Palin governor how long

But after an at times rambling speech in which she compared herself to battle wounded American soldiers in Kosovo and said only dead fish go with the flow, Palin's critics accused her of a "flaky" decision and walking away from her post.

Palin, who built strong support among conservative Republicans as John McCain's running mate last year, said she will step down in three weeks because she can contribute more away from politics. But Palin also hinted at continuing political ambitions when she repeated a quote she attributed to general Douglas MacArthur: "We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction.

For someone who is supposedly stepping back from politics, Palin's resignation speech was weighty with policy specifics which prompted speculation that she is positioning herself for a presidential bid or seeking another office which would move her from distant Alaska to the heart of Washington politics.

But the timing, coming during one of the biggest American holidays of the year, independence day, raised questions among some of Republicans who accused her of attempting to escape falling poll numbers in Alaska as a series of economic problems and ethics investigations take their toll.

A prominent Republican strategist, Ed Rollins, who directed Ronald Reagan's election campaign, said Palin had made a serious mistake. Another Republican strategist, Tony Blankley, disagreed and said Palin appeared to have made a smart move to position herself for a run for president.

But given the corruption that plagued the PPT, a better benchmark might be the tax it supplanted—the one put on the books after the Exxon Valdez spill. W hat happened to Sarah Palin? How did someone who so effectively dealt with the two great issues vexing Alaska fall from grace so quickly?

In Alaska, she applied those qualities to fulfilling the promises that got her elected, and in her first year was the most popular governor in the country. She was serious business.

But even before she left the state, she let herself be distracted by the many grievances she harbored against a wide range of enemies. When I was in Juneau, a draft memoir by one of her former aides, Frank Bailey, was leaked to a number of political insiders, and from one of them to me. Bailey was cast aside after years of loyal service and has an ax to grind.

But his portrait is persuasive nonetheless, because he peppers his book with internal e-mails that he kept, from Palin and her staff. Ugly rumors of the sort common in politics were another fixation, as this e-mail furnished by Bailey attests:.

Palin obsessed over her image, even more than most politicians. According to Bailey, she orchestrated a campaign to inundate newspapers with phony letters praising her. This evidently became a favored tactic. Bailey even includes a letter he says she wrote under another name accusing an opponent, John Binkley, of copying her Web-site design.

Much of this was harmless if also pointless and would not have undermined her political career. Politicians from Nixon to Clinton have been similarly consumed and still flourished. But Palin also committed more-serious ethical breaches. An investigation by the legislature found that, in some of her actions, she had abused her powers.

Palin seems to have been driven by a will to advance herself and by a virulent animus against anyone who tried to impede her. On the big issues, at least, she chose her enemies well, and left the state in better shape than most people, herself included, seem to realize or want to credit her for.

And it raises the question of what she could have achieved. She had it. But on the issues she made the focus of her administration—the oil tax and the gas line—she had good staff, listened to them, and backed them up. She was a transformative governor, no question. But she must have appealed to him for reasons beyond her gender and vivacity. Palin was fresh from major, unexpected victories. For this, she was wildly popular.

Bush and the Republican establishment, and the glory they had won him. Instead, they turned hard right. She says unwarranted ethics investigations are what prompted her to quit. Most Alaskans seem to think she left to get rich. But she also had lost her political base. Republicans had never liked her, Democrats felt betrayed, and everyone believed she was now fixated on the presidency.

Today, only about 33 percent of Alaskans hold a favorable view of her. But Alaskans seem relieved to have him in charge. Parnell is also a former oil lobbyist for ConocoPhillips. But in December, having been elected in his own right, he decided to make some changes, and began by firing the remaining members of the Magnificent Seven.

The Resource Development Council for Alaska, a leading business lobbying group, has taken up this cause in earnest. Most legislators give Parnell even odds of succeeding. Everyone agrees that the oil industry is reasserting itself, now that Palin has moved on. Listening to it today, you can practically hear her shift registers, the state figure morphing into a national one, the old Palin becoming the new.

Frank H. Murkowski December 2, - December 4, Learn More. Walter J. Jay S. Hammond December 2, - December 6, Learn More. Search For Former Governors This searchable database identifies former governors by state and dates of service. They were defeated by Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Other candidates that appeared on the ballot received less than 0. Allen and Bradford Lyttle. On August 29, , Republican presidential candidate John McCain introduced Palin as his vice presidential candidate during a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio.

Joeseph Lieberman and former Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Ridge were also believed to be serious contenders for the running-mate position. Palin was considered to have similar policy positions to John McCain in some respects.

A possible consideration in Palin's selection was her appeal to former Hillary Clinton supporters in the contentious Democratic primary. Alaska Republicans had mixed reactions to the news of Palin's selection. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? It was an emotional thing to see the governor walk out with her family and I say, wow, I work for her. There was speculation back in October that Palin was seen as a possible choice of the vice presidency of John McCain's rival of the Republican presidential candidate, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Palin was the second U. The Palin campaign charged media bias from the onset of the campaign. The popular political blog Daily Kos reported that year old daughter Bristol Palin was actually Trigg's birth mom.

The blog claimed a photo [63] taken of the Palin family showed Bristol with a "baby bump" approximately 5 weeks before Trigg was born on April 18, It was later revealed that the photo was taken in when Bristol was 16 and published in the Anchorage Daily News. After complaints from the press that journalists did not have appropriate access to Palin on the campaign trail, [64] Palin sat down with Charlie Gibson of ABC News for her first one-on-one interview since receiving the Vice Presidential nomination.

The most publicized moment of the interview dealt with Palin's response to Gibson when he asked "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine? Gibson also misquoted Palin about Iraq, contending that his quote was accurate when it was not. Barack Obama of Illinois on Sunday night," Seif wrote. By contrast, when Obama referred to his 'Muslim faith' on Sunday and did not correct himself, Stephanopoulos rushed in at once to help him and emphasize that the senator had really meant to say his Christian faith.

Controversy arose when it was made public that Sarah Palin's entry at Wikipedia had been substantially edited by a single user within the 24 hours before Palin was announced as McCain's choice for running mate. Some of the edits were considered biased and conflicting with Wikipedia's standards of neutrality. The user responsible for the edits went by the name "YoungTrigg," a possible reference to Palin's infant son, Trig.

Prior to the announcement, YoungTrigg discussed the article with other Wikipedia editors, many of whom praised his work. YoungTrigg was listed as "retired" from Wikipedia as of August 31, Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update. Palin eloped with her high-school boyfriend, Todd Palin, on August 29, , when she was 24 years old.

The family lives in Wasilla. The couple have five children: sons Track born and Trig born , and daughters Bristol born , Willow born , and Piper born Army on September 11, , subsequently joining an infantry brigade.

Palin is a self-described "hockey mom" and mother of five. Among her hobbies are hunting, ice fishing and riding snowmobiles; she has also run a marathon, and owns a floatplane. Palin is one of America's most popular leaders, whose powerful love of country and passion for the great outdoors is inspiring to millions and millions of people," said Gavin Harvey, CEO of the Sportsman Channel. Palin was originally baptized as a Roman Catholic, but her parents switched to the Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church, where she was rebaptized and attended under pastor Ed Kalnins until In June , Palin spoke at her former church.

On the topic of Iraq, she asked that people pray for the soldiers and that "there is a plan and that plan is God's plan. On August 17, , Palin was attending church services when David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, suggested in a sermon that terrorism against Israel is due to Judaism not recognizing Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

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