In a surprise announcement that\u2019s only heightened speculation about her mental status, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said over the July 4 weekend that she\u2019s leaving the job.<\/p>\n
The door to the governor\u2019s mansion bangs shut behind the Palin family July 26 \u2013 meaning Palin is walking out with more than a year left to her term.<\/p>\n
Palin\u2019s announcement, delivered in almost incomprehensible English \u2013 nobody was really sure what she was talking about, so it was printed verbatim \u2013 has set fingers pointing and tongues wagging, from Alaska to the D.C. Beltway.<\/p>\n
How could she do it? How could one of the most charismatic figures of the Republican Party just walk off the job?<\/p>\n
Susan Boyle, of Britain\u2019s Got Talent fame, could understand this better than those of us living in relative obscurity.<\/p>\n
Palin\u2019s career really ended when she got the offer of a lifetime, as McCain\u2019s running mate. And under the presidential campaign spotlight, the feisty, self-described hockey mom started to unravel. She may have had unbelievable candor and common-man appeal, but she was not made of the Teflon that a huge and and brutal campaign like the presidency requires.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before Palin\u2019s imperfect life became tabloid fodder.<\/p>\n
Who doesn\u2019t know about the TV barbs traded with the snot-nosed brat who is the father of her illegitimate grandchild? Or the questions over her travel expenses? Or the investigation over an Alaska government employee who was fired, allegedly because he wouldn\u2019t fire another worker that her family had a problem with?<\/p>\n
Without a lot of special handling \u2013 \u201cspin,\u201d if you will \u2013 these are issues that could down even the most seasoned of candidates.<\/p>\n
Then there was the Vanity Fair article last week that had McCain campaign aides wondering \u2013 with the advantage of anonymity \u2013 whether Palin was really equipped to handle the nation\u2019s second-highest office.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where we need to stop and think. What makes Palin\u2019s roughshod ride that much more painful to watch is the people who purportedly were there to help her.<\/p>\n
Palin was surrounded by some vipers on the campaign \u2013 and they weren\u2019t even members of the press. They were her handlers.<\/p>\n
We saw some of their tactics come to light after the Vanity Fair article and Palin\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s disgraceful to hear the public accusations these people are now lobbing at each other \u2013 and even each other\u2019s spouses.<\/p>\n
Steve Schmidt, McCain\u2019s campaign manager, is now spitting toxins at William Kristol, a newspaper editor and sometime advisor to McCain, because Kristol fingered him as the anonymous campaign aide in the Vanity Fair article who said Palin might be suffering from postpartum depression. Schmidt claims Kristol has a personal grudge against him because he, Schmidt, fired a friend of Kristol\u2019s who was a top official in the McCain campaign.<\/p>\n
That friend, Randy Scheunemann, also has joined the frey, sniping at Schmidt.<\/p>\n
While slinging insults, they\u2019re also throwing the Palin \u201cpostpartum depression\u201d thing around like a beach ball, not to mention some other unsavory descriptors, including \u201cdiva.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s sickening.<\/p>\n
Sarah Palin was not big enough to fill the shoes of a vice-presidential candidate. She had far too many personal issues to overcome, in addition to a slew of live interviews that seemed like slow-motion trainwrecks.<\/p>\n
But given the camp she was sitting in, with the snarkiness and infighting, is it any wonder that she started going \u201crogue,\u201d as some campaign members have asserted, and began ignoring their advice (thereby really shooting herself in the foot)?<\/p>\n
Maybe she\u2019s doing what Susan Boyle did, when Boyle checked into rehab.<\/p>\n
Just getting the heck out of Dodge City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a surprise announcement that\u2019s only heightened speculation about her mental status, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said over the July 4 weekend that she\u2019s leaving the job. The door to the governor\u2019s mansion bangs shut behind the Palin family July 26 \u2013 meaning Palin is walking out with more than a year left to her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9524"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}