As I watched the video of Sarah Palin passing the ballthat’s her analogy, although to me it looked more like a double dribble — I thought the same thing I thought the first time I saw her. I can sum it up in one word: Huh?
Did she resign as governor because she’s running for president?
Or did she resign as governor because, conversely, she’s not running for president?
If you’re not confused, you must have missed her speech. Having watched the video and having read the official transcript twice — I just couldn’t resist rereading Palin’s dead-fish-go-with-the-flow declaration — I’m pretty sure confusion is the only proper reaction.
Here are some guesses:
Palin resigned — as some are suggesting — because there’s some additional scandal to be uncovered, even though, as far as I know, she hasn’t claimed to have been anywhere near the Appalachian Trail.
She resigned figuring that, at most, there’s only one more Letterman Top 10 list she has to endure.
She has either dropped out of politics as a martyr to the nasty media who hounded her and her family, or her rambling you-won’t- have-the-barracuda-to-kick-around- anymore speech is just one more misstep on the path (if not trail) to a presidential run.
I mean, here’s the question I ask myself: Did she really say she quit because she wasn’t a quitter — or do I need to watch the video yet again?
If this were anyone but Palin, you’d say this would have to be the end of her political career. If you want to cite dead fish, go to the great Woody Allen line in Annie Hall: What we got on our hands is a dead shark.
But Palin is not any other politician. Palin is a phenomenon that not everyone is sufficiently gifted to see. But if you’re sufficiently anti-elitist, anti-Washington and anti-Letterman, it apparently all comes clear. I saw it at a dozen rallies during the campaign, where the vice presidential candidate — for maybe the only time in history — was a bigger draw than the presidential candidate. This speech changes none of that.
Republican leaders are split, which is why Mary Matalin says the move was “brilliant” — presumably because, um, I don’t know why — and former John McCain aide John Weaver says it’s “nutty,” if only because he had just been on the air talking about Mark Sanford. But the Palin faithful will remain faithful, and I can’t imagine Palin abandoning them, either — certainly not so soon after dumping an entire state.
Still, I can’t get past the fact that Palin said she quit because she didn’t want to be a lame-duck governor — even as geese were honking nearby. It reminded me of the infamous video of Palin’s interview conducted while turkeys were busily being slaughtered on camera behind her.
The lame-duck argument is, of course, absurd. She quit as governor with 18 months to go in her first term. If her credentials for president were slight before, they sure don’t run any deeper by adding quitter to the resume. If she’s running for president, she could have told the obvious truth — that it’s hard to get flights from Wasilla to Des Moines.
But it’s the quality of her argument that you really have to love. I’ll give you the full quote — it’s long, but worth it — to get the full effect:
“I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks . . . travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade — as so many politicians do. And then I thought — that’s what’s wrong — many just accept that lame-duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck and ‘milk it.’ I’m not putting Alaska through that — I promised efficiencies and effectiveness! That’s not how I am wired. I am not wired to operate under the same old ‘politics as usual.’ I promised that four years ago — and I meant it.”
It’s a Katie Couric special, without the bother of Couric having to ask questions. And as I watched the video, I kept thinking, Yeah, I can see Russia from here.
OK, it has been a rough stretch for Palin and for the Republican Party. First, the Palin brain trust decides the way to the White House is through David Letterman. Then came the unflattering Vanity Fair piece, in which the McCain campaign fights all the old Palin battles again for our amusement.
But if Republicans were wondering about Palin, they had other issues, like, say, the Sanford/Ensign issues, to work through.
For Sanford, it turned out that adultery was the least of his problems. It was the weirdness factor that haunts him. It’s weird enough that Sanford won’t quit his job. It would be weirder still if Palin thinks that quitting one job is the way to get a better job.
Palin ended her speech by citing Gen. Douglas MacArthur — although apparently the quote actually comes from Maj. Gen. Oliver Prince Smith — saying: “We’re not retreating; we are advancing in another direction.”
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to find out which one.
Mike Littwin writes Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-5428 or mlittwin@denverpost.com.
