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Chris Orr has an idea for Sarah Palin:
If one believes, as I do, a) that Palin has every intention of running for president, barring the emergence a scandal that makes this impossible; b) that she will not win the GOP nomination; and c) that the bitter grudge-holding that has characterized her career will continue; she seems an unusually plausible risk to launch a base-shattering third-party candidacy.In the (extremely!) unlikely event that she wins this third party bid you know who to blame.
Time Magazine has posted 5 very credible reasons for why she stepped down.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1908800-2,00.html
I doubt reason #1 because there is no real parity between her quitting the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and her quitting the governorship.
#2 and #5 are essentially the same reason. Prior to the election, Palin had an 80% approval rate. After the election, the Democrats in Alaska and nationwide had embarked on a strategy of filing one bogus ethics complaint after another. They were all swatted down, but Alaskan law said she had to pay for her own legal defense. The bogus complaints had cost her *personally* $500K. Palin did mention the *expense* of remaining governor in the face of these complaints. I expect the law will be changed soon so that the state will pick up expenses if the governor is exonerated of an ethics complaint.
#3 and #4 are the essentially the same reason. She couldn't do the essential duties of her job 2000 miles away in Alaska and remain a national figure. Nor could she tot up significant accomplishments as governor since the Alaskan Democrats had become hostile.
Something they don't mention is that Palin might choose to adopt an Obama path to the Whitehouse. She might run for an Alaskan congressional seat and then the Senate (probably against Democrat but who knows the way Republicans are dropping like flies). And then she could run for president. Unless the Republican senator steps down, that path would probably take her out of the running for 2012 though.