Let me make this clear.  Here, at Conservative Command, we love Sarah Palin.  We love her for many reasons.  She is one of the first politicians in recent memory with whom you could identify.  She didn’t hail from some Ivy League bastion of elitism.  Nor did she pretend to.  She didn’t try to impress anyone with her vocabulary.  She was a wife, a mom, and a grandmother.  She believed in life and lived out her moral code by giving birth to a Down syndrome baby, Trig.  More than anything, she was just so freakishly normal. 

Friday’s announcement is painful because it seems we’ve lost the most normal politician on the market.  Mark Steyn said it best: “National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving smirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain), and dynastic heirs (Bush).  Our loss.”

It is, indeed, our loss.  She electrified a conservative base in 2008 that desperately needed energy.  And she did so despite a media machine intent on destroying her at every turn.  She may have looked like a fish out of water at certain junctures but that simply heightened her appeal to voters and exposed media lapdogs like Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson for what they were and still are: Obama cheerleaders. 

Had she run in 2012, she certainly would have been a frontrunner for the top of the Republican ticket.  By stepping down as Alaska’s governor, some say she may have foreclosed any chance at 2012 and beyond.

Or did she?

If there is one thing Palin isn’t, it’s conventional.  She challenged a corrupt political machine in Alaska, including her own fellow Republicans, and won.  She connected with voters (including the 20,000 that showed up to her campaign rallies with McCain) because she was nothing like your typical politician.

That is why I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her.  I believe that for two reasons:

First, by resigning, she remained consistent with her own political philosophy: fiscal restraint and putting the people first.  In her statement on Friday, she claimed that, by defending herself against the 15+ ethics complaints filed against her, “[t]he state has wasted thousands of hours of [taxpayers'] time and shelled out some 2 million of [taxpayer] dollars to respond to opposition research.  Moreover, her family was “looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills just in order to set the record straight.”  She also stated that her “staff and [she] spend most of our day dealing with this instead of progressing [Alaska].  I know I promised no more ‘politics as usual,’ but this isn’t what anyone had in mind for Alaska.”  Devoting so much time to these ethics complaints prohibits her from performing her own job as governor. 

If all this is true, I don’t blame her for stepping down because continuing along this path doesn’t benefit Alaska.  To do what’s best for Alaska, perhaps the most logical thing is to walk away, as strange as that sounds.  The best way to explain this is through Palin’s own basketball analogy: A “good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win.  And I’m doing that-keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities-smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom!  And I know when it’s time to pass the ball-for victory.”

I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.  She’s not quitting politics or running away from the job.  She’s merely doing what’s best for Alaska.  Which leads me to my next point . . .

Second, in her remarks, she also stated that she wanted to “effect positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities-and so we will, for Alaskans and for Americans.” 

This sentence represents clear proof that she isn’t leaving politics.  She has her eyes on something much higher.  Maybe before August 2008, she didn’t think she had a chance because no one knew who she was.  But, after McCain picked her as his running mate, she probably realized that, given her philosophy and her appeal, she has a chance to make a difference right away for conservatives and the country.

Let’s be honest: she can’t make an immediate difference thousands of miles away in Alaska.  (No offense to Alaska.  I’ve been there, and it’s a beautiful place.)  To those who say she should have finished out her term, my question is why?  Why should she finish her term and limit her effect to Alaska when she can have a wider impact on all Americans.  Moreover, she now has the freedom to focus on the rest of the country without neglecting her job as governor.

Bill Kristol makes a great point: “If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today?  It’s an enormous gamble-but it could be a shrewd one.  After all, she’s freeing herself from the duties of the governorship.  Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues-and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska.  I suppose she’ll take a hit for leaving the governorship early-but how much of one?  She’s probably accomplished most of what she was going to get done as governor, and is leaving a sympatico lieutenant governor in charge.”

Well said.  And I agree that conservatives will continue to adore her despite the perception that she has left Alaska out to dry.

I think Palin wants to change America . . . for good, that is.  And she doesn’t want to wait.  2012 is a golden opportunity to throw these liberals out of office and return this country to its founding values: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Why plan for 2016 or 2020 when there is such a void right now? 

I think Palin will be a major player in 2012.  Friday’s announcement, while risky, could be a brilliant move. 

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