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Palin resigns, blasts press, 'starlets'
Gov. Sarah Palin resigned here Sunday with a blast at the media that reflected the frustrations that led her to leave office a year-and-a-half before her term expired. But speaking in a style that her fans see as plain talk and her detractors consider disjointed, she offered almost nothing about what she was planning to do next.
Plainly feeling liberated, Palin said that the freedom of the press was an important American right and one that members of the military died to protect.
“So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, quit making things up,” she said with an insistent voice, prompting loud applause and cheers from a mostly sympathetic audience gathered at a park here.
Palin didn’t specify what she was accusing reporters of making up, but suggested that she was weary of the attention on her family since being tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee last summer.
“Our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone,” she demanded.
Immediately after Palin’s speech that man, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican and Palin ally, was sworn in as the state’s governor.
As she stepped down from the stage, Palin’s future remained a mystery.
Concluding her remarks, she only said: “Let’s all enjoy the ride.”
Others speaking before and after her were equally cryptic, referring only vaguely to her future endeavors.
In an interview Saturday, Todd Palin, Sarah’s husband, said only that they would “play it by ear.” On Sunday, her father, Chuck Heath, said in an interview he thought his daughter would stay in the public arena but had no other insights into her plans.
It was widely thought that Palin would appear at the Reagan Presidential Library next month in California for a Republican women event, but Heath and Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said Sunday that her appearance there was not confirmed.
Speaking for just under 20 minutes on sunny afternoon in between a 1930s-era steamship and a carousel on a street dubbed Klondike Avenue,” Palin was surrounded by a crowd of a few thousand, among them some of her most ardent supporters and a smaller group of vocal detractors.
For the first group, she offered some rabble-rousing lines and partisan red meat.
She went after reporters but also what she called the Hollywood “starlets” who rail against gun rights and the “partisan operatives” who filed the ethics complaints that helped drive her from office.
She even aimed her fire at an undefined group who she deemed insufficiently patriotic.
Some in this group, Palin said, “seem to just be hell-bent on maybe tearing down our nation, perpetuating some pessimism and suggesting American apologetics.”
As for the “starlets,” Palin seemed to be alluding to actress Ashley Judd, who targeted the former governor on behalf of an environmental group for supporting aerial wolf hunting.
Warning of “anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood,” Palin said advocacy groups “use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets.”
She offered such individuals this message: “By the way, Hollywood needs to know: We eat therefore we hunt.”
It wasn’t all score-settling, though. Palin also paid tribute to the wild beauty of her home state and singled out some of her supporters for thanks and praise. She also touched on her record on energy, ethics and the size of government.
But she was clearly perturbed by those who have raised questions about her abrupt decision to leave office, and spoke directly toward a group of individuals in the crowd who were holding up such signs as “Quit, Baby, Quit.”
“Some still are choosing not to hear why I’m charting a new course to advance this state,” she said, adding that “it should be so obvious to you.”
“It’s because I love Alaska this much, sir, that I feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics as usual, lame duck session in one’s last year in office,” Palin explained, reprising some of the rationale she laid out in announcing her decision to resign earlier this month.
Palin, wearing a suit jacket with a corsage and jeans, was joined by her husband Todd, in jeans and a fleece vest, on stage with Parnell and other dignitaries, all wearing more formal attire.
Before addressing the crowd in a park with an ersatz frontier main street and encircled by a choo-choo train that was once called “Alaskaland," Palin spent hours under a tent serving hot dogs and greeting admirers. Some of her most passionate supporters were from out of state and had interrupted or planned vacations to catch a glimpse at the outgoing governor.
Two Texans holding up pro-Palin signs said they drove on Harley-Davidsons some 4,000 miles north from the Ft. Worth area to check out Alaska and see the woman they want to be the next president.
But there were also a handful of individuals who came out to the picnic to register their displeasure at Palin, and at times some of her supporters turned their attention from the picnic to her opponents.
Larry Landry of Fairbanks was standing next to a friend, holding up a sign that said, “Thanks For The Laughs,” when he was heckled by a passer-by.
“Well, look here it's a couple of gay guys, couple of gay fellas,” remarked the passer-by.
The man holding the sign then held up what he said was his wedding band, hanging around his neck on a leather necklace, and put in the face of the heckler, saying he was married.
Most of the Palin supporters, however, focused their attention in the hours before the Alaskan resigned on just getting a moment of her attention, either by waiting in line with hundreds of others or standing as close as security officials would allow and holding up cameras and yelling her name.
Many indicated that they wanted her to run for president and wore shirts and waved signs to that effect.
“I don’t think she is going to be gone,” predicted Karen Hunter of Fairbanks, a vocal supporter at the picnic.
Just exactly how she’ll maintain a public profile will have to be answered in the weeks to come.
“It appears that she really doesn’t have a plan,” said Michael Carey, the former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News and a public affairs commentator. “This is in keeping with her ad hoc approach to life.”
As for what her tenure has meant to this remote and still-new state – just celebrating its 50th anniversary of statehood this year – Carey said: “I think her big legacy is the incredible celebrity she became. Who else is like this in Alaska history?”
Source: Yahoo News
Plainly feeling liberated, Palin said that the freedom of the press was an important American right and one that members of the military died to protect.
“So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, quit making things up,” she said with an insistent voice, prompting loud applause and cheers from a mostly sympathetic audience gathered at a park here.
Palin didn’t specify what she was accusing reporters of making up, but suggested that she was weary of the attention on her family since being tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee last summer.
“Our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone,” she demanded.
Immediately after Palin’s speech that man, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican and Palin ally, was sworn in as the state’s governor.
As she stepped down from the stage, Palin’s future remained a mystery.
Concluding her remarks, she only said: “Let’s all enjoy the ride.”
Others speaking before and after her were equally cryptic, referring only vaguely to her future endeavors.
In an interview Saturday, Todd Palin, Sarah’s husband, said only that they would “play it by ear.” On Sunday, her father, Chuck Heath, said in an interview he thought his daughter would stay in the public arena but had no other insights into her plans.
It was widely thought that Palin would appear at the Reagan Presidential Library next month in California for a Republican women event, but Heath and Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said Sunday that her appearance there was not confirmed.
Speaking for just under 20 minutes on sunny afternoon in between a 1930s-era steamship and a carousel on a street dubbed Klondike Avenue,” Palin was surrounded by a crowd of a few thousand, among them some of her most ardent supporters and a smaller group of vocal detractors.
For the first group, she offered some rabble-rousing lines and partisan red meat.
She went after reporters but also what she called the Hollywood “starlets” who rail against gun rights and the “partisan operatives” who filed the ethics complaints that helped drive her from office.
She even aimed her fire at an undefined group who she deemed insufficiently patriotic.
Some in this group, Palin said, “seem to just be hell-bent on maybe tearing down our nation, perpetuating some pessimism and suggesting American apologetics.”
As for the “starlets,” Palin seemed to be alluding to actress Ashley Judd, who targeted the former governor on behalf of an environmental group for supporting aerial wolf hunting.
Warning of “anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood,” Palin said advocacy groups “use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets.”
She offered such individuals this message: “By the way, Hollywood needs to know: We eat therefore we hunt.”
It wasn’t all score-settling, though. Palin also paid tribute to the wild beauty of her home state and singled out some of her supporters for thanks and praise. She also touched on her record on energy, ethics and the size of government.
But she was clearly perturbed by those who have raised questions about her abrupt decision to leave office, and spoke directly toward a group of individuals in the crowd who were holding up such signs as “Quit, Baby, Quit.”
“Some still are choosing not to hear why I’m charting a new course to advance this state,” she said, adding that “it should be so obvious to you.”
“It’s because I love Alaska this much, sir, that I feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics as usual, lame duck session in one’s last year in office,” Palin explained, reprising some of the rationale she laid out in announcing her decision to resign earlier this month.
Palin, wearing a suit jacket with a corsage and jeans, was joined by her husband Todd, in jeans and a fleece vest, on stage with Parnell and other dignitaries, all wearing more formal attire.
Before addressing the crowd in a park with an ersatz frontier main street and encircled by a choo-choo train that was once called “Alaskaland," Palin spent hours under a tent serving hot dogs and greeting admirers. Some of her most passionate supporters were from out of state and had interrupted or planned vacations to catch a glimpse at the outgoing governor.
Two Texans holding up pro-Palin signs said they drove on Harley-Davidsons some 4,000 miles north from the Ft. Worth area to check out Alaska and see the woman they want to be the next president.
But there were also a handful of individuals who came out to the picnic to register their displeasure at Palin, and at times some of her supporters turned their attention from the picnic to her opponents.
Larry Landry of Fairbanks was standing next to a friend, holding up a sign that said, “Thanks For The Laughs,” when he was heckled by a passer-by.
“Well, look here it's a couple of gay guys, couple of gay fellas,” remarked the passer-by.
The man holding the sign then held up what he said was his wedding band, hanging around his neck on a leather necklace, and put in the face of the heckler, saying he was married.
Most of the Palin supporters, however, focused their attention in the hours before the Alaskan resigned on just getting a moment of her attention, either by waiting in line with hundreds of others or standing as close as security officials would allow and holding up cameras and yelling her name.
Many indicated that they wanted her to run for president and wore shirts and waved signs to that effect.
“I don’t think she is going to be gone,” predicted Karen Hunter of Fairbanks, a vocal supporter at the picnic.
Just exactly how she’ll maintain a public profile will have to be answered in the weeks to come.
“It appears that she really doesn’t have a plan,” said Michael Carey, the former editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News and a public affairs commentator. “This is in keeping with her ad hoc approach to life.”
As for what her tenure has meant to this remote and still-new state – just celebrating its 50th anniversary of statehood this year – Carey said: “I think her big legacy is the incredible celebrity she became. Who else is like this in Alaska history?”
Source: Yahoo News