An independence weekend shocker: Sarah Palin resigns her post as Governor of Alaska and appears to be leaving politics entirely. In her remarks today, Palin said that not only will she not seek re-election, but also that she knows "we can effect positive change outside of government at this point in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities."

Palin explained that she was resigning her post because she didn't want to be a "lame duck" for the next year and half. This reasoning makes no sense. Wouldn't she be able to devote more time to actually governing if she weren't concerned with campaigning for the next election? MSNBC is currently speculating that she wants to put her energy behind promoting her forthcoming autobiography. Video of her presser is below.

Still of Sarah Palin from CNN

Tags: alaska, Sarah Palin, sarah palin resigns as governor of alaska

Alaska is her tedious, petty, hectoring husband. The world is her glamorous, adoring suitor. Which would you choose? Today, Palin announces she needs to “effect change” on “another scale.” Translation: get the hell out of Alaska. And who can blame her? Back in what used to be home, she’s got Troopergate, piles of ethics complaint, enemies behind every snowdrift, and a growing entourage of petty thieves and OxyContin addicts. (Not to mention the car seat complaint. How small-fry can you get!) The minute she leaves that frozen wasteland she has cheering crowds, photo shoots, free clothes, and foreign ministers winking from every stateroom.

By that calculus, her choice is easy. Time to set her sights on the larger stage. But there’s one problem. To be a plausible presidential candidate, you need a convincing personal narrative. Palin used to have a great one: small town mayor of Wasilla battles the big meanies and saves her beloved state. With today’s announcement, the story has taken a turn. Now it’s: small town mayor of Wasilla gets tired of all the losers in Wasilla and dumps them so she can live her life on “another scale.” Not quite as endearing.

Tags: sarah palin resigns

At the end of a weekend filled with as much Sarah Palin speculation as BBQ and fireworks, two theories. The first is that she is in real trouble, the kind that will outshine all the ethics charges against her when it comes to light. The second is that Palin will flirt with a potential presidential run to the best of her considerable ability, however outlandish the idea of her in the White House may be. She'll figure that either it could actually happen—see people in Alaska who've watched her checking off the diagnostic boxes for narcissistic personality disorder in Todd Purdum's Vanity Fair piece—or that she'll sure sell a lot of copies of her upcoming memoir. Not to mention position herself to be the next Oprah, or design her own line of running clothes or hair products or Bibles. Hanna, I love your divorce metaphor for Palin's antics in abandoning her governorship and her state. In classic Becky Sharp fashion, she is trading up. If she weighed her decision in terms of scoring celebrity points instead of political ones, it's hard to see how she can lose.

Photograph of Sarah Palin by Mark Hirsch/Getty Images.

Tags: sarah palin resigns as governor of alaska

Am I losing it, or does Sarah Palin have a point? I mean, when she says that if she'd remained in office, she wouldn't have accomplished anything because state business would have been tied up in the many ethical charges against her? That strikes me as a hard kernel truth in the middle of the sea of bullshit Palin is wading in (today, literally, by giving TV interviews while out catching fish). Palin is right that she became a different kind of politician when McCain has picked her as vice president. Maybe that's because she's run headlong into the embrace of celebrity, and she could soberly renounce national fame and fortune and return to just being Governor Palin if she tried. But could she, really, at this point? When Palin made her suprise announcement, ardent defender Bill Kristol asked, "What is she going to accomplish in the next year as governor?" That seemed to me snobbish scoffing at the day-to-day work of running a state. Now I'm starting to see the unvarnished point. Given what a target of controversy she's become, what legislative agenda could she push through? (Other than forcing out the state public health official who wanted to present evidence about how laws that require teenagers to get parental consent before an abortion are linked not to fewer abortions, but to later and riskier ones. More on that from Clara Jeffrey at Mother Jones.)

It's a funny sort of toppling: I resign because of the damage my detractors are doing to me, even though I did nothing wrong and I am still tough as nails. And the bit of honesty here gives the lie to what Palin keeps repeating about how resigning "isn't about retreating, it's about progressing." It's also entirely possible that the real reason she can't be an effective governor is that she did do something wrong. But whatever the cause, Palin is right that her term of office has turned into a circus. And that Alaska may well be better off without her.

Tags: clara james, fishing, mother jones, Sarah Palin, sarah palin resigns as governor of alaska