Big Fat Story
“Only dead fish go with the flow,” Sarah Palin said while announcing her resignation on Friday, but now it seems the soon-to-be-former Alaska governor is a fish out of water. Many pundits are saying her resignation is a move to clear her schedule for a presidential run in 2012, but her critics are calling the move reckless and narcissistic. Other possible reasons for Palin’s resignation? A highly critical Vanity Fair profile really got to her; she’s trying to get out in front of a looming ethics scandal; and she’s angling for her own television show.
Ran away to Buenos Aires to be with mistress.
By giving up her own job, did Sarah Palin save Mark Sanford’s? Before Palin sucked all the oxygen out of the room, calls were loudening for Sanford’s resignation after it was discovered that he had left his state ungoverned for a week in order to be with his mistress in Buenos Aires. Fourteen of the state’s Republican senators reportedly support his resignation, and U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has encouraged Sanford to make the “right decision.” Even if Sanford clings to the governorship, the man who was once considered a top-tier candidate for the presidential race in 2012 can go ahead and lay those ambitions to rest.
If you can’t run the country, create your own.
Rick Perry may, in fact, be president in 2012—of the People’s Republic of Texas. The governor took Texas pride a bit too far when he threatened secession in April. “We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it,” he told a crowd at a tea party that was shouting “Secede.” He continued: “But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot.” Not only was Perry patriotic, but he was wrong: The Texas constitution doesn’t preserve the right to secede, only to divide into four new states. A subsequent poll found that 61 percent of Texans wanted to remain a part of the United States, while 35 percent wanted to become an independent nation.
Year of the Flailing Governors
Long the breeding ground for presidential hopefuls, governors' mansions became political liabilities this year. From Palin's resignation to Sanford's affair: The Daily Beast's guide to the six governors having the worst year of their political lives.
No matter how low the rest of the governors on this list sink, it’s unlikely that they’ll sink below America’s most notorious ex-governor, Rod Blagojevich. Not only was the former Illinois governor impeached and indicted on corruption charges for trying to sell President Obama’s Senate seat, he was denied his constitutional right to take his case directly to the people as a contestant on the reality show, I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here. It’d all be pretty embarrassing for the man who expected to be John Kerry’s running mate in 2004 if there were indication that Blagojevich had any shame whatsoever. It’ll be awhile, at least, until Blago has his day in court: His federal corruption trial isn’t set to start until June 3, 2010.
Governator's approval rating at 25 percent.
OK, so Schwarzenegger can’t run for president anyway, because he was born in Austria, and his problems aren’t really of his own making but due to the fact that state law requires him to balance the budget of the world’s eighth-largest economy. Still, California is on the brink of doing what dozens of B-list movie villains have not: defeating Schwarzenegger. On Thursday, the state stooped to issuing its creditors IOUs. California is running a $25 billion deficit, and Schwarzenegger has failed to persuade either voters or the legislature to take his preferred path to closing it. According to Pollster.com’s average, the Governator's approval rating now sits at a mere 24.7 percent, with 74 percent disapproving.
Is Albany's legislative deadlock worse than Spitzer's scandal?
As if the circumstances of his rise to governor (remember Eliot Spitzer, the original Love Guv?) and first public statements (remember when he copped to affairs and cocaine use?) weren't enough, in the last year, New York Governor David Paterson has fallen to near-irrelevance, setting a record low for approval ratings in March. Now Albany's in the midst of a month-long legislative gridlock, with Paterson failing repeatedly to break up a series of disagreements that froze the state senate for all of June.
magicman
Palin really needs to get out more. If she did then she'd know that fish swim in the underbrush along the shore and not in the stream. Dead fish sink to the bottom. Even the Salmon, which swim upstream to spawn, eventually die and sink to the bottom. What floats downstream is decayed matter, sticks, dead logs and branches. Perhaps that is what she had in mind to begin with. I've tangled many a line in the middle of a stream on what fishermen refer to as 'snag'. It doesn't make for the best day's fishing.
rsethib
Jim Gibbons anybody? or are his problems pre-2009?
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.