The Enigma: You Betcha

As you may know from reading this blog, I’m a conservative Republican. As far as I why I am, that’s just the way I believe & what I think. Perhaps I’ll write more about that in future posts! My ideology and personal beliefs make me identify best with the Republican party. During the 2008 election, I attended a Sarah Palin rally, voted for her and John McCain and wrote a lot about it all. When McCain chose Sarah as his running mate, I was floored! As a conservative and as a married mother, I immediately identified with her and liked what I saw of her.

Sarah Palin was (and is) a very charismatic person who had a lot of the same values as I did, and still do. While she immediately drew criticism and critique – for being a woman, for being a mother, for being conservative, for just about everything you can think of – I respected and admired her. Things that happened along the campaign trail made people pause, such as the pregnancy of her young unwed daughter. I was a young pregnant girl that didn’t listen to my parents at one point in my life and I don’t think we should hold the sins (if that’s what you want to call them) of the children against the parents. I’ll agree that it was good not timing for that but as parents you can’t always make your children do exactly as you would like. Sarah also drew criticism for not being intelligent enough or as up on international affairs as she should have been. I agree – she was not as well versed or international as others but I think with time & more experience she would have done just fine. Those are just my personal beliefs. As you know, she & John McCain did not win and life as I know it went on. I was sad and don’t particuarly like our current President but I do respect him as a person and will not say anything more about that.

So back to now – I was VERY shocked at Mrs. Palin’s recent resignation from the governor’s office. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard about it, here’s what she said when resigning. I recently read this reasoning one of her spokespeople talked about on CNN:

“She found…resistance, and she found as she looked up more and more that state time and resources were being just wasted with just frivolous ethics complaints coming in, and FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests and lawsuits — but to an extraordinary extent, and from literally those doing opposition research…and so she said really, is this good for Alaska? Is this what a governor is supposed to do, sit and watch money going down the drain?”

On the one hand I understand that. It’s unfortunate that some people have just completely focused themselves on tearing her down. They were showing no signs of stopping and she felt it would be better to step aside, so Alaska could move on with it’s agenda and get things done. It’s also been mentioned that it’s possible she could be using this time to work on the 2012 Presidental race by travelling, getting more involved internationally, etc. etc. Or maybe she just wants to take time away from it all – enjoy her family and just stay away from politics for awhile.
Then there’s the other hand. I feel like it’s a cop-out. She was tired of fighting and gave up. She’s sick of people poking fun and calling names and now she’s running away. That seems childish to me – which is confusing because she’s NOT a childish person. She’s very strong willed. If you’re going to be in politics or really the spotlight anywhere, you have to be prepared to be scrutinized. I feel that if she’s going to run in 2012 that it doesn’t really bode well to pack it in now.

I think the Washington Post said it the best – she is definitely Sarah The Enigma. Perhaps she’ll surprise us all with something completely different than what we’re expecting. I honestly don’t know. I do know that I still like & respect her. I think this (also from the Washington Post) sums it up the best:

A Republican strategist who got to know her over the past year, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to offer a candid opinion, said this: “She has a base in the party that’s motivated like no one else’s, and this decision won’t bother them. I don’t know if she’ll run. I don’t know if she could win if she ran. But I’m sure she has a shot.
“If she runs, she’ll face a skeptical press and a fairly stark division between her supporters and skeptics. But she commands attention, she connects with voters better than most, and she’s one of the toughest-minded people I’ve met.”
He added in conclusion something with which those on both sides of the Palin divide would agree. “I imagine,” he said, “she’ll continue to surprise us.”