7/3/09: May I have your attention please. I shall resign the office of Governor effective at noon on July 26, 2009.

Fast forward to ...

7/23/09 May I have your attention please. Due to the overwhelming entreaties from the people of my state, I have decided to remain as Governor and I shall run for re-election next year.

(That's tons of attention. Twice. I am good).

You have to be Lt. Governor of Alaska to get her job, not just be more clueless and insane than her.

Yes, this means I hate you.

Yes, as Jim correctly notes, this less-than-inspirational quote is from General O.P. Smith in the Korean War and not from General MacArthur in any war. I confirmed that via Google in about 4 seconds. Why couldn't Palin's speechwriters do the same? Or ARE there no speechwriters? That would explain a lot.

No adults in the house. Always a recipe for disaster.

First I want to welcome maggilee and connyankee out from under their briges.Somethingstinks,libertyain'tfree,Jack Ketch and the others of that ilk were getting boring.Dang we came too close to having Sarah a heartbeat away.I'm just waiting here for the other shoe to fall.Remember,they never sleep.

The world needs more Trigs, not fewer.

- Sarah Palin, from her speech announcing her resignation

Same as Michelle Bachmann. They get a bulk rate.

Selah.

I tried to listen to her speech - I just can't force my brain to go there. I TRY to hear what's she's saying, but I must not have elevated my intellect to the point where I can grasp her meaning. Either that, or she's just one amazingly horrible speaker...

What struck me, until I hit 'stop,' was that she sounds panicked, almost as if she's about to cry - which made me feel a little sorry for her, actually. There's no way she'll run in 2012 - it would be all too easy to point out she quit her job half way through, & she seems vastly unstable.

I'm seeing a Fox News anchor position, or her own news show. (which I will never have to watch, so life shall continue as before)

Here is a Tag Cloud Image of Sarah Palin's Resignation Speech, created on the www.wordle.net website:

http://tinyurl.com/nmllbs

"Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out."

So...if you've agreed to do a job and do it, you're a quitter. If you're a winner, you quit.

That's some logic; I bet a whole lot of wingnuts think it's watertight.

In case the source hasn't been noted, here's what the Anchorage paper said about Palin's reference to remarks being made about Trig:

"The 'hell yeah' sealed it -- and someday I'll talk about the details of that. ... I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently," Palin said.

An Alaska blogger recently photo shopped the head of a pro-Palin talk radio host on to a picture of Trig Palin being held by the governor, causing Palin and her allies to declare outrage.

After reading all the letters, including the requisite "you liberals hate/fear her and [the hopelessly disjointed] don't want women to succeed," I'm going to go with huge, I mean enormous, political scandal potentially culminating in an impeachment from office. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's so threatening that she disappears before her last day in office, only to resurface - in the mainland - when the coast is clear, or she's equipped with the mother of all legal defenses, because it's preferable to indulging her addiction to the limelight. Or is that wishful thinking?

As a long time observer of lots of press conferences I try and put myself in the position of the person giving the press conference. It is a very useful exercise. In that position I ask myself a few questions:

What do I want to emphasize? What do I want to minimize?

Is there something that I CAN'T say that I want to address by preemptive comments?

Who is my target audience?

What do they need to hear from me?

What do I want them to ignore from other people?

Throw all of that in together with some sleepless nights and you get the mess of a statement that she gave.

In the next few days and weeks there will be a lot of speculation about the rest of the story. Note the things she didn't mention at all, note key words repeated more than once. I ask myself, "If (insert suggestion for resigning) was the real story how did she refer to it in the speech?"

Then for those of you who have observed wingnuts for years, think of the various patterns they fall into when pressured and see if she falls into one to tell you what is the real reason.

Some wingnuts are defiant. "I am NOT Gay!" Mark Foley

Some are apologetic. "I want to apologize to the people of South Caroline, my colleagues in The Family, my children and my wife." Gov. Mark Stanford.

Some like to pretend they will be vindicated and that they are the victim even though they know they are as guilty as sin. Remember Tom Delay smiling in his mugshot?

For those of you who think scandal, think about what kind of scandal would be big enough given the people's ability to forgive Republicans just about anything? I think that if there is a deeper reason it has to do with her family feeling that she is doing too much and they need her. That bit about the family saying yes and Hell Yes. Is what this is really about.

"Mom, this family is falling apart and dad can't keep it together. You need to do something."

By the way if you have seen The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard from the BBC you will see one episode that explains this. The spouse is in a money scandal and the PM (Mrs. Pritchard)has to resign to protect him. But what is interesting is that they will never find out the reason because the person holding the scandal over her head is someone in the family!

For those of you who thing 2012 run for President is on the books I think it will be a wait and see, to see if the scandal dies or someone spills the beans.