Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, took us all by surprise and resigned yesterday. Her reasons are particularly her own and are fueling speculation all over the internet.
I doubt she'll ever run again for national office. The treatment of her in the media was... well... deplorable. Letterman made exceedingly crude jokes about her family and I feel that he was simply mimicking the cruel jokes that are bandied about water coolers all over the country.
I voted for Sarah. My vote for that ticket was more for her than for John McCain. I liked her and hoped that she'd get a fair chance at national office. I never thought that she was part of the political class that I so revile and I admired her grace under pressure and the common roots from which she sprang.
Some say that some un-named scandal is set to erupt, but I think that if there was a scandal we'd have heard of it. The longer is goes without surfacing, the less likely a scandal is to surface.
No, I suspect that she decided that political life was placing too big a burden on her character, her reputation and her family. That some things are more important than elective office and she decided to retire into private life. That is certainly an option for every office-holder and more should avail themselves of the opportunity.
Sarah's resignation disappoints me, but it shows that if you put someone under the microscope and make their family fair game, none of us can hope to flourish under that type of scrutiny.
So, that leaves us with the type person who will do anything, say anything, endure anything to gain and maintain public office. Those are precisely the type people who we should not want in public office. Yet we continue to elect those people.
It's a damned shame.
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