Sarah Palin to Resign

This news broke a little earlier today:

WASILLA, Alaska (July 3) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday she is resigning from office at the end of the month, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate made the surprise announcement from her home in suburban Wasilla on Friday morning. She said she would step down July 26 but didn't announce her plans.

Hmmmm.

The timing seems a little curious. In the past two days there have been a number of conservative voices, among them Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg, who have pretty much announced that she is not a serious presidential candidate.

And I have to agree.

I don't think she's done what she needed to do after the election to set herself up for the highest office in the land. She's made a number of speeches and had some high profile kerfuffles with the likes of David Letterman, but she really has set the table for a lot of knowledge in the big international policy subjects that she would need to learn to be ready for a national run. Maybe that's the plan for the next couple of years.

Meanwhile, without the duties in Alaska she'll be free to travel and speak whenever and wherever she wishes, and can start doing the hard work of setting up a national campaign framework, should that be her goal.

She is without question the one conservative candidate with the ability to generate huge amounts of interest right away, but she'll need to be better prepared than she was in 2008.

All that being said, I think this may be the end of Palin's political career. American don't much care for quitters, and it's way too early to resign for the purposes of setting up a national campaign.