Baked Alaska for Brains

Sarah Palin has done it again and given us a totally bizarre and incoherent surprise announcement that she is resigning the office of Governor of Alaska two and a half years into a four-year first term.

Ms. Palin stated she is resigning because she is a lame duck, saying, "That's what's wrong. Many just accept that lame duck status and they hit the road, they draw a pay check, they kinda milk it, and I'm not gonna put Alaskans through that." Let' look at this closely.

First of all, Ms. Palin is not a lame duck, so her entire justification for her resignation is false. A lame duck is an elected official who is nearing the end of a term in an office in which they can not be reelected, that is in her case, she would not be a lame duck until the last year of her second term because of term limits or in the end of her first term after she lost reelection. She is apparently so ignorant that she has given a justification for her departure that is patently false and doesn't even know it.

Second, even if she were a lame duck, it is painfully obvious that when a person is elected to an office that the person is making a promise to the people who elected her that she will serve the entire term of office. Basically, she has lied to the people of Alaska, either by promising to serve a full term as Governor or by giving this phony excuse for quitting.

Third, following her rationalization and example, President George W. Bush should have resigned in July of 2007 because he was just a lame duck and was only hanging around milking the taxpayers for his pay check. The woman makes absolutely no sense and it is a marvel that the news medial still seem to take her seriously.

Fourth, she says she doesn't want to put Alaskans through the turmoil of having a lame duck Governor. Doesn't she know that every single elected office in the nation, including every Alaskan governor before her, ends with some length of lame duck service? Who does she think she is that she sees herself as not having to complete her full term through the final lame duck period like every other elected official. (And remember she wasn't actually a lame duck even though she delusionally believed she was) What she is now putting Alaskans through is the turmoil of having the Governor resign, and the Lieutenant Governor becoming the new Governor with a year and a half before the term is expired. Certainly some Alaskans are celebrating this turn of events and see her resignation as a welcome relief of the day to day turmoil that her Governorship brought, however, that is not what she is saying. She would have people believe that she is sparing them the issues that surround a lame duck governor when she is not in fact a lame duck, and even if she were, she would only be doing the exact same thing that every other elected official does: complete their term with honor and doing the job until the last day.

Fifth, if in fact she were a lame duck as she claims, and of course she is not, it would be up to her, and only her, whether or not she was "milking" the job or doing the work. There is no state law that says a lame duck elected official should not work. In fact, when an elected official, especially an executive like a president or governor, has lame duck status they are then free to act without the usual restraints of worrying about reelection and can act more independently and freely. Ms. Palin would have the people of Alaska believe that if she were a lame duck there would be nothing for he to do for the next year and a half to govern Alaska and that her only option is to leave or milk the office for her pay check. Her justification for leaving attempts to shift the blame from her shoulders onto the structure of government and attempts to make the Alaskan people into patsies who would believe that she is some how doing them a favor by relieving them from an inescapable position. None of it makes the least bit of sense.

With this announcement Sarah Palin has completely revealed that she is incapable of logical thinking or knowing the most basic of political facts such as the definition of lame duck. The lameness that she is now thankfully protecting the people of Alaska from is not that of a lame duck but that of a lame brain.