By Rachel D'oro
Associated Press
Updated: 07/31/2009 10:35:42 AM CDT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Fans to Sarah Palin: Please, post a tidbit on Facebook. A little chirp on Twitter would be nice.
It's been five whole days since Palin stepped down as Alaska's governor and her Internet fans are dying to know what's next.
"Sarah can you give us just a hint!" writes one Facebook follower.
But the hockey mom-turned politician who promised to launch her change to private life on social networking sites has been quiet so far. In fact, she's gone "dark," leaving supporters to flood the Web with speculation.
The big question on their minds is the 2012 presidential race. Will she or won't she?
Her silence is not keeping supporters from discussing the possibility of her chasing the country's top job or taking on another national role.
Said one Facebook entry: "Drill, Drill, Drill ... all the way to the White House!!!!"
Said another: "Sarah, our country really NEEDS YOU NOW!!!"
One person asked Palin if she was keeping tabs on the site.
"Is there any way you could somehow let us know you're reading this?" the poster asked. "Maybe a little tweet sometime when you get your Twitter up again."
The clamor comes amid a vacuum of knowledge about what awaits the former GOP vice presidential candidate since she left the state office Sunday with 16 months remaining in her first term. Her departure came with no elaboration of her long-term political plans. Short-term, she was expected to speak Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, but her spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, posted a note on Palin's Facebook page Thursday that she is not attending the event. She gave no explanation, and did not respond to requests for comment on the ex-governor's plans.
Palin has said she could campaign for political candidates across the U.S. Also making the rounds are unconfirmed reports that Palin could be open to being a conservative voice on a radio show.
Or she could be a homemaker, according to a third of 900 voters responding to a poll by FOX News. Even members of her own party are divided over what Palin should do next. The poll, released this week, showed 27 percent of Republicans believe the vice presidency would best suit Palin, followed by 18 percent who see her as a homemaker, 14 percent who would cast her as a talk show host and 12 percent who favor her as president.
In her last three months as governor, Palin routinely tweeted about state business and other subjects, including domestic energy development, the death of Alaska-based soldiers and dismissals of ethics complaints against her. Nearing her gubernatorial departure, she indicated she would use a personal account on Twitter to continue to stay in touch and more freely speak her mind.
"10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site," she tweeted July 17.
Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said Palin will resume her Twitter feeds in the near future. He said he was not at liberty to discuss any of her post-office activities.
Where some supporters are concerned, soon is not soon enough to hear from Palin.
"Anyone find it strange that Sarah has not shown up at all on Twitter by now??? If she waits too long, people will move on," one supporter wrote Thursday on the Web site Conservatives 4 Palin.
Wrote another: "Sarah can't even go 4 days without tweeting? I think she's smart to go 'dark' for a while."
That she is laying low came as no surprise to Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Palin's political action committee. SarahPAC reportedly has raised more than $1 million.
"Seeing how she just left office, I would think she's taking a few days off," Pryor said. The time off is a way for the governor to "shut off the lights and close the door and go from one chapter to another."
Showing posts with label Alaskan politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaskan politics. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Weary Palin sought to regain control
Source: Pioneer Press
And her future? A risky road is ahead
From wire reports
Updated: 07/04/2009
Why did Sarah Palin step down?
Theories abound. But some of the people closest to the Alaska governor say she wanted to regain control of a political script that slipped out of her hands the moment she burst onto the national stage. She also wanted to shield herself and her family from attacks that seem to have been aimed permanently at them in the 311 days since Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced her as his running mate, according to some former campaign aides and other advisers who speak regularly with Palin or her husband, Todd.
The Sarah Palin who stood outside her Wasilla, Alaska, lakefront home Friday to surrender her term with 18 months remaining appeared vulnerable and anything but the pugnacious hockey mom and combative candidate who Americans came to either adore or admonish. The woman who said she would never blink suddenly tired of what she deemed the "superficial, wasteful political blood sport."
So she quit.
Yet Palin's vulnerability masks her firepower, ambition and strong will, advisers said. Not one to fit comfortably into convention — and not comfortable being a victim, either — Palin spoke Friday as if she was rolling the dice and betting on herself. She presented herself as a game-changer stepping onto a stage of her own making.
What that stage may be remains the big question looming over national politics this weekend, and advisers said she is truly undecided about running for president in 2012, or ever. But for the first time, she recently solicited money for her political action committee.
And Saturday she strongly suggested that she intends to remain a player in national politics.
"I've never thought I needed a title before one's name to forge progress in America," Palin wrote in a message to supporters on her Facebook page. "I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!"
What is certain, however, is that Palin has tired of being governor — of working with a legislature increasingly intent on blocking her agenda, of commuting 4 1/2 hours from Wasilla to the state Capitol in Juneau, of watching her family be tabloid fodder.
This spring, as Palin was weighing whether to run for re-election in 2010, she turned to John Coale, a prominent Washington lawyer. He had helped her establish a political action committee and has become her political consigliore of sorts.
"She asked me, 'Well, what do you think all this is? Why are all these people attacking me?' " Coale said. "I said to her, 'Look, that's what happens. They did it to Hillary (Rodham Clinton) and Hillary just pushed through it. It's not going to really stop. ... You just have to ignore it and move on.' "
But, Coale added, "She couldn't ignore the hits on the kids. She said, 'It brought out the Mamma Grizzly in me.' She acted like a mother grizzly bear when her cubs were being attacked."
However, if some of her supporters are correct in surmising what she is doing — turning full-time to preparing herself, after a tough year, for a presidential campaign in 2012 — it represents a huge gamble, even by the standards of a politician whose short career has been shaped by huge gambles.
For some Republicans, the comparison that came to mind was Richard Nixon, when he announced in 1962 that he was leaving politics for good after losing the governor's race in California, two years after a failed White House bid.
In fact, Nixon used the next four years to quietly refurbish his image, building ties with the conservative wing that was becoming ascendant in the Republican Party, ingratiating himself with Republican senators and candidates for governor by campaigning on their behalf and becoming better schooled in issues.
Assuming her departure does reflect a strategic decision to prepare for a presidential campaign — Republicans have been wondering why she dropped out so abruptly — Palin may be looking to the next few years to do what Nixon did to prepare for his successful run for the White House in 1968.
Yet Palin is in a different place than was Nixon — or any other politician who has gone the rehabilitation route. She is viewed disparagingly by many of the elites in her party, no matter how many conservative Republicans have flocked to her. She has grown increasingly unpopular in her own state and nationally; 43 percent of respondents in a CNN Poll in May viewed her unfavorably, compared with 21 percent when McCain chose her as his running mate last August.
If one of Palin's goals was to erase the perception of her as flighty — a perception encouraged by some McCain lieutenants in the rough aftermath of the failed campaign — it certainly could not have helped to stage an out-of-the-blue announcement.
"I can't imagine that anyone saw this coming," said former state Sen. Kim Elton, a Democrat who is now director of Alaska affairs for the secretary of the federal Department of Interior. "I think the consensus in Alaska was she had her eye on the prize and that the way to get that was being governor."
The Washington Post and New York Times contributed to this analysis.
And her future? A risky road is ahead
From wire reports
Updated: 07/04/2009
Why did Sarah Palin step down?
Theories abound. But some of the people closest to the Alaska governor say she wanted to regain control of a political script that slipped out of her hands the moment she burst onto the national stage. She also wanted to shield herself and her family from attacks that seem to have been aimed permanently at them in the 311 days since Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced her as his running mate, according to some former campaign aides and other advisers who speak regularly with Palin or her husband, Todd.
The Sarah Palin who stood outside her Wasilla, Alaska, lakefront home Friday to surrender her term with 18 months remaining appeared vulnerable and anything but the pugnacious hockey mom and combative candidate who Americans came to either adore or admonish. The woman who said she would never blink suddenly tired of what she deemed the "superficial, wasteful political blood sport."
So she quit.
Yet Palin's vulnerability masks her firepower, ambition and strong will, advisers said. Not one to fit comfortably into convention — and not comfortable being a victim, either — Palin spoke Friday as if she was rolling the dice and betting on herself. She presented herself as a game-changer stepping onto a stage of her own making.
What that stage may be remains the big question looming over national politics this weekend, and advisers said she is truly undecided about running for president in 2012, or ever. But for the first time, she recently solicited money for her political action committee.
And Saturday she strongly suggested that she intends to remain a player in national politics.
"I've never thought I needed a title before one's name to forge progress in America," Palin wrote in a message to supporters on her Facebook page. "I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!"
What is certain, however, is that Palin has tired of being governor — of working with a legislature increasingly intent on blocking her agenda, of commuting 4 1/2 hours from Wasilla to the state Capitol in Juneau, of watching her family be tabloid fodder.
This spring, as Palin was weighing whether to run for re-election in 2010, she turned to John Coale, a prominent Washington lawyer. He had helped her establish a political action committee and has become her political consigliore of sorts.
"She asked me, 'Well, what do you think all this is? Why are all these people attacking me?' " Coale said. "I said to her, 'Look, that's what happens. They did it to Hillary (Rodham Clinton) and Hillary just pushed through it. It's not going to really stop. ... You just have to ignore it and move on.' "
But, Coale added, "She couldn't ignore the hits on the kids. She said, 'It brought out the Mamma Grizzly in me.' She acted like a mother grizzly bear when her cubs were being attacked."
However, if some of her supporters are correct in surmising what she is doing — turning full-time to preparing herself, after a tough year, for a presidential campaign in 2012 — it represents a huge gamble, even by the standards of a politician whose short career has been shaped by huge gambles.
For some Republicans, the comparison that came to mind was Richard Nixon, when he announced in 1962 that he was leaving politics for good after losing the governor's race in California, two years after a failed White House bid.
In fact, Nixon used the next four years to quietly refurbish his image, building ties with the conservative wing that was becoming ascendant in the Republican Party, ingratiating himself with Republican senators and candidates for governor by campaigning on their behalf and becoming better schooled in issues.
Assuming her departure does reflect a strategic decision to prepare for a presidential campaign — Republicans have been wondering why she dropped out so abruptly — Palin may be looking to the next few years to do what Nixon did to prepare for his successful run for the White House in 1968.
Yet Palin is in a different place than was Nixon — or any other politician who has gone the rehabilitation route. She is viewed disparagingly by many of the elites in her party, no matter how many conservative Republicans have flocked to her. She has grown increasingly unpopular in her own state and nationally; 43 percent of respondents in a CNN Poll in May viewed her unfavorably, compared with 21 percent when McCain chose her as his running mate last August.
If one of Palin's goals was to erase the perception of her as flighty — a perception encouraged by some McCain lieutenants in the rough aftermath of the failed campaign — it certainly could not have helped to stage an out-of-the-blue announcement.
"I can't imagine that anyone saw this coming," said former state Sen. Kim Elton, a Democrat who is now director of Alaska affairs for the secretary of the federal Department of Interior. "I think the consensus in Alaska was she had her eye on the prize and that the way to get that was being governor."
The Washington Post and New York Times contributed to this analysis.
Palin: Politically speaking, 'If I die, I die.'
Source: Kare 11
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sarah Palin says she's not a quitter, she's a fighter, but adds that, politically speaking, "if I die, I die. So be it."
The Alaska governor spoke in taped interviews on ABC, NBC, Fox News Channel and CNN broadcast Tuesday morning.
She told CNN that "all options are on the table" for her future, and told Fox she doesn't know what the future holds.
But told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she recognizes she might not have political staying power after her surprise resignation Friday, which came just as she had been expected to elevate her national profile ahead of a possible 2012 GOP presidential run.
"I said before ... 'You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it,"' she said.
Speaking in fishing waders from the town of Dillingham, Palin said her administration has been paralyzed by fending off frivolous lawsuits.
"I'm not going to take the comfortable path. I'm going to take the right path for the state," she said of her resignation, which she characterized as a matter of progressing in an unconventional way.
"That caught people off guard. ... It's out of the box and unconventional. That's what we are as Alaskans and certainly how I am as a public servant."
Palin said she doesn't think she needs a title to bring about "positive change," but added that she can't see herself being totally out of public service. She criticized President Barack Obama, a possible sign she's looking toward the 2012 presidential race.
"Average, hardworking Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right, fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in," Palin told Fox News Channel.
The outgoing Alaska governor told the Anchorage Daily News she stepped down because ethics complaints against her and her squabble with lawmakers would have paralyzed the 18 months she had left in office.
"Especially when all these lawmakers are lining up for office," she said. "Their desire would be to clobber the administration left and right so that they can position themselves for office. I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."
She told the paper she believes her replacement, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will take office on July 26, will diffuse the controversy that surrounds her.
"With Sean in the governor's seat, it won't be the politics of personal destruction, I don't believe," Palin said.
She added she wasn't sure what her next step would be.
"I can't predict the next fish run much less what's going to happen in a few years," she told the Daily News. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep working hard for Alaska."
Palin has spent the past four days with her family, but she returned to work as Alaska governor Tuesday in a remote fishing village 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Palin was scheduled to appear in Kotzebue to sign a bill designed to bring public safety officers to small towns. Kotzebue, a town of about 3,000 people, is 550 miles northwest of Anchorage and lies on a spit of sand at the end of a peninsula.
There has been speculation that she has some legal issue that is not yet known to the public. But her lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that she has no legal problems whatsoever, and simply is tired of the hostile political climate, legal bills and other distractions.
"She is leaving now because I think she believes that she has become the issue, rightly or wrongly, with all these ethics complaints and with the issues involving the Legislature, the combativeness they've been demonstrating toward her since she returned from the campaign," Thomas Van Flein said.
"I think she believes it's in the best interest of the state to progress forward, for her to move on to other issues."
Palin has become a lightning rod for partisan politics in Alaska since her return from the 2008 presidential campaign after John McCain selected her as his running mate for the GOP ticket. She has racked up an estimated $500,000 in legal bills defending the flurry of ethics complaints, including one filed Monday that alleges she is violating ethics law by taking per diem payments when she stays in her Wasilla home instead of the governor's mansion in Juneau.
In addition, her relationship with Democrats in the state Senate -- once among her staunchest allies -- deteriorated in the last session.
At the state Capitol in Juneau, the "Time to Make a Difference" clock that counted the time left in Palin's term was taken down from the wall outside her office. And people from around the country called up her office to inquire about the situation, as did a few cruise ship tourists who made the trek to the Capitol.
The young woman at the desk outside Palin's office was busy answering phones.
"Yes, she is getting swamped with e-mails," the woman tells one caller. "Yes, they do get forwarded to the appropriate person."
"Unfortunately, we are having a back load of e-mails so it will take some to get a response," she tells another.
Where is she? Why is she stepping down? When is her last day? Why so soon?
The tour guide tried to politely answer the questions for the tourists when she could, but for the most part had no answers.
Some of the visitors left Palin messages in a guest log.
"Sarah -- Please Stay!" one person wrote.
Kathy Waldo-Gilbert, a registered Democrat from Iowa who was on her honeymoon in Alaska, said she was especially disappointed because she believes that Palin's early departure from the governor's job will make it harder for other women who want to be taken seriously in high-profile positions. Waldo-Gilbert voted Republican for the first time in last year's presidential election.
"When things get hard, you stick around," she said.
Erika Fagerstrom, executive residential manager at the governor's mansion, said Palin and her family will be missed. Even though Palin lived most of the time at her home in Wasilla, she spent "quite a bit" of time at the stately columned mansion near the Capitol, she said.
"We are sad to see her go. They are a great family," she said.
Palin will be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who has announced he will seek to retain the office in the 2010 election.
State Rep. John Harris, a former House speaker and Republican from Valdez, announced Monday that he's preparing to file paperwork with state election officials in a bid for governor.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sarah Palin says she's not a quitter, she's a fighter, but adds that, politically speaking, "if I die, I die. So be it."
The Alaska governor spoke in taped interviews on ABC, NBC, Fox News Channel and CNN broadcast Tuesday morning.
She told CNN that "all options are on the table" for her future, and told Fox she doesn't know what the future holds.
But told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she recognizes she might not have political staying power after her surprise resignation Friday, which came just as she had been expected to elevate her national profile ahead of a possible 2012 GOP presidential run.
"I said before ... 'You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it,"' she said.
Speaking in fishing waders from the town of Dillingham, Palin said her administration has been paralyzed by fending off frivolous lawsuits.
"I'm not going to take the comfortable path. I'm going to take the right path for the state," she said of her resignation, which she characterized as a matter of progressing in an unconventional way.
"That caught people off guard. ... It's out of the box and unconventional. That's what we are as Alaskans and certainly how I am as a public servant."
Palin said she doesn't think she needs a title to bring about "positive change," but added that she can't see herself being totally out of public service. She criticized President Barack Obama, a possible sign she's looking toward the 2012 presidential race.
"Average, hardworking Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right, fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in," Palin told Fox News Channel.
The outgoing Alaska governor told the Anchorage Daily News she stepped down because ethics complaints against her and her squabble with lawmakers would have paralyzed the 18 months she had left in office.
"Especially when all these lawmakers are lining up for office," she said. "Their desire would be to clobber the administration left and right so that they can position themselves for office. I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."
She told the paper she believes her replacement, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will take office on July 26, will diffuse the controversy that surrounds her.
"With Sean in the governor's seat, it won't be the politics of personal destruction, I don't believe," Palin said.
She added she wasn't sure what her next step would be.
"I can't predict the next fish run much less what's going to happen in a few years," she told the Daily News. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep working hard for Alaska."
Palin has spent the past four days with her family, but she returned to work as Alaska governor Tuesday in a remote fishing village 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Palin was scheduled to appear in Kotzebue to sign a bill designed to bring public safety officers to small towns. Kotzebue, a town of about 3,000 people, is 550 miles northwest of Anchorage and lies on a spit of sand at the end of a peninsula.
There has been speculation that she has some legal issue that is not yet known to the public. But her lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that she has no legal problems whatsoever, and simply is tired of the hostile political climate, legal bills and other distractions.
"She is leaving now because I think she believes that she has become the issue, rightly or wrongly, with all these ethics complaints and with the issues involving the Legislature, the combativeness they've been demonstrating toward her since she returned from the campaign," Thomas Van Flein said.
"I think she believes it's in the best interest of the state to progress forward, for her to move on to other issues."
Palin has become a lightning rod for partisan politics in Alaska since her return from the 2008 presidential campaign after John McCain selected her as his running mate for the GOP ticket. She has racked up an estimated $500,000 in legal bills defending the flurry of ethics complaints, including one filed Monday that alleges she is violating ethics law by taking per diem payments when she stays in her Wasilla home instead of the governor's mansion in Juneau.
In addition, her relationship with Democrats in the state Senate -- once among her staunchest allies -- deteriorated in the last session.
At the state Capitol in Juneau, the "Time to Make a Difference" clock that counted the time left in Palin's term was taken down from the wall outside her office. And people from around the country called up her office to inquire about the situation, as did a few cruise ship tourists who made the trek to the Capitol.
The young woman at the desk outside Palin's office was busy answering phones.
"Yes, she is getting swamped with e-mails," the woman tells one caller. "Yes, they do get forwarded to the appropriate person."
"Unfortunately, we are having a back load of e-mails so it will take some to get a response," she tells another.
Where is she? Why is she stepping down? When is her last day? Why so soon?
The tour guide tried to politely answer the questions for the tourists when she could, but for the most part had no answers.
Some of the visitors left Palin messages in a guest log.
"Sarah -- Please Stay!" one person wrote.
Kathy Waldo-Gilbert, a registered Democrat from Iowa who was on her honeymoon in Alaska, said she was especially disappointed because she believes that Palin's early departure from the governor's job will make it harder for other women who want to be taken seriously in high-profile positions. Waldo-Gilbert voted Republican for the first time in last year's presidential election.
"When things get hard, you stick around," she said.
Erika Fagerstrom, executive residential manager at the governor's mansion, said Palin and her family will be missed. Even though Palin lived most of the time at her home in Wasilla, she spent "quite a bit" of time at the stately columned mansion near the Capitol, she said.
"We are sad to see her go. They are a great family," she said.
Palin will be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who has announced he will seek to retain the office in the 2010 election.
State Rep. John Harris, a former House speaker and Republican from Valdez, announced Monday that he's preparing to file paperwork with state election officials in a bid for governor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)