Pandora for Palin?

Recently, Sarah Palin, Alaska's well-known governor and former Republican vice presidential candidate, announced that not only would she not seek re-election in 2010, but she would not in fact even finish her term, telling the world that her resignation would be effective at the end of the month. Maureen Dowd, the ever-opinionated columnist for the New York Times (hey, opinions are what she gets paid for), just wrote an editorial on the bizarreness of this whole scenario. By far, the most humorous line of the column, whether you agree with Dowd's assessment or not, occurs about midway through the article in reference to the governor's speech:

After...burbling about how “progressing our state” and serving Alaska “is the greatest honor that I could imagine,” and raving about how much she loves her job, she abruptly announced that she was making the ultimate sacrifice: dumping the state on her lieutenant.

Wow. I'll admit, I'm not quite sure what Governor Palin is trying to accomplish here. Maybe she's not trying to accomplish anything, and that's the whole point. Perhaps she's had enough. Personally, I didn't feel that the governor had the necessary qualifications to serve as vice president should John McCain have won the election, but in a year in which Republicans had EVERYTHING going wrong for them, maybe he felt he had to gamble, hoping that her star power and political talent would be enough to galvanize the base and attract independent voters. At any rate, Sarah Palin's year in the national spotlight serves as a warning to anyone seeking power or position: be prepared to get hit hard, have a purpose that is greater than yourself, and pray for endurance to make it to the finish line. Godspeed, Mrs. Palin.