Americans don't like quitters
There are several points on which we can all agree:
- Gov Palin has not explained the reasons for leaving office 18 months before her term expires. Her statement does not advance a rationale, rather it advances a multitude of potential rationales - her family, the ethics investigations, her lame duck status, her desire to save Alaska money, which on their merits don't explain either why or why now. We are left to speculate until she offers a clearer explanation.
- Gov Palin's presidential ambitions are dead, regardless of the rationale, for a simple reason: Americans don't take to quitters and, at the end of the day, that is what she did - whether for personal reasons, for political reasons or because she was pressured to do so. Quitting is equated with cowardice of mind and body; it shows a lack of the quintessential American value of optimism honed by determination. Quitting betrays our innate belief in the redeeming virtue of perseverance. Gov Palin has, in one fell swoop, erased the very character traits that made her appealing to Americans,
- Gov Palin's resignation points to the moral rot that used to be the conservative core of the Republican party. The scandals and sexual exploits of the conservative wing may suggest hypocrisy and even a degree of self delusion, but surrender in the political arena is a sign of feebleness, lack of conviction, and resoluteness. Even Nixon did not resign until the US Marshals were practically at the White House gates. In moral terms, Gov Palin shows a lack of Fortitude, one of the Cardinal Virtues: the virtue of fortitude, is firmness of spirit, steadiness of will in doing good despite obstacles in the performance of our daily duty. It is the virtue that pressed American pioneers to push westward.
While some may mourn her exit from the public square, she just proved that she did not possess the personal traits needed to lead in it.