The Alaska Disasta’s Last Day

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Sunday is the Alaska Disasta's last day in office after she just up and quit mid-term, a matter of "stategery" so that she and First Dude Todd can invade the Lower 48 and run for president in 2012. A lucrative book deal, probably with conservative pulp fiction publisher Regerny Press, and guest appearances at FAUX News (if Mike Huckabee doesn't bar the doors) are likely in her future.

As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin prepares for the next stage of her political career, a majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of her, and there is broad public doubt about her leadership skills and understanding of complex issues, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Palin's Favorability Rating Drops as She Prepares to Leave Office, Poll Finds

While she is still widely popular among the Republican base, i.e., secessionists (like Governor Goodhair of Texas, and her husband Todd and the Alaska Independence Party), tea baggers and Obama birthers:

[S]he has lost ground among Republicans generally and among the white evangelicals who are so critical in the early presidential primaries.

Overall, the new poll found that 53 percent of Americans view Palin negatively and 40 percent see her in positive terms, her lowest level in Post-ABC polling since she first appeared on the national stage last summer as Sen. Jon McCain's running mate.

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Perhaps more vexing for Palin's national political aspirations, however, is that 57 percent of Americans say she does not understand complex issues, while 37 percent think she does, a nine-percentage-point drop from a poll conducted in September just before her debate with now-Vice President Biden. The biggest decline on the question came among Republicans, nearly four in 10 of whom now say she does not understand complex issues. That figure is 70 percent among Democrats and 58 percent among independents.

Then there is this bit of hilarity: As She Steps Down, Palin Promises She'll Reclaim Ethics Crusade:

Palin, 45, sees state ethics reform as her lasting legacy. "We cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions," she wrote in a farewell column to Alaskans on her Web site.

Yet as she steps down, she and her attorney are demanding that whistleblowers be sanctioned for sharing details of pending investigations of her conduct. This week, her attorney threatened to sue whistleblowers for violating secrecy laws, and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell (R), who will replace her, asked the state's attorney general to take steps to "prevent leaks" in ethics probes.

Many complaints against Palin have been dismissed, a few are still pending, and several resulted in critical findings. But with accusations still swirling in the blogosphere, some observers say the ethics issues will continue to dog Palin as she repositions herself as a national Republican Party leader.

The Inuit have a word, “qivit,” that you do not want to have applied to you. It means to quit or give up when the going gets rough. In Alaska, Qiviters Never Win (by William Iggiagruk Hensley). "She could have used her position to find solutions to the high costs and financial insecurities of our far-northern state. Instead, she abandoned her role as the state’s leader in midstream, making her the only governor in our state’s history to "qivit" in the true sense of the word…"