Palin's Loyalty to Alaska Forces Resignation - Tea Leaf Time

[Cut to the chase: looking at this press release, sentence by sentence, I get one message: " Something bad is going down and I'm quitting so it doesn't hurt Alaska."]

A friend called me to ask what I knew.

S: About what?
KS: About Palin's resignation.
S: You're kidding.
KS: No, I thought you might know something you can't print.
S: I know much less than some people think.

OK, it's tea leaf time. All I have is the press release to sift through. If you want to skip down to the press release which is below the tea reading, click here.

Warning: I'm just looking at the words in the press release here and what they suggest and don't suggest. I'm not second guessing whether it was written in good faith or with a clear understanding of what it implies and doesn't imply.


Quote 1

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”

". . . serving [Alaska's] people is the greatest honor I could imagine" implies

• So, I'm not resigning because I want to.
• Being President of the US would not be as great an honor.

Early Palin fan, and someone I never expected to quote, Jonah Goldberg, suggests in a letter to Palin published in the National Review and reprinted in today's ADN that Palin's got great charisma but needs to get up to speed on the issues.

So here’s my advice. Stay home and do your job and your homework. You’ll still be a national figure come the primaries. But if you can’t surprise your detractors with your grasp of policy when you re-emerge on the national stage, you won’t win the nomination. More important, you won’t deserve to.

By resigning, she's not taking his advice to do her job. If she were planning to take his advice about doing her homework so she can be a national figure in 2012, then why would she make serving Alaska the highest honor imaginable? And why not some word that would just hint at doing some homework?

Quote 2

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement.

The right path for Alaska, she seems to be saying, is without her as governor. Why would that be? Has she been watching Sanford do damage control as he tries to hang on as governor of South Carolina? (No I'm not suggesting he's Trig's daddy.)


Quote 3

“Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose.

Ok, deciding not to run for reelection (without the context of the earlier quotes) could be for many reasons. She could then be free of state obligations as she prepared for 2012.

She does play her maverick theme (isn't 'politics as usual' more or less the opposite of maverick?) which could be seen as a hint that she's going to be in the national race again.

Except, what does "in this climate" mean? It doesn't sound like she's talking about a good climate. The press release has an Anchorage byline and here the sun is shining brightly and it's about 70˚ out. So she isn't talking about weather. What exactly is she referring to?

The ragtag pack of local bloggers shouldn't amount to more than a cloud briefly hiding the sun for a serious presidential candidate. Does she mean the Vanity Fair article, and the public debate among Republicans that's going on about whether she's fit to run for President, is raining on her parade? But that storm is in the Lower 48 and shouldn't disturb her being Governor of Alaska.

Not only isn't she going to run for reelection, she's not going to be a lame duck. She uses her disgust with 'politics as usual' to explain her stand on lame ducks. Let's play that logic out. Once you are reelected to your last allowable term, you are a lame duck. So, you should just quit after you are elected if it gets cloudy? Maybe everyone should be limited to one term. But then everyone would be a lame duck... You can see where that logic leads.

Or is this just a cover for why she's going to be the first Alaska governor to quit before her term is up? I think Nixon was the first (and only) US president to quit before his term was up. People generally don't quit when things are going well, even when they are rocky. Just when they are disastrous. [Correction: Wally Hickel quit as governor of Alaska to accept an appointment from President Nixon to be Secretary of the Interior, a position that greatly impacts Alaska.]


Quote 4

It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.

Duty? As governor she has an official duty, but if she resigns, then she won't have that official duty. But I can accept that she feels a personal duty to protect Alaska. But we're still talking about Alaska, not the US.

so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption

What's the interruption? She's pulling out, as I read this, because something is going to happen that would interrupt Alaska's journey to the future if she were Governor. So it isn't something about the state, it's about her. Something that would interfere with her running the state. Maybe there's another way to read this, but that's what it says to me.

I can't make hide nor hair of "best to make a difference this summer and I am willing to change things." It comes out of the blue in this sentence. The only thing preceding that suggests change is needed is hidden between the lines.


Quote 5

I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.”

This sentence leaves some hope for Palin supporters. She'll be around to help, not just at the state level, but national as well. But this, in the context of the whole press release, is what she'll do with her new spare time, it isn't the reason she's leaving Juneau.


Quote 6

The list of her accomplishments is too long to quote. Just go down and look at it.

This list could be interpreted, as writing the first draft of her legacy as Governor. Optimistic Palin supporters could see it as part of her resume in her application for the US Presidency. If the body of the press release had even had a hint of moving to bigger and better things, they might take heart. But it doesn't. I won't even touch the questions about the legitimacy of the list or what is missing.

Using logical analysis to parse what Sarah Palin says is sort of like using a tape measure to see how good a concert was. But by looking at what's written in the press release (as well as what's not), I don't see hint at better offers - I doubt Obama has asked her to be ambassador to Russia. Maybe she's started to realize how much work writing a book is and doesn't want to risk the $11 million. But the press release itself is all about her love of Alaska and not wanting to interrupt the State's progress. The basic message I read from this: "Something bad is going down soon, and I'm going to resign from office so that my problems don't interfere with the State's well being."

But now that we know there's a cat in the bag, can she keep it in there for three more weeks?

.................................................................................


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-167

GOVERNOR PALIN ANNOUNCES NO SECOND TERM

NO LAME DUCK SESSION EITHER

July 3, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin announced today that she will not seek a second term as Governor of the State of Alaska and will relegate the
power of governor to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell in order to serve Alaska’s best interests. Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will move into Parnell’s current role.

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”

Standing outside her home in Wasilla, Alaska, Governor Palin reflected upon some of the administration’s accomplishments for Alaska as she approaches her final year in office.

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.”

The transfer of power will occur following the Governor’s picnic in Fairbanks on July 26. At that point in time, Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell will be sworn in and Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume his role as Lieutenant Governor.

Governor Palin will spend July 4th in Juneau.

###

Selected Accomplishments of the Palin Administration

General
· Transferred more control of public issues to the local level Natural Resources
· Created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to oversee responsible development
· Held the line for Alaskans on Point Thomson that encouraged drilling
· Restructured the state’s oil taxes to create a clear and equitable valuation formula for our oil and gas
· Initiated and implemented the largest energy project in the world through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act
· Removed government from the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands
Ethics
· Ushered in ethics reform
· Cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions affecting development Fiscal Notes
· Slowed the rate of government growth
· Worked with the Legislature to place billions of dollars in savings
· Vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars in capital budget line items
· Reduced Alaska’s dependence on federal earmarks by nearly 85%
· Eliminated state-funded personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, and junkets
· Refused a pay raise, along with the Lieutenant Governor Education
· Provided unprecedented support for education initiatives Public Safety
· Filled long-vacant public safety positions over the last year Corrections
· Broke ground on the new state prison Fish and Game
· Maintained biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance Environment
· Established first sub-Cabinet on climate change
Legal
· State’s rights protected in two recent victories handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court





For those who must know, the tea is a Chinese jasmine. Labrador tea would have been more appropriate, but I'd have to go pick some first.