, she polled her children about leaving office. If true, mentioning it in the speech could either be seen as manipulative attempt to pass the buck to them, or as a way to to tell them she acknowledges the impact of her political decisions on their lives. After all, her kids have gotten enormous attention (and ridicule) in the media and the Palins' handling of the attention has not been very professional.

I actually take Palin at her word that she worries about her kids, and I think she has a sense of things spinning out of control as the neighborhood feeling of Alaska gives way to Oprahfication of her family life. Her exaggerated descriptions of the "attacks" on her children seem to reveal true concern on her part, not just incompetent PR. The American tradition of making a candidate's children into political puppets during election season ain't pretty, and that is a problem that goes beyond Palin.

I don't find Palin a credible political leader on a national or even state level, but her family's dynamics don't seem as weird to me as they seem to most of her left critics. In fact, her modernistic family life (and style) seems to give the lie to the idea that she is simply a glassy-eyed member of a Christian fundamentalist plot. It's more complicated than that.

A lot of the sexism has actually been directed at her husband, who has been contradictorily portrayed by many, including feminist writers, as either a weak nobody or a Svengali. Although many questions about his power role within her adminstration are valid, I note that the left defended Hillary Clinton's unelected power during Bill's administration (and Hillary's pro-secrecy arguments on healthcare presaged Cheney's on energy and other topics).

Resigning from a responsible position that rises about the level of one's capabilities is not a bad message to send to kids, or a bad idea generally. Doesn't everyone wish that George W. Bush had resigned on 9/12/01? It's archaic to assume that an incompetent woman must continue in a job just because she's a woman.

Now maybe someone can convince Caleeforneeya Gov. Girly Man that it's time to resign for the sake of children, feminism, his pecs, or whatever.

She resigned because her political career is over.

She's a humbug! She knows it! She knows her humbuggery is not a secret!

I think the media and Dems and Republicans (and everyone here) are misreading the causation and are off hunting snipes together.

Palin checked off a lot of boxes for McCain: young(er), female, beautiful, from the West, etc. But there was nothing of substance INSIDE those boxes.

Palin didn't get tougher treatment because she was a female, she got more deferential treatment. A male humbug would have been exposed and resigned long before Palin.

Palin plays a sort of parody of the kind of tough-ass Alaskan woman that may well someday be President. Maybe Piper or Willow or Mugwort or whatever she calls those girls will school Gov. MILF on how politics should be done. Palin is just a pretty cheechako from Idaho.

Next.

I had to catch up on one week's news in one hour and it's become a bit of a muddle.

I have to say that it would be unusual for a politician to resign because of an investigation into financial improprieties. Just the opposite: retaining office is a good defense strategy. She'd be more exposed to liability by quitting, not less. She about said as much.

I doubt whether Palin has given deep serious thought to a Presidential bid (or anything at all), but I think any Alaskan governor who wanted to run for President might want to quit. It's a no-win. Quit and be called a quitter. Stay in office and be accused of not paying attention to her state, what with all the long travel times keeping her in the lower 48. An Alaskan candidate would need play by different rules than the Washington/NY-centric press cares to admit. But all that's beside the point.

Nah, this whole deal is closer to Palin's entertainingly expressed version than most of us care to admit. She was bugged donchaknow, and quitting is her version of Diprivan. Just make it all stop!

I'm not saying she's not corrupt in a parochial cozy sort of way. As the Ted Stevens case showed, Alaska appears to be a small town with small town politics, albeit a small town spread over a half million square miles. Palin has always been a village mayor tarted up in fancy East Coast skirts. She thought she was a big fish, but discovered she was fooled by her small pond. It's as if Susan Boyle opened her mouth and discovered she couldn't sing. Or as if Michael Jackson had been all loon talk and no moon walk.