Politics: Thoughts on Sarah Palin's resignation from AK governor's seat

Um, what just happened?

I heard the news via Twitter on Friday, but felt pardoned from having to talk about it at least until today.

My simple take is that she should not have stepped down from the office she was elected to hold.

So just what does she have planned next? The Associated Press:

Even for a nonconformist, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin defies political logic with her sudden, stunning announcement to leave office more than a year early.

Supporters and critics alike say the former GOP vice presidential candidate's resignation, announced Friday afternoon and effective July 26, is an inexplicable move for a high profile Republican widely seen as a contender for a White House run in 2012. A half-term governor campaigning for president?

Um ... it didn't appear to hurt Obama too bad that he was a half-termed Senator. Good call, AP.

More hints about her plans on her Facebook page (yes, it's actually her).

Curiouser and Curiouser, hints that her attorneys are now actively combating "defamatory material".

"Defamatory material" that Ross Douthat summarizes well in the New York Times:

Here are lessons of the Sarah Palin experience, for any aspiring politician who shares her background and her sex. Your children will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith. (And no, gentle reader, Palin did not insist on abstinence-only sex education, slash funds for special-needs children or inject creationism into public schools.)

Male commentators will attack you for parading your children. Female commentators will attack you for not staying home with them. You’ll be sneered at for how you talk and how many colleges you attended. You’ll endure gibes about your “slutty” looks and your “white trash concupiscence,” while a prominent female academic declares that your “greatest hypocrisy” is the “pretense” that you’re a woman. And eight months after the election, the professionals who pressed you into the service of a gimmicky, dreary, idea-free campaign will still be blaming you for their defeat.

All of this had something to do with ordinary partisan politics. But it had everything to do with Palin’s gender and her social class.

Sarah Palin is beloved by millions because her rise suggested, however temporarily, that the old American aphorism about how anyone can grow up to be president might actually be true.

But her unhappy sojourn on the national stage has had a different moral: Don’t even think about it.

And, as if on queue, liberal pundit Maureen Dowd goes there.

Al Kresta, meanwhile, has a very good commentary on what these Palin haters are trying to do.

What a crazy ten months.