Few were more surprised than I to hear Sarah Palin is stepping down at the end of the month from the governorship of Alaska. I didn't see her leaving before she was forced, screaming, from the Alaska state house.
My first exposure to what happened and her remarks came from news articles and commentary. Because I don't like Palin – her politics or her rhetoric – it was easy to buy into the spin of the pieces.
The columnists, and to a lesser degree the news articles, presented her position as off the cuff, backwards, laughable and just short of obtuse. None of that was hard to believe – it's what I think of her anyway.
But, I think it's of the utmost importance to hear what a person has said – or read what a person has written – for myself. I want to follow the nuance, to determine the main ideas and themes, before considering myself informed enough to have an opinion. Otherwise I'm just a parrot for someone else's thoughts, impressions and ideas, even if their statement reinforce what I already think and believe.
So, I read the text of her remarks at the press conference where she announced her resignation. And while I don't believe she's anywhere near the sharpest knife in the drawer –her ability to execute the English language being the biggest indicator of that – her decision and reasons for same are not as silly or arcane as all the writers I've read proffer.