Sarah Palin set off a storm of speculation about an imminent White House bid when she said yesterday that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.
Americans were stunned by the surprise announcement, made from her home in Wasilla, Alaska, on the eve of Independence Day celebrations.
There has been intense speculation in recent weeks that Mrs Palin was considering running for the Republican nomination in 2012, bolstered by heavy hints she dropped earlier this week in the guise of an interview about jogging.
Few expected her not to see out her first term as governor where, despite her polarising effect, she was seen as a shoo-in for re-election.
Mrs Palin’s announcement that she will stand down on July 25, handing the reins to the state’s Lieutenant Governor, had some commentators questioning whether another scandal surrounding herself and her family was about to break, after the 2008 campaign revelations about the pregnancy of her teenage daughter and an embarrassing ethics investigation into allegations she sacked a state official over a family feud.
The first investigation by the state legislature into the scandal — popularly known as Troopergate — found her guilty of breaching ethics, prompting Mrs Palin to order a second investigation by a special counsel which cleared her of wrongdoing.
The resignation also sparked a flurry of speculation that she might seek a Senate seat in 2010 as a prelude to a White House run in 2012.
Critics branded it a high-risk strategy for a future in public life, inviting criticism that she is not capable of finishing the job she started. Mrs Palin has a reputation for doing things her way and refusing to take advice of more experienced political operatives.
Much of the criticism that dogged her during her vice-presidential campaign in November centred on her parochialism and lack of national and international experience — something she might seek to improve on a national stage.
In a pointed reference to her recently expanded international experience, she said that her decision had been bolstered by a trip to visit American troops serving in Kosovo, and to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where wounded servicemen and women from Iraq and Afghanistan are treated.
Her announcement came days after the publication of a damning Vanity Fair profile in which McCain campaign workers turned on her, blaming her “narcissistic personality disorder” for sinking the campaign.
Todd Purdum, the author, described Mrs Palin’s public life as “an unholy amalgam between Desperate Housewives and Northern Exposure”, a cult Nineties comedy about Alaska and mocked her for once saying: “Believe me, Alaska is a microcosm of America.” “Believe me, it is not,” he wrote.
Her voice shaking Mrs Palin told journalists that she was stepping down for the good of Alaskans, expressing her anger at the battering the state has taken in the press as a by-product of her governorship.
“I’m not going to put Alaskans through that,” she said. “That’s not what’s best for Alaskans. She addedthat she believed she could be more effective “outside government”. She later she corrected her remarks to “outside the governor’s office”, leaving the door back to public life ajar.
Mrs Palin has courted so much attention on the national stage of late — leading parades and appearing on national talk shows — that she has attracted criticism in her home state for failing to serve their needs. The former Alaskan governor, Wally Hickel, Mrs Palin’s mentor, broke with his protegee over what he saw as her over-arching personal ambition.
“When Governor Palin was elected in 2006 we believed she would put Alaska first. But once elected, she put Sarah first,” he said in a statement last month. “Because of her national ambitions she is promoting an agenda that will allow outside corporations to dominate Alaska’s resources, including our energy and the jobs it provides.”
Mrs Palin said her decision had been made with the encouragement of her family. “Much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults,” she said, a reference to her youngest child who suffers from Down’s syndrome.
In fact it was Mrs Palin who came in for criticism for taking a risky flight when in labour and embarking on a vice-presidential campaign when he was only four months old.
Mrs Palin’s presidential ambitions horrify as many Republicans as they delight.
Pit bull hockey mom
— Born in Idaho on February 11, 1964, Sarah Palin has lived in Alaska since she was three months old
— She once worked as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high-school sweetheart and a native Yup’ik Eskimo
— Likes hunting, fishing, and eating moose burgers
— A keen runner who named the first of her five children Track
— She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and was runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty contest in 1984
— A devout Christian opposed to abortion rights
— Took office in 2006 as Alaska’s youngest governor and first woman to hold the post. “As governor I’ve stood up to politics as usual,” she said. “I’ve stopped wasteful spending, cut taxes, and put the people first”
— Admitted that she smoked marijuana when it was legal in Alaska — but didnt like it
— Gave birth in April 2008 to her son, Trig, after refusing to let the results of prenatal testing that showed he had Down’s syndrome affect her decision to have the baby
— Launching her Vice-Presidential campaign in August 2008 she said: “I was your average hockey mom in Alaska”
Source: Times database, Reuters
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