Alaska's Channel 2 has this includes this about her announcement:
The former vice presidential candidate has long been rumored to be considering a run at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.Talking Points Memo has posted the Full Text of Palin's Resignation Speech.
Palin did not address those rumors at the press conference at her Wasilla home, during which she did not take questions from reporters.
She implied that her real decision was not to seek re-election, and that the resignation was a natural step after that in order to avoid a lame-duck final 18 months of her term.
"With this announcement that I'm not seeking re-election, I've determined it's best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor (Sean) Parnell," Palin said. "I'm determined to take the right path for Alaska, even though it is unconventional and is not so comfortable.
"And I am willing to do this so this administration, with its positive agenda and its accomplishments and its successful road to an incredible future for Alaska, so that it can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success."
[...]
Already among the Democrats, Bob Poe has announced he will run, state Sen. Hollis French has started the ball rolling toward a run, and former congressional candidate Ethan Berkowitz said that if he were to run for anything in 2010 it would be for governor.
"With so many fronts that have been left in a state of stagnation while Governor Palin has been pursuing her national goals, I think that it's a good statement on the governor's part that she's recognizing we do need a fulltime governor," Poe said. "She's stepping aside from that, I think that the campaign is obviously going to get much more interesting very quickly and I look forward to the debate and discussing with the future candidates how we can move Alaska forward."
There has been strong speculation that Palin was going to announce that she would not run for reelection as Governor next year, and that seems to be a significant part of the reason she is announcing her resignation at this time. There is also further speculation that since she is a wildly unethical politician, even by Alaska standard, she has been caught out on something big enough to scare her into the resignation in hopes of heading off the investigation and prosecution.
Talking Points Memo also reports:
Andrea Mitchell says sources close to Gov. Palin say she is now "out of politics for good."I'd give the rumors and speculation about her concern about an investigation as high likelihood of being right. But if they are not right, (or if by resigning now she heads off serious investigation of a crime that cannot be covered up) then my own speculation is that she still maintains Presidential ambitions for 2012, and feels that between the blizzard of ethics complaints (handled by her own appointees and dismissed) and the heavy national media attention that goes along with having been Republican nominee for Veep and who is talked of by many as a strong candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2012, her advisers may have noted that she is failing as Alaska's Governor. It's reasonably certain that her failure is becoming more widely accepted in Alaska.
If she actually still harbors the fantasy of running for President, it will be impossible with a record of failure as Governor. That is no doubt a fact big enough to sink into Sarah Palin's narcissistic self-centered world. Of course, the problem is not her performance. It is that her enemies want to find any weapon possible to stop her. (Blame other for the reactions to her own failures.) In any case, the media is finding the cracks in her protective armor, and can't be stopped.
So she may have decided that her best bet is to resign and try to run for President as an outsider rather than as a sitting (failed) governor. She is rather clearly narcissist enough to think that she alone made John McCain's Presidential Campaign work, and to think that all she has to do is get back into the National Limelight without the damage of being a (failed or failing) sitting governor. About the only other politician recently in the media limelight that would think that way is Rod Blagojevich.
My last thought, though, is that unless something terrifically bad has already happened, this is a disastrous decision on her part. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear that she has reconsidered and announces that so many supporters are unhappy with her resignation that she simply cannot disappoint them that way and will not resign this month after all. She really is that erratic - as this announced resignation with only thin rationale strongly suggests.
Addendum 9:19 pm CDT
Howard Fineman makes the case for why Sarah Palin is still a leading candidate to win the Republican Presidential nomination for the 2012 election. Frankly, I don't doubt that she could win a plurality in a multi-candidate race for the nomination. Especially considering the fact that the Republican Party is rapidly shrinking to where it consists entirely of the radical right-wing extremists.
Addendum II 12:22 am CDT July 25, 2009
Think Progress posted an interesting article yesterday evening about the strong rumors in Alaska that the FBI is investigating a Construction Company [Spenard Building Supplies (SBS)] which may have been bribing Sarah Palin to get the government contracts they have recently received.
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