Fox News did a little image makeover for newly-returned pundit Sarah Palin a few days ago when, in an article about Alaska politics, the "fair and balanced" folks described the improbability of her return to office with the following: "She hasn’t run for elected office since resigning as Alaska governor to become the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and recently returned to Fox News as a paid commentator." The problem with that statement? Palin did not resign to become the nominee. She resigned in 2009 - nearly a year after she became the nominee and about seven months after Barack Obama had been inaugurated - amid a swirl of ethics complaints. (H/T News Corpse)
On July 6, 2009, the Anchorage Daily News wrote:
Gov. Sarah Palin, three days after abruptly announcing she would resign as governor, said Monday that she did it because ethics complaints and politically ambitious state legislators would have been paralyzing.
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"It's a combination of things that has brought me to this place of knowing. I love Alaskans too much to put them through a lame duck session heading into my final year in office; I was going to be honest and tell them I'm not going to run for re-election. I'm not going to let Alaskans go through a year of stymied, paralyzed administration and not getting anything done. I'm going to let Sean Parnell take this and we will see that things will let up," she said.
Just how altruistic Palin's decision was has been a matter of conjecture. The New York Times wrote at the time:
Her decision follows a week of extraordinarily bad publicity, from within her own state over ethics inquiries and across the national landscape as top aides on her vice-presidential campaign and supporters have been engaged in a highly public feud that has spilled out in vociferous tones online on blogs and on television...
...By leaving office early, Ms. Palin, a 45-year-old mother of five, will be able to travel around the country more freely and not be constrained by the duties and responsibilities of being a governor.
The one thing that is certain is that she did not leave to run for Vice President. By the way, Fox News' online bio of Palin doesn't mention her resignation at all.
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