DangerousTalk

Over the Independence Day weekend, Governor Sarah Palin announced her early retirement from the Governor’s position with a year and a half still left in her term. There has been much speculation on why she would do this when she is also raising money for a possible race to the White House.

Palin’s announcement was unfocused and seemed rushed. This fueled the speculation about a looming scandal or even possible legal charges. The FBI has claimed that no legal investigation was going on from their end and so the Palin’s resignation remains a mystery.

Today, Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein claims, “No legal ‘bombshell’ or personal scandal lies behind Palin’s resignation, but off-color jokes by talk-show host David Letterman contributed to her decision to step down.” He also claimed that the governor needed a break after being “on duty now for two and a half years solid.” Considering that the job is a four-year term, I guess two and a half years “solid” is supposed to be considered a pretty good run. Palin continues to tell everyone that she is “not a quitter” even as she was announcing that she was quitting early.

The fact that Sarah Palin needed a break and that talk show host David Letterman helped to run her out of office are two very big strikes against a possible White House run. This is good news for secular Americans because Palin is considered by many to be even more of a religious fundamentalist than George W. Bush. When John McCain added Palin to his ticket, it energized the Religious Right who saw him as too secular, but it also alienated most Americans who saw her as way too religious and a heartbeat about the “Big Chair.”

For me, the interesting part of this story is that Letterman’s jokes weren’t even that mean. They were pretty obvious and easy jokes. Letterman also apologized for those jokes and stopped making Palin the punch line. Many other comedians have told far meaner jokes at the Governor’s expense and had the Governor called them out on those jokes, many would escalate the situation rather than back down so quickly. Just look at poor Governor Mark Stanford. He is getting joked about much more than Palin was and in a much shorter span of time. Is he quitting? Hell no, not even when Democrats and Republicans alike are actively pushing him to leave.

So I think Palin’s announcement should be a lesson to everyone, keep telling jokes about Republican politicians they talk a big game about being fighters and not quitters, but a lot of them are quitters and few of them are actual fighters. They just like to wear the fighter pilot suit and announce, “Mission Accomplished.”

Filed under: free speech, palin, Politics