Not spelled out
She spoke in that cryptic fashion throughout her appearance, saying her decision to step down had been some time in the making, although she never clearly spelled out why. "Many just accept that lame duck status, and they hit that road. They draw a paycheck. They kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that," Palin said.
She said her successor, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, would be sworn in at the governor's picnic in Fairbanks later this month. He was among the people stunned by her move; Parnell said he learned of Palin's decision only Wednesday evening.
"It's a gob-smacking, jaw-hit-the-ground, total kind of surprise," said Ivan Moore, an independent political pollster in Anchorage who said Palin was a strong favorite to win a second term as governor had she run next year.
| Movie Finder |
As for any presidential ambitions, "I can't see how this move helps her," Moore said. "In fact, quite the opposite. I think it's terribly damaging."
"I don't minimize how she is revered by the Republican right, nationally," Moore said. "But at the end of the day, to become president she's going to have to convince that 5 percent or 10 percent of people in the middle ideologically, that she and McCain didn't convince last year, and those people are not going to be impressed that in her first four years sitting in high office she quit halfway through."
Not everyone agreed. Scott Reed, a veteran GOP strategist who is unaffiliated with any of the 2012 prospects, said leaving the governorship would give Palin a chance to rebuild and recast her image. "It allows her to have a brand new day, a fresh start. And she can shake all those cobwebs from the last campaign and her term as governor and start over," Reed said.
The kids got a vote