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"I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office." --Thomas Jefferson

Palin's resignation raises questions

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"The political class is flummoxed by Sarah Palin's decision to quit as Alaska Governor, and understandably so. Giving up on an executive job a year and a half early isn't the best way to persuade voters you're ready for the more demanding rigors and scrutiny of the White House. Mrs. Palin's explanation on Friday was hardly clear or persuasive, wandering from the taxpayer expense of various ethics probes, to the self-indulgence of lame-duck Governors who serve out their terms, to the fact that she and her family had concluded she can better serve the people out of public office. Some Alaskans, including many of her admirers, can be forgiven if they conclude she bugged out when the going got rough. Perhaps she is finished with political life, and who could blame her? Since John McCain chose her as his running mate after a mere two years as Governor, Democrats and their media running mates have given her the kind of mauling they always reserve for conservative Republicans who aren't part of the Beltway club. At least the press corps left Dan Quayle's children out of his trashing. For whatever reason, Mrs. Palin seems in particular to drive feminist writers into condescending fits. If she wants to devote herself during the next few years to raising her family, writing a book and making money to pay her legal and medical bills, those are understandable choices. The more troubling question is whether the 45-year-old is also calculating that this is the best way for her to seek the White House in 2012. If so, she's probably mistaken. Her main claim on executive experience is the Alaskan state house, and giving it up early diminishes an otherwise solid record, especially in challenging GOP elites, and reneges on a promise to voters. Millions of conservatives admire her reform credentials and her personal story, but to win the White House she needs to persuade millions of others, including independents, that she has the policy depth and personal judgment to be President." --The Wall Street Journal

UPRIGHT

"As was the case with Ronald Reagan, who was also dismissed as a less than serious type, Sarah Palin has a quality that appeals to a broad base of Americans who sense the country is headed in the wrong direction. She has that much in common with another charismatic figure on the American scene -- Barack Obama -- even if his political and cultural leanings are quite the opposite of hers. The moral of the story: Politics, like Sarah Palin herself, is just full of surprises." --columnist Paul Greenberg

"What is it about Palin that elicits such furious bipartisan Washington dismissiveness? After all, the polls show her to be tied with Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee for the very early lead in the 2012 Republican primary. As an outspoken conservative with about an 80 percent favorable rating among Republicans and a high-40s percentage favorable plurality among independents, objectively she should be seen as quite competitive nationally compared with other Republicans, particularly given that Republicans are generically weak and that she has been targeted so viciously by the media." --columnist Tony Blankley

"North Korea launches a missile and it takes Barack Obama and the UN five days to respond. Iran holds fraudulent elections, kills protesters and it takes weeks before Barack Obama can stand up and say that he is 'concerned' about the situation. Then the people of Honduras try to uphold their constitution and laws of the land from being trampled by a Chavez-wanna be and it takes Barack Obama one day to proclaim that this was not a legal coup." --radio talk-show host Neal Boortz

"There was an attempted coup in Honduras, but it was Zelaya who initiated it, not his opponents." --columnist Mona Charen

"If Honduras is hung out to dry, if America suspends trade and economic aid, the forces arrayed against liberty in Latin America will have won a major victory. On the other hand, if Honduras is not abandoned now, those Iran-supporting, America-hating, liberty-loathing forces will have suffered a major defeat." --columnist Dennis Prager

"Some conservatives have hoped to shrink government by 'starving the beast.' Refuse to raise taxes, they figured, and eventually spending would have to fall. It's beginning to look as though the new team may have a similar strategy, in reverse: Increase spending, and eventually taxes will have to be raised." --Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt

DEZINFORMATSIA

Slamming Palin: "Palin, who was thrust on to the national stage as John McCain's running mate against President Obama, defended her decision [to resign] as a move to avoid becoming a lame duck. Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin's able to -- she was already lame -- Sarah Palin's able to electrify the conservative base of the party like no other Republican in the country." --CNN's Jack Cafferty

Feminists hate her: "Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy." --New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd on Sarah Palin

What about Hillary? "If Sarah Palin thinks that she's had it tougher than anybody else, she's been more harshly criticized, I have for two words for her: Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton was savaged for eight years." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution political columnist Cynthia Tucker

From the sycophants: "Henry Waxman is to Congress what Ted Williams was to baseball -- a natural. ... This is the voice of David, whose career has featured the slaying of one Goliath after another. ... Waxman's personal accomplishments are impressive." --Washington Post associate editor Robert Kaiser

Just keep spending: "Well, I think they're hoping that this summer period is when they can in fact ramp up the [stimulus] spending. It's not easy to spend the amount of money that they appropriated, $800 billion, that quickly." --CNBC Chief Washington correspondent John Harwood

Speaking of out-of-control spending: "[The July 4th tea party protesters are] exercising that First Amendment right to protest, but hopefully, they'll clear out of the way for the fireworks tonight." --CNN's Brooke Baldwin on DC protesters on Independence Day

Three-ring circus: "Michael Jackson is an accidental civil rights leader, an accidental pioneer. He broke ground and barriers in so many different realms in artistry, in pictures, in movies, in music, you name it. So, no, I don't think it's overkill." --CNN's Don Lemon on the non-stop Jackson media circus

Newspulper Headlines:

To Whom It May Concern: "Obama Tells the AP He Is Deeply Concerned About Rising Unemployment" --Associated Press

It Better Not Be a Free One: "Economists Out to Lunch" --The Washington Post

A Distinction Without a Difference: "Jackson Service Conflicts With Circus Visit" --The Washington Times

You Call This Fair and Balanced?: "Fox Snatches Lunch From Boy Before Attacking Woman, 76" --FoxNews.com

Even So, May We Borrow Your Gun?: "Expert Warns of Danger to Consumer Lending Arms" --Financial Times

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Biden to Take New Role Overseeing Iraq Policy" --Agence France-Presse

News You Can Use: "Beware the Obama 'Evil Eye'" --Drudge Report

Bottom Stories of the Day: "D.C.'s Marion Barry Arrested Again" --CNN.com

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Speak for yourself: "The truth is, we and everyone else misread the economy. ... The truth is, there was a misreading of just how bad an economy we inherited. ... We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package." --Vice President Joe Biden

Essential failure: "I don't think anybody can honestly say that we're satisfied with the results so far of the stimulus. But we believe the stimulus was absolutely essential. ... We certainly want to see how this develops over the next few months." --House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Prescription for trouble: "If you did a consensus within the Democratic Party, you would find the level-playing-field public option [for health care] to be the answer. And now that we have 60 votes [in the Senate], it seems to me like we don't have to turn it inside out for something we don't like. ... I think the Senate HELP committee compromised already, because you have a lot of members on the HELP committee who would've liked [the public option] to be much closer to Medicare. The idea seems to be catching everybody's imagination, and sense of fairness. And the only holdouts are sort of ideologues on the Republican side of this saying no government involvement whatsoever. ...What the CBO is saying, if you're a fiscal conservative you ought to be for a public option because it saves money." --Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Nothing to fear but government itself: "[Private insurance companies] should be afraid, I mean let me tell you, they should be afraid. ...They have a right to be exposed, a right to be afraid that they will not be able to compete against a strong Medicare type public plan which treats people with dignity." --Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-VT)

Not exactly peace through strength: "As the world's two leading nuclear powers, the United States and Russia must lead by example, and that's what we're doing here today. ... It is very difficult for us to exert that leadership unless we are showing ourselves willing to deal with our own nuclear stockpiles in a more rational way. ... So yes, I trust [Russian] President [Dmitri] Medvedev to not only listen and to negotiate constructively, but also to follow through on the agreements that are contained here today." --President Barack Obama, negotiating away U.S. nuclear capabilities

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Broken record: "It will either be 'What were you thinking, didn't you see the North Pole melting before your eyes, didn't you hear what the scientists were saying?' Or they will ask, 'How is it you were able to find the moral courage to solve the crisis which so many said couldn't be solved?'" --Al Gore forecasting the next generation's climate of opinion about planetary heating

Seeing the truth a little too late: "And I never would have believed that we would have budgets that are running into the multi-trillions of dollars, and we are amassing a huge, huge national debt that, if we don't pay for in our lifetime, our kids and grandkids and great grandchildren will have to pay for it." --Obama backer Colin Powell, who apparently wasn't listening to his man's stated plans to unmake the United States

Still an idiot: "As someone who will have been in the committee a grand total of six days and isn't an attorney, I kind of see myself fulfilling a certain role for Americans watching the hearings [for Sotomayor]." --"Saturday Night Live" entertainer-turned-U.S. Senator Al Franken, who announced that his first order of business would be preparing for the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor

SHORT CUTS

"The stimulus is a bust? It's stimulating nothing but non-jobs like Executive Stimulus Coordinator for Community Organization Stimulus Assistance Programs? Hey, let's spend even more, even faster, even less stimulatingly!" --columnist Mark Steyn

"President Obama flew to Russia for Kremlin talks Monday. Russia tried national health care, they tried government ownership of industry and they tried to win a war in Afghanistan. If you can't be a good example you can at least be a horrible warning." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"The soon to be former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is like one of those souffles my mother sometimes made. The recipe warned against premature removal from the oven because the dish would collapse." --columnist Cal Thomas

"With the Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano [last] week, we can now report that Sonia Sotomayor is even crazier than Ruth Bader Ginsburg." --columnist Ann Coulter

"Being a conservative, I naturally spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to psychoanalyze left-wingers, trying to figure out what makes them tick. God knows I'm not bragging. It is, after all, time I could otherwise devote to alphabetizing my canned goods or trying to make contact with Harry Houdini, but I know from the large number of emails I receive that I'm not alone. The lunacy on the left is enough to turn a lot of us into little Sigmund Freuds." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

*****

Veritas vos Liberabit -- Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot's editors and staff.

(Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)