"She wasn't as outgoing and I just
didn't see the spark in her eyes about being the governor anymore,"
said Johnston, who lived with his then-fiance Bristol Palin and the Palin family at the time. "She became quiet, she would come home and just hang out in a
room, you could tell something was wrong."
Johnston's conclusion: "The fame got to her head."
Admittedly, the 19-year-old Johnston is hardly the kind of character
witness anyone would summon to their cause. An aspiring model who posed bare-chested with his infant son Tripp for GQ magazine, Johnston is routinely derided by Palin spokesmen for exploiting his 15 minutes of fame.
But Johnston may be on to something when he says Palin's sudden
resignation on July 3 was fueled by a desire to
cash in on her fame -- and to end the stress that her sudden catapult to national fame had created, complete with myriad ethics charges she has derided as bogus and a Legislature no longer enchanted.
Last week, as pundits and political reporters stumbled around trying to account for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's odd decision to resign before the end of her term, a couple of young journalists who are writing a book about her listened and shook their heads.
"They literally all admitted they have no idea why she did this, but Scott and I do," said Shushannah Walshe, 30, who is co-writing "Sarah from Alaska" with Scott Conroy, 26. It's all about the White House.
Though Walshe was coy about revealing any bombshells in the book, she and Conroy did post a juicy e-mail exchange last week between Palin and McCain's campaign strategist Steve Schmidt about Todd Palin's membership in the secession-driven Alaska Independence Party that called into question Palin's truthfulness.
(Palin urged the campaign to address the issue by making up a story about how Todd accidentally checked the wrong box when he was registering to vote. Schmidt also knocked down her claim that two reporters had asked her about Todd's involvement with the party.)
Walshe said Palin's abrupt exit was traceable to her deteriorated relationship with....
The governor of Alaska went fishing Monday, wearing those waders with suspenders that fishermen fancy, accompanied by her baby, Trig, daughter Piper and her husband, First Dude for a Few More Weeks Todd Palin. Oh, and she alerted the media.
What a spectacle -- the stars of America's cable news personalities from Fox, NBC, CNN, ABC meeting the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the shores of Kanakanak Beach in Dillingham, Alaska, while the governor brushed salmon slime off her suspenders and blasted the media, bloggers and anyone who would dare question her politically bizarre decision to quit in the middle of her first term.
To Fox, she expressed bitterness at those who peppered her with ethics accusations, saying that their ridiculous charges had nearly bankrupted her family and brought Alaska's government to a grinding halt. "The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy so you can't afford to serve," she said, calling the attacks "bull crap."
She was coy about her plans for 2012, musing that it was difficult to know what the political future would hold, let alone the next salmon run. But she was quick to criticize President Obama. As she led reporters in a boat across Bristol Bay, she opined, "Average, hard-working Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right. Fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in."
As the Ticket noted over the weekend, Palin has a tendency to sound like former President Richard Nixon, who intoned in the middle of the Watergate scandal, "I am not a crook." Three days after resigning as governor of Alaska, effective at month's end, Palin told CNN, "I am not a quitter. I am a fighter."
She told ABC she's pleased with her decision, damn the consequences. “I’m extremely happy," she said. "Politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it.”
And when NBC's Andrea Mitchell said that some would say she didn't finish the job, Palin's voice rose. "You're not listening to me as to why I wouldn't be able to finish that final year in office without it costing the state millions of dollars and countless hours of wasted time," she snapped.
Noting that "everything changed" last August when Republican presidential candidate John McCain asked her to be his running mate, Palin said she had no regrets about accepting the nomination. "Not in the least," she said. "It was a great honor to stand by a great American hero. I would have done all that again in a heartbeat."
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: A previous Palin fishing trip. Credit: Associated Press
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement that she was bowing out of Alaska politics on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday left a lot of viewers scratching their heads. As the Ticket reported Friday, Palin's friends report that she is genuinely sick of the attacks that seem to be part of the fabric of national politics these days.
But Palin's hastily announced press conference also had all the earmarks of Richard Nixon's famous concession speech in 1962, after he lost the campaign for California governor to Democrat Pat Brown. Nixon's rant was also a last-minute affair. Reporters had been told that Nixon -- a former congressman and senator who served as Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice president from 1952 to 1960 and lost the 1960 presidential race to John F. Kennedy -- would not be making a public appearance.
Instead, Nixon surprised even his staff by taking the microphone and, at the end of a long, rambling, 16-minute discourse on national and state politics, he dramatically left the stage.
I leave you gentleman now and you will write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know — just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference and it will be one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you.
Like Nixon, Palin seemed fraught with emotion. Like Nixon, she seemed angry at her critics.
Of course to the surprise of his detractors, Nixon recovered. He spent the next six years stumping the country, piling up chits from grateful politicians who benefited from his endorsements, chits he cashed in during his successful 1968 run for the presidency.
Palin gave no hints of her future, except to say that a person can influence from outside the electoral process as well as inside the governor's office. Maybe Palin, who landed on the national political map in August when Republican John McCain plucked her from Wasilla, Alaska, as his vice presidential running mate, is planning to follow the Nixon playbook on that front too.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Nixon gives his "Checkers" speech on Sept. 23, 1952. Credit: Associated Press
After her sudden resignation announcement today, one of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fiercest critics, Avis executive Andrew Halcro, who ran against her in 2006, warns there is a rocky road ahead for Palin. Today on his blog he wrote:
Over the last few weeks there has been growing criticism on both the state and national level about Palin. In addition, local bloggers have raised speculations about damaging information about Palin that was coming down the road.
A few weeks ago, Dennis Zaki posted on his popular website a cryptic message about a pending bombshell that had to do with an investigation into Palin's finances.
Last week, local blogger Linda Kellen-Biegal successfully raised roughly $6,000 to pay the cost associated with a freedom of information request of emails between the Palin administration and local talk show host and close friend of Palins, Eddie Burke. The emails were due to be released in a few days.
Democratic Anchorage businessman Bob Poe, who's also running for governor and had thought it would be against Palin, was reached on the campaign trail on Resurrection Bay in Seward at a Fourth of July celebration. He was serving reindeer sausage, he said, and talking politics.
He said he was not surprised by Palin's resignation, effective July 26, because he felt when she returned to Alaska after the Republicans' national defeat in November, she seemed disengaged. But to interpret her resignation as a departure from politics, he said, would be a mistake.
“She did what is rational, which is to free herself up for what she has come to recognize is her real goal, which is to run for president," said Poe. "To assume her ambition is dying is incorrect. She’s got this lucrative book deal, and a national book tour would be a way to run for president. She wouldn’t be hassled with the tedious business of running state government. She already moved on, and now she’s just made it official.”
Political analyst Michael Carey, former Anchorage Daily News editorial page editor and host of a public TV program, said he was dismayed that Palin quit before her term was up.
“I think it’s irresponsible for her to quit as governor,” said Carey. “It’s not like she’s infirm or in poor health.” Instead, he said, her attitude seems to be that being governor is “too hard, and I want to run on a national scale and get the hell out of Dodge. Neither of those is defensible.”
Anchorage activist Andree McLeod, who has filed several unsuccessful ethics complaints against Palin, said "It's a great day for Alaska."
She added: "Sarah Palin has been milking the office of governor for her personal benefit and that’s just not right. All the records that I have got for the past year point to Sarah Palin putting her personal financial interest before the state’s. I think she is stepping out of politics. She is not wired to be a public servant; she does not have a servant’s heart."
McLeod said she's planning to file another complaint against Palin, this time about what she said is the governor's failure to disclose gifts, as required by law. "She's still the governor," said McLeod.
Statement and News Release by Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin, Wasilla, July 3, 2009
NO SECOND TERM; NO LAME DUCK SESSION EITHER
July 3, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin announced today that she will not seek a second term as Governor of the State of Alaska and will relegate the power of governor to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell in order to serve Alaska’s best interests. Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will move into Parnell’s current role.
“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”
Standing outside her home in Wasilla, Alaska, Governor Palin reflected upon some of the administration’s accomplishments for Alaska as she approaches her final year in office.
I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement.
Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose.
It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is....
These are different, changing times in U.S. politics.
The last three presidents each emerged from nowhere and achieved the White House on their first bid, though Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each had governor’s terms and reelections under their belts.
But what had Barack Obama ever accomplished as a freshman senator before announcing and achieving his desire for promotion? (And not finishing his first term either.)
The emergence of social media and online networking have created a whole new political environment beneath traditional media radar with untapped and unknown opportunities for unconventional politicians.
Sarah Palin is just such an unconventional politician, with surprising upsets in her past, a down-to-earth manner so different from the tired old suits you’ll see jabbering on morning TV this Sunday. And she has an astounding approval rate among her conservative base.
Most expected Palin not to run next year for reelection, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who now has the time and option to gear up for a 2012 presidential run.
Hardly anyone expected her to quit the governor’s office and turn it over to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell on July 26, despite Palin’s slipped popularity at home. (Full Palin text here.)
Professionals watching a withdrawal like this conventionally and immediately wonder, what bad news don't we know about her that's about to come out? Is there some scandal, indictment or personal revelation that would cause her to step down even before its announcement? Friday, especially a pre-holiday Friday, is usually a time to announce what you don't want heard much.
But here’s why friends say she’s really doing it:
Palin is genuinely sick of, as she calls it, “the crap” that comes with national politics, especially the....
Sarah Palin picked a slow news day before a holiday to shake up the political world, saying she will step down as governor of Alaska but leaving open the question of her political future.
“We've got to put first things first. I love my job and I love Alaska. I am doing what’s best for Alaska,” Palin said at a televised news conference in her hometown of Wasilla.
Palin said she hoped people were not disappointed by the decision, which she said had been in the works for some time. She said she was taking “my fight for what’s right in a new direction.” She said she could be more effective and better serve Alaska and the country from outside the governor's office.
At a news conference before the Fourth of July weekend, Palin said she would step aside and be replaced by Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell on July 26. She said the transition of power would be smooth and took no questions.
Palin, who is very popular with the GOP’s conservative base, was considered a possibility for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Not being governor would free her to concentrate on accumulating resources for a national race. Palin did not say that’s what she intended to do.
Palin said she was willing to transfer power so that the current Alaska administration can continue.
“My choice is to take a stand and effect change and not just hit our head against the wall,” Palin said. She was surrounded by her family and top state officials.
“Millions of dollars go down the drain in this new political environment,” she said.
“Rather, we know we can effect positive change outside government,” she continued and “actually make a difference.”
Palin criticized recent political attacks, including one from former campaign aides of Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was the top of the GOP ticket.
“You are naive if you don’t see a full-court press from the national level picking away a good point guard,” she said, referring to criticism of her campaigning style. The most recent attack was in a magazine article in Vanity Fair magazine.
[Update: Palin was in her first term as governor, elected in 2006. Despite bickering with the state Legislature, she would probably have been reelected next year, and may have done serious damage to her political aspirations by stepping down now, according to Ivan Moore, an independent pollster in Anchorage.
"I don’t minimize how she is revered by the Republican right, nationally,” Moore said. “But at the end of the day, to become president she’s going to have to convince that 5% or 10% of people in the middle, ideologically, that she and McCain didn’t convince last year, and those people are not going to be impressed that in her first four years sitting in high office she quit halfway through."
Moore said Palin would have been a strong favorite to win a second term, even though her popularity has fallen from past heights. Her approval rating is still in the 50% to 55% range, he said.
The betting in Alaska was that she would not seek a second term, but would likely wait until next spring to make her announcement to stave off being a lame duck.
Today’s announcement came out of the blue. "It’s a gobsmacking, jaw-hit-the-ground, total kind of surprise," Moore said.
Stuart Rothenberg, an independent analyst and publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report, said Palin’s announcement won’t help her end the portrayal of her as a lightweight.
"It’s very, very curious,” he said. “There almost has to be more to this because people don’t just step down from a state’s top office in the middle of a term.”
"I always thought after the [2008] race, the thing she needed to do was go back to Alaska and be substantive, show she’s got a grasp of government and work for the folks back home. This seems to be the exact opposite," he said.
But Scott Reed, a Republican strategist, unaffiliated for 2012, said today’s announcement could be a good thing because it allows Palin to turn the page and start rebuilding her image.
He described the Vanity Fair piece as a “hit job” that showed her she had to shake things up. Stepping down “allows her to begin to draw a new narrative on herself,” he said.
“If anything,” this “allows her to have a brand new day, a fresh start and she can shake all these cobwebs from the last campaign and her term as governor and start over,” he said.]
Sarah Palin, the GOP’s embattled former vice presidential candidate, will not run again for governor of Alaska, prompting speculation that she is considering a presidential race in 2012.
Palin made the announcement at her hometown of Wasilla.
[Update: At a news conference before the Fourth of July weekend, Palin said she would step aside as governor and be replaced by Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, according to local television reports. Palin took no questions.]
Longtime friends and campaign workers for Arizona Sen. John McCain have been talking to Vanity Fair about what Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's candidacy as vice president did for the GOP ticket in 2008.
"A Little Shop of Horrors," said one unnamed aide.
Perhaps they want to keep the governor -- still a hot-button favorite among social conservatives -- off the ticket in 2012?
"They can't quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be," Purdam writes.
She
maintained "only the barest level of civil discourse" with Tucker
Eskew, the operative assigned to be her chief minder, Purdam reports. Mark McKinnon, a longtime McCain admirer and a former Democrat who told insiders he would never work against Barack Obama in the general election, signed on to be Palin's "whisperer," the calming influence. And Obama, on learning of Palin's selection, said Palin would never have time to get up to speed. "I don't care how talented she is, this is really a leap," said Obama, telling aides it had taken him four months to learn how to be a national candidate.
But for the most, the piece reads more like juicy political speculation than news. Many of the quotes are from aides who would rather not be named. And it's hard to read the title -- "It Came From Wasilla" -- as anything but an insult, at least to anyone who's a person who came from somewhere.
Palin refused to talk to Vanity Fair for the piece. At work on her own book about her life -- to be published jointly by HarperCollins and the Bible-publishing house Zondervan -- the self-described pit bull-with-lipstick from Alaska will get plenty of ink for her rebuttal.
Follow @latimestot for political news and backgrounders sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.
Our Bloggers
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the Countdown to Crawford blog here at The Times.
All L.A. Times Blogs
All The RageAmerican Idol Tracker
Angels Unplugged
Babylon & Beyond
Big Picture
Booster Shots
California Consumer
Comments Blog
Company Town
Culture Monster
Daily Dish
Daily Mirror
Daily Travel & Deal Blog
Dish Rag
Dodger Thoughts
Fabulous Forum
Gold Derby
Greenspace
Hero Complex
Homicide Report
Jacket Copy
L.A. at Home
L.A. Land
L.A. Now
L.A. Unleashed
La Plaza
Lakers
Money & Co.
Movable Buffet
Opinion L.A.
Outposts
Pop & Hiss
Readers' Representative Journal
Show Tracker
Technology
Ticket to Vancouver
Top of the Ticket
Up to Speed
Varsity Times Insider
Political Blogs
Political News
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007