Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 21, 2009

Sarah Palin's visit to Kuwait to meet with our heroes, our deployed troops

Matthew Continetti at the Weekly Standard has written a fair, intriguing profile on Sarah Palin, who discusses her “surprise” resignation as Alaska’s governor, her family, and her conservative philosophies. This upbeat, refreshing article is guaranteed to make statist Palin haters’ blood pressure hit dangerous levels.

Good.

For those who admire Palin and were outraged about the partisan smear attack published about her a few weeks ago in Vanity Fair, with its plethora of hyperbole and negative unnamed sources, you’ll enjoy reading this piece.

Kudos, Matthew—thanks for the smile.

Out of Alaska – Sarah Palin on why she resigned and what it means for her future.
Weekly Standard
By Matthew Continetti
July 20, 2009

In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of celebratory parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own. The Alaska governor had been the object of endless media attention and assorted calumnies since she became John McCain’s vice presidential nominee last August. Now she wanted to try something new. So, on July 3, in a speech delivered from her home on Lake Lucille in Wasilla, Palin told her constituents that not only would she not seek a second term, but she would also be transferring authority to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell on July 26, abdicating her office with about 18 months left to go. The announcement, as one might expect, received global press coverage, dominated the weekend headlines, and gave stories about the late Michael Jackson a run for their money. Meantime, the political world went into sustained convulsions.

The fierce reaction surprised Palin. She is acutely aware of what the media and her opponents say about her. She heard some people say that the timing of her speech was odd. Not so. “Independence Day is so significant to me–it’s sort of a way for me to illustrate that I want freedom for Alaskans to progress, and for me personally,” she told me during a telephone interview on July 9. Others said the motivation for her resignation was not clear. “I’m like, ‘Holy Jeez, I spoke for 20 minutes’ ” giving reasons, she said. Bloggers conjectured that a horrible scandal was looming over her. Nope. Palin says she even heard a rumor that she resigned because pornographic pictures of her were about to hit the Internet. This left her bemused. “Between which pregnancies did I get to pose for those?” she said sarcastically. The obstinacy of her enemies, the fact that they consistently attribute bad-faith to her and accuse her of double-speaking, continues to mystify her. Hearing all the innuendo, Palin said to herself, “Really? You can’t just believe what I’m saying?”

One thing you quickly learn about Sarah Palin when you study her career is that she never, ever does things by the book. The lady knows how to make a splash. She specializes in surprise announcements. Her 2004 resignation from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, her 2005 declaration that she was challenging incumbent Frank Murkowski for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, her March 2008 revelation that she was seven months pregnant with her fifth child, then her August 2008 addition to the GOP presidential ticket and the subsequent shocker that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant: All galvanized public opinion and upset established patterns of doing business.

Palin likes gambles. Her career is filled with firsts. In 2006, Palin became the first woman governor in Alaska history (as well as the youngest). In 2008, she became the first woman to appear on a GOP presidential ballot. And on July 3, she probably became the first governor with a 54-percent approval rating to resign from office for reasons having nothing to do with scandal or appointment to another job.

Palin says she had been thinking about her decision for a while, and had talked to various people about it. In January, during her state of the state address to the Alaska legislature, she asked lawmakers to put the previous year’s election behind them. “I asked them not to allow those distractions that were on the periphery to hamper the state’s progress,” Palin told me. But her plea went unheeded. “It became obvious in the last months especially that too many people weren’t going to ignore those things on the periphery,” she said. As the months passed, Palin arrived at the conclusion that she didn’t want a second term as Alaska’s governor. She had achieved what she had set out to do, so why bother with one more lame-duck legislative session in 2010?…

[...]

Palin likes to say “everything changed” for her on August 29, 2008, the day she was introduced as John McCain’s running mate. That may be an understatement. Before then, Palin was an extremely popular governor known to Alaskans as a bipartisan reformer and a champion of clean government. Outside Alaska, she was almost completely unknown. When she strode onstage with McCain that August day in Dayton, Ohio, the only thing the global media knew for sure about Palin was that she opposed abortion and recently had given birth to a child with Down’s syndrome. Since then, Democrats and the press have done everything in their power to transform this populist hero into a gun-toting, idiotic, apocalyptic harpy…

Click here to read the rest of Matthew Continetti’s Palin article >>

More lunatic hate, just posted by Hot Air: The obligatory “Palin’s legal defense fund may violate ethics laws” post; Update: Inaccurate, says Palin; Update: Report added

Additional reading:
American Thinker: Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin Jealous
Leigh Scott, Big Hollywood: Leadership: If Barack Obama is Spock, Sarah Palin is Kirk
The Hill: McCain: Palin not a quitter
Robert Stacy McCain, The American Spectator: Sarah Surprises Again
American Thinker: Hating Sarah Palin – and Us
Sister Toldjah: Josh Marshall: Sarah Palin is “probably mentally unstable”
Jeremy D. Boreing, Big Hollywood: The Day After: My First Impression of Sarah Palin
Ann Coulter: Forgetting Sarah Palin
Riehl World View: Kindergarten Guru: Trip Palin Will Get His Ass Beat and Palin Ethics Investigator Worked For Obama Campaign
No Sheeples Here: Mistrust Those In Whom The Urge To Punish Is Strong

The Daley Gator: Lying Lefty exposed?
Alaska Report: Van Flein letter threatening ImmoralMinority blog
Hot Air: MSNBC anchors wonder: Is hotness the key to Palin’s appeal? and Quote of the day (On Sarah Palin)
and Quote of the day (Peggy Noonan jealousy) and
Sarah Palin’s run for Congress and Pat Buchanan: Maybe it’s time for Todd Palin to push Levi Johnston’s head in a toilet and Audio: John Ziegler grills Politico reporter for calling Palin a “circus act” and Quotes of the day and Video: Matalin thinks Palin is “brilliant” for resigning and Audio: Did Palin hint at quitting last month? Plus, a poll! and Video: Palin resigns; Video: Andrea Mitchell says sources tell her Palin’s out of politics and Video: More Palin-bashing from the media
Hot Air, Green Room: There’s No One Else Like Sarah Palin and Ace’s “special comment” on Palinistas
VotingFemale Speaks!: Obama Cap & Trade – a Clear and Present Danger to American Economy, So Says Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin Unleashed; Socialist Party and Media scared and desperate
Michelle Malkin: Bad taste award
The Unalienable Right: Governor Sarah Palin hit with another “ethics” complaint
The American Pundit: Oh My: Dem Ad Attacks Palin, Crist For Leaving Terms Early
GayPatriot: Palin’s Resignation Provides Further Insight into “Political Faith” of her Adversaries
The Wide Awake Cafe: “It’s Sickening, Lenny”
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Comedian Jackie Mason: “Every Vulgar Curse Word in the World… Sarah Palin’s Critics Are Terrified of Her” (video) and Filmmaker John Ziegler Defends Sarah Palin, Denounces Media’s Attacks on Her Children… Heated Interview on ‘The View’ about Media Bias and Sarah Palin: Stepping Down As Alaska’s Governor and Why Sarah Palin Drives Female Liberals Crazy and and Price of Hate: Alaskan Liberals Out to “Get Sarah Palin” and Alaska’s Sarah Palin Huge Hit in Small New York Town: Crowd of 20,000 Excited to See Palin and Lloyd Marcus: Proud Conservative Patriot, ‘Tea Party Anthem’ Composer Inspires Many with His Background & His Music
Dorkelina: Ah, politics.
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood, Daily Gut: Letterman’s Obsession with Sarah Palin
Why Mommy Is a Palin Supporter: Sarah Palin: Not a Run of the Mill Politician and Video: Freedom of Sarah Palin and The McCain Campaign’s Newest Campaign: Bring Down Sarah Palin

Categories: Conservatism, Economy, Government, Media & Communication, Social and Political Climate
Tags: abortion issues, Alaska, bipartisan reformer, conservative, election, GOP, Gov. Palin, governor, John McCain, lame duck, left-wing hate, liberals, Matthew Continetti, media bias, Palin resigned, political, politics, Republican, Sarah Palin, socialism, statist