I have the greatest respect and affection for Sarah, Todd, and their family. I was deeply honored to have her as my running mate and believe she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican party and our nation.
John Weaver:
I wouldn't call this a strategy. This makes no sense. The way for her to increase her chances in 2012 is to be reelected in 2010.
Alaska Sen. Mark Begich:
I’m as surprised as all Alaskans by Governor Palin’s decision to step down with nearly two years left in her term. There was speculation she would not seek re-election, but she gave no indication of a resignation when I met with her for 45 minutes in her Anchorage office two days ago.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski:
I am deeply disappointed that the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded.
Andrew Malcolm:
A bold move. Naive? Long odds based on recent history. What can she claim in 2011—I served 2.5 years as governor of Alaska and then quit?
On the other hand, in this political age, 60 months ago who’d have predicted a little-known state senator out of the Chicago political machine with a proclivity to vote “Present” would be a U.S. senator, let alone the White House occupant?
Laura Chase, campaign mgr. for Palin's run for mayor:
She’s like a bloodhound. Once she gets the scent, she's never going to let it go. She gets what she wants or dies trying. She wants to be president now that she has a following. ... The thing is with Sarah, she craves adoration.
And the people that were sitting there at those rallies adored her. They would walk across coals for that woman. ... Once you have a taste of that--it's like a wild dog getting a taste of rabbit. You never ever go back. Nothing is ever the same, tastes as good.
Mark Steyn:
National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.
Florida GOP Chair, Jim Greer:
She worked tirelessly to defend Republican principles throughout her service in state and local government and demonstrated tremendous courage as a historic candidate on the Republican presidential ticket in 2008. We respect her decision and wish Governor Palin and her family the very best as she moves forward.
Marc Ambinder:
The elites v. Sarah Palin is just the latest incarnation in the great American culture war, and Palin no longer wants to fight with one hand tied behind her back.
Philip Klein:
.... to all but her most loyal supporters, today's bizarre press conference made her look brittle -- like a person who couldn't take the heat and was buckling in the face of attacks. Today's move is perfectly understandable if she wants to give up politics and protect her family from the blistering assaults of the media and her political oppenents. Maybe this news -- odd within the political realm -- actually makes her a pretty normal person by real world standards. But normal people do not get elected president.
Charlie Cook:
.... being CEO of a state next door to Alaska from Juneau while seriously running for the nomination would be incredibly hard. Someone might be an effective governor or a serious candidate but not both. So I see this as a shrewd move.
Paul Begala:
Sarah Palin makes Mark Foley, the congressman who sent filthy emails to pages look almost normal. She makes David Vitter, the senator who was hanging out with hookers, look almost boring. She makes Larry Craig, caught hitting on a cop in a men's room, look almost stable. She makes John Ensign, the senator who was having an affair with a staffer, look almost humdrum.... And she makes Mark Sanford, the governor with the Latin lover, look positively predictable.
RNC Chair, Michael Steele:
I plan on talking to Gov. Palin very soon. She is an important and galvanizing voice in the Republican Party. I believe she will be very helpful to the party this year as we wage critical campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey.
Kathyrn Jean Lopez:
Listening to her, it seems like this is a combination of stepping back and moving forward. Stepping back, because it's way too overwhelming to be Sarah Palin, political phenom, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and Sarah Palin, wife and mother. I don't know that anyone can fulfill all those roles well, simultaneously. And we're unrealistic, I think, when we assume people can or should.
Ed Morrissey:
Unless there was a serious illness or a serious scandal, the resignation on the grounds Palin gave is simply incomprehensible. She has destroyed her own credibiity in a single day.
I liked Sarah Palin and supported her inclusion on the GOP ticket last fall. I thought she had more toughness than this. It’s a big disappointment, and it’s the end of any hope of Palin getting taken seriously as a politician on the national level in the future.
David Brody:
Her reputation has been tarnished. You think she really wants to go out that way? I don't think so. Plus, she has a huge fan base and she's a political rockstar. She's not tone deaf. She gets that. Oh and by the way, the last time I checked, her nickname is "Sarah Barracuda." Palin is a fighter.
GOP strategist, Dan Schnur:
“Palin is at her best when she’s being folksy but there is no way to be folksy when you’re resigning as governor."
Tim Lindell from Conservatives4Palin:
Palin has crossed the Rubicon and made her stand clear. She gave us a hint before when she said "Politically, if I die, I die." I think this was her equivalent of alea iacta est. She will now be the anti-Obama, standing up for her personal beliefs, free of the constraints the Alaskan people have placed on her. She is now free of them, and they of her - though I think they will be the ones to regret it first.
VodkaPundit:
.... it could simply be a case of vicious personal attacks (the worst I’ve ever seen) driving a public figure back into private life. If that’s the case, then I hope everyone from Andrew Sullivan on down* pats themselves on the back hard enough to dislodge teeth.
No matter the reason, however, Palin made a commitment to the people of Alaska, and she’s turning her back on them. Maybe I’m rash in saying this, but I think that makes her unfit for higher office.
Gateway Pundit:
Another win for the state-run media and the democratic politics of personal destruction...SARAH PALIN RESIGNS!
David Frum:
Palin’s self-immolation today may yet do the Republican party more harm than good. Had Palin sought and won the Republican nomination in 2012, she would almost certainly have proceeded to a Goldwater-style debacle – and dragged Republican senators, governors and representatives down with her. That would have been a miserable result. And yet it also would have been a clarifying one. Republicans would have got Palin and Palinism out of their systems in a sharp and painful lesson that would have opened the way to the kind of reconstruction that has occurred in, say, the United Kingdom
Jonah Goldberg:
If she's running for president, I have no idea whether this was shrewd or not. But.... if it's 2016, why on earth do you resign now? Why invite all of the criticism about being a "quitter" and so on if you're not running — and therefore don't need to raise money — until 7 or 11 years from now? No, if she's resigning to run it seems it has to be for 2012.
Josh Marshall:
It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. Either Palin is resigning ahead of some titanic scandal (which should emerge in short order if it exists) or her resignation was triggered by an even more extreme mental instability than we'd previously suspected.
William Kristol:
If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one.
After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues - and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska.
Erick Erickson:
Well, Nicolle Wallace, Andrew Sullivan, and the left can claim a scalp today.... Sarah Palin will not be President in 2012. She will not run for President. She will not run for any elected office ever again..... I’m sure Sarah Palin is not done with politics, but I am equally sure she is done with elected politics. By removing all doubt that she is done with elected politics, she can be much more effective at helping other Republicans get into politics without overly ambitious potential 2012 rivals seeking to hurt her, her family, and those politicians she helps.
Andrew Sullivan:
In the end, I think, the one thing to say is that the Republican party is in such a total state of collapse and incoherence that it actually believed she could be a future president; and that John McCain was so reckless, so cynical and so cavalier that he was prepared to rest the national security of this country on her shoulders if he, in his seventies, were to become unable to fulfill his duties or die. In some ways, this is a moment to reflect on McCain, and his irresponsibility, not Palin and her drama.
I'm too stunned to say anything else, to tell you the truth. And yet not surprised at all.
Atlas Shrugs:
My take? If Palin is anything like I think she is (know she is), Obama's treasonous presidency is responsible for this. She, like all patriotic Americans, is shocked by what is happening. Obama is destroying this country. She knows it. We all know it. We need a leader. She is answering our call.
