Sarah Palin resigns as Alaska Governor to embark on political career
The captivating and at times vaudevillian career of Sarah Palin entered an unpredictable phase yesterday when she stepped down as the Governor of Alaska to try to forge a role as the voice of the Republican Party.
Mrs Palin, who announced her shock resignation on July 3 with 18 months of her term left to run, has remained coy about her ambitions but the move has increased speculation that she wants to make a bid for the White House in 2012.
Such a scenario delights many Democrats, who believe that because Mrs Palin is a controversial figure whose performance as John McCain’s running-mate damaged the Republican ticket, a presidential campaign would probably end in disaster.
She re-enters national politics dogged by ethics inquiries, big legal bills and fresh polls showing that most Americans no longer see her in a positive light and harbour doubts about her governing skills.
When she was picked by Mr McCain, 60 per cent of Americans had a favourable view of her. That has dropped to 40 per cent. Nearly 60 per cent now say that she does not understand complex issues.
She will begin holding events in the US with the majority of Republicans liking her — she has 70 per cent approval ratings inside her party, which is a good start for any candidate wanting to win a national Republican primary campaign. Mrs Palin handed the governorship of Alaska to her deputy, Sean Parnell, at a public picnic in Fairbanks, in the third such event that she has held in Alaskan cities in the past three days.
“Sean knows he has big high heels to fill,” quipped Mark Lewis, the moderator of another farewell picnic on Saturday. Mrs Palin handed out hotdogs and signed autographs.
At a farewell event in her home town of Wasilla on Friday, she said: “Let us continue to love our country, be proud of our country, never apologise for our country.”
Mrs Palin, 45, said that she planned to write a book, campaign for like-minded political candidates across America and build a right-of-centre coalition. She is scheduled to speak at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on August 8 and is likely to focus on raising money to pay off $500,000 (£304,000) in legal bills from 24 ethics investigations in the past year.
She is also an inveterate user of the social networking site Twitter, where she has 100,000 followers. Of her future, she recently wrote: “Ain’t gonna shut my mouth, I know there’s got to be a few hundred million more like me, just trying to keep it free,” quoting the song Rollin’ by the Country duo Big & Rich.
In a written statement to the Washington Post a week ago, she said: “I will take the battle nationally and I won’t shy away from challenging the powerful, the entrenched, the corrupt and anyone standing in the way of getting our country back on the right track.” She said that she was leaving office early because the ethics complaints against her had become a distraction that was not allowing her to govern Alaska effectively. She cited attacks on her children as another reason to step down.
She has been cleared in most investigations, although a recent report said that she improperly used a legal defence fund set up by supporters to pay legal bills.
When she announced her resignation, she said: “It would be apathetic to just kind of hunker down and go with the flow. We’re fishermen. We know that only dead fish go with the flow.” Her decision could hurt her, however, if she becomes labelled as a quitter or as someone who put her ambitions above the welfare of her state.
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