The Curse of 2012--Who's Next?

What a year it‘s been for virtually any Republican who has been thinking about running in 2012. It‘s like the Carter expedition that went into King Tut‘s tomb. What‘s going on here? -- Chris Matthews

First, Bobby Jindal introduced himself to the American public by responding to Obama's speech to Congress with his best Kenneth-the-Page impression. Soon after, Jon Huntsman was shipped off to China and swept off the American political landscape. Then Newt Gingrich stuck his foot in his mouth and his middle finger in the face of the growing Latino community when he began tweeting unequivocally that Sonia Sotomayor is a racist. Next John Ensign and Mark Sanford, defenders of the sanctity of marriage and condemners of President Clinton, were exposed as adulterous hypocrites. Now we may have the latest victim of this insidious, Republican-smashing force.

If you follow the news even a little, you've no doubt already heard about the political bombshell dropped on this holiday weekend's Friday news dump: Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska at the end of the month. This lipsticked pitbull has been champing at the bit to start the 2012 election season for months now, so the fact that she's opted not to run for re-election in 2010 should come as no surprise to most political junkies. As Rudy Giuliani found out the hard way last time around, Iowa and New Hampshire are what count when it comes to making presidents. And Alaska is a long way from both.

The obvious question is why on earth she would resign as governor 30 months into her first term, particularly if she wants a promotion. As noted, it makes some sense not to seek re-election because the long commute times entailed by simultaneously governing Alaska and campaigning in the heartland simply make the whole thing infeasible. But throwing in the towel now doesn't make much political sense. Viewers hoping to see some glimpse of a rational thought process at work behind this decision by watching Palin's press conference today were disappointed. The only apt way to characterize it is to paraphrase a wonderful rebuke from Billy Madison:

Mrs. Palin, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. (Dont-cha-know.)

Let's muse a bit to try and figure out what she's thinking. The working assumption here--given Palin's continuing efforts to endear herself to the Republican base and stay in the news cycle--is that the soon-to-be former governor desperately wants to run for president in 2012. Since the 2012 Republican field looks to be even more anemic and laughable than the last one, this plan isn't a horrible one. But why resign now?

● Scandal. This one doesn't make any sense if Palin still intends to run for president; what good would resigning her governorship do? If (and certainly this a big if) there were some scandal she'd prefer never sees the light of day, resigning and fading out of the public spotlight might work. But since I doubt she plans to really leave the limelight any time soon, we're either about to be treated to something juicy in the next few weeks or this is just a far-fetched interwebs wet dream.

● Campaigning. Maybe she wants to get started early and spend more than three years campaigning. If this is really her reason, she must have the worst political instincts of her generation. This move makes her look like even more of a lightweight than she already did (no small feat) and nudges her even closer to irrelevance.

● Disinterest. By far the most alarming prospect is that she simply doesn't feel like governing or dealing with legislators anymore. It wouldn't be particularly surprising if Gabby Gimmick just got tired of the difficult and thankless task of, you know, doing her job. The fact that she might then want to go on to run for president would be funny if it wasn't so sickening.


In fairness, in her press conference Palin indicated that she didn't feel lame ducks should be collecting paychecks (no word on per diem reimbursements) and, since she doesn't intend to run for re-election, there's no place for her in Juneau. Of course, the logic of that doesn't really make any sense but we'll let that slide. Maybe she's really just throwing in the towel and giving up the political game. If so, she'll likely be spared further retribution from the Curse. If, however, she continues on the path to opposing Obama in the next election, the Curse may well strike down upon her with great vengeance and furious anger. She could end up becoming an elected official in Wasilla again.

Anybody have any thoughts on why she's quitting? Or who the Curse will go after next?