< Alaska Gov. Palin To Resign

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Heard on All Things Considered

July 3, 2009 - MELISSA BLOCK, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin stunned her state and supporters throughout the country today by announcing she will leave office on July 26th. John McCain's running mate in 2008, she's been considered a top contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

In a rambling news conference outside her home in Wasilla, Palin cited the numerous ethics complaints lodged against her since last summer, all of which have been dismissed by the state ethics board. And Palin said the state is wasting taxpayer money responding to them.

Governor SARAH PALIN (Alaska): Some Alaskans, it seemed today, maybe they don't mind wasting public dollars and state time, but I do. And I cannot stand here as your governor and allow the millions of dollars and all that time go to waste, just so that I can hold the title of governor. And I don't know if my children are going to allow it anyway. Some are going to question the timing of this, and let me just say that this decision has been in the works for a while.

BLOCK: Governor Palin gave several reasons for her decision. She talked about wasting state money, as we just heard. She mentioned her son with Down's syndrome. She mentioned being a lame duck. And she said she could be more effective outside government. We're joined now by NPR correspondent Martin Kaste, who covered Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign. Welcome, Martin.

MARTIN KASTE: Good afternoon.

BLOCK: And we're also joined by NPR's senior Washington editor Ron Elving. Hi, Ron.

RON ELVING: Good to be with you, Melissa.

BLOCK: And Martin, let's start with you. You covered Sarah Palin since before she came onto the national stage. What did you make of this news conference today?

KASTE: Well, it's a little cryptic what exactly is going on here. You kind of look at the statement you just played there and she seems to be making reference to the fact that she decided not to run again, and that decision led her then to realize that she didn't want to be a lame duck. She talks about how that would be a waste of energy and money. And yet, then, she also injected that line about how she wasn't sure her children would allow her to stay on. It's not clear where this is coming from. But, you know, the implication here, at least, at the beginning of what she said there, is that she didn't want to spend the remaining two years as governor of Alaska, having decided not to run for that office again.

BLOCK: And this was a hastily drawn news conference. Let's listen to a bit more of what Sarah Palin had to say about her decision. And here she was reaching to sports and, in particular, to a basketball analogy.

Gov. PALIN: You are naive if you don't see a full-court press from the national level picking away right now. A good point guard, here's what she does, she drives through a full-court press, protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win. And that is what I'm doing, keeping her eye on the ball. That represents sound priorities, remember, they include energy independence and smaller government and national security and freedom. And I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory.

BLOCK: And Ron Elving, she's passing the ball for victory, in her words, with a year and a half to go still in her term.

ELVING: That's going to be a big part of the fallout from this. It's going to be a good deal of controversy. Already we see such figures as Ed Rons(ph), a longtime Republican operative, saying Republicans aren't quitters. And that's meant to be just as critical as it sounds. I think she's going to get a lot of controversy inside the party for deciding to step down early.

Take the contrast, for example, of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who would be allowed to run again in 2010, even though he served a couple terms. But he has said no, he's not going to run again in 2010. He's going to focus on whatever national ambitions he has after completing his term. So that would've been an option she would've had, and she's going to be asked about that a great deal.

BLOCK: She went on at length in this news conference, did not take questions from reporters. Let's listen to a good chunk of what - of more of what she had to say today.

Gov. PALIN: I love my job and I love Alaska. And it hurts to make this choice, but I'm doing what's best for Alaska. And I have explained why. Though, I think of the saying on my parents' refrigerator, a little magnet that says, don't explain, your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway. But I've given my reasons. There's no more politics as usual. And I'm taking my fight for what's right for Alaska in a new direction. Now, despite this, I sure don't want anyone, any Alaskan dissuaded from entering politics after seeing this real climate change that began in August.

No, we need hardworking average Americans fighting for what's right. And I will support you because we need you and you can effect change and I can, too, on the outside. We need those who will respect our Constitution, where government is supposed to serve from the bottom up and not move toward this top-down big government takeover, but, rather, will be protectors of individual rights.

BLOCK: Martin Kaste, a lot in there. She's talking about a real climate change that began in August. Any idea what she's talking about?

KASTE: It might be the moment she was nominated for vice president and found herself thrown into that national scene. I think some of what she's talking about there, when she's making these sort of oblique references to the national scene, politically, is, you know, she's been one of these Republican governors who's been very vocal about attacking the spending - federal spending, the stimulus money. But as governor, it's very hard for her to say no to that money for her state. So it puts her sort of in a funny place ideologically.

So it might be a lot easier for her to be anti-big government in an era of big government if she's outside of government. But there's another thing going on here, I think. If, assuming she does still have ambitions - higher ambitions -this has worked for her before. She, in 2002, she failed in her bid for lieutenant governor in Alaska. She was rewarded, though, by the party with a very nice job as chairwoman of Alaska's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which is a plum there in Alaska.

But she quit after about a year, alleging - and later she was pretty much backed up in this - ethical breaches by another member of the commission, another Republican. But that did put her in the wilderness politically for a while. And eventually that actually worked to her advantage. Being on the outside for her led to her surprise victory in the 2006 race for governor. So maybe this feels familiar and maybe being outside again is sort of her instinct in this situation.

BLOCK: And Ron Elving, Martin there was talking about Sarah Palin's higher political ambitions, for people who would support her in a potential race for president in 2012, would they look at this news conference today and say that is the unvarnished Sarah Palin we know and love or would they look at this and say, she has come completely unhinged?

ELVING: They could go either way. And I think there are going to be those who do go one way and those who go the other. The people who really do feel a connection to her, particularly to her spontaneity, are going to look at this and they're going to say, she's had enough of this abuse that she's had from partisans and entertainers, they - she's tired of the rancor and the backbiting between her and some of the veterans of the McCain campaign that was all over national magazines this week. And she's ready to go back to her life and family and will settle for a while and then come back and help us take back our America in 2012. We're going to hear some of that.

What I suspect, there are also going to be some people who are asking questions. They're going to say, why did she have the attitude she did today? Why was her emotion unbounded in the way that it was? Why didn't she seem to be better prepared for this presentation today? And is there something else out there coming that we don't know about?

BLOCK: And I have to say that the lieutenant governor, who'll be taking over, seemed to be pretty taken aback. He had a sort of deer in the headlights look through all this, Martin?

KASTE: Yes, Sean Parnell, now about to become the governor of Alaska, he's been a political ally of her for a while. She backed him in a congressional race last year. But, yeah, he did seem a little surprised. I found it was somewhat interesting during his speech there, he talked about how the people of Alaska were looking forward to what God can bring forth in - can bring forth from you in the years to come, I think is what he said referring to her. So there's some sense of expectancy there, but no one knows exactly for what.

BLOCK: Okay, we've been talking about Alaska governor Sarah Palin's announcement today that she will resign as governor at the end of this month. We've been talking with NPR's senior Washington editor Ron Elving and NPR's Martin Kaste, who covered Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign. Thanks to you both.

KASTE: You bet.

ELVING: Thank you, Melissa.

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