Sarah Palin Never Quit

Business leaders, personal success coaches and public speakers have told us for years that quitters never win and winners never quit. They just never told us what the definition of "quit" is. Quitting is not giving up a job or a title. It's giving up on the ultimate goal itself. Palin never quit. She just changed vehicles in the pursuit of her goals and dreams.

If your goal was to become a millionaire and you opened a business that bankrupted you, wouldn't it make sense that, instead of quitting on your goal of becoming a millionaire, you quit the business that's bankrupting you? If your goal was to see your country return to greatness, but the political office you served was stopping that, wouldn't it make sense that instead of quitting on your goal of seeing your country return to greatness, you quit the office that was stopping that?

It seems the less intellectually curious among us have taken Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska at face value. They think she quit. But when you dig a little deeper, it becomes more and more apparent that her resignation was probably the most crucial career saving decision of her life. This blogger has now come to accept that Sarah Palin's resignation was a brilliant and fantastic move.

Had Palin stayed on as governor, she would have just spiraled deeper and deeper into debt as the concerted smear campaign against her continued to pile on frivolous ethics complaint after frivolous ethics complaint. She did the math and realized that if she was ever going to be able to participate in leading a nation back to its greatness, she would not be able to do it from the poor house.

Palin could have served two terms as Alaska governor and ended up broke, disillusioned and politically devastated. Any attempts at reaching a national audience would have been viewed with contempt by local detractors and would have resulted in more ethics complaints. Without the ability to speak to the masses of those who yearn for her to take the reigns of the disaster we now call "the federal government," Palin was a lame duck governor in terms of national politics the minute she returned to Anchorage after the 2008 presidential campaign.

And on top of that, she was going broke.

When Sarah Palin sat down and figured out the finances, she realized that $125,000 a year minus $600,000 plus whatever other ethics violations were in the works means that she will end up with a net loss of at least $475,000. That's some fine reward for a great governor isn't it? And that's low balling it.

Since her resignation, here is the cocktail napkin explanation I've been giving to everyone who argues with me or simply asks me about her resignation:

Pro rate it like this:

4 years as Governor $500,000
Current ethics costs -$600,000
Projected new ethics costs -$400,000

Profit/Loss -$500,000

Then take into consideration the hits on her children.

Palin's choice: be Governor of Alaska and run up over $1 million in legal fees while having her children abused ruthlessly in the press or resign and make more than enough money on a book to pay back her debt and embark on a career as a private citizen political activist that would allow her to never quit on the real thing she's after: seeing our country return to greatness again.

You do the math. If you were her, wouldn't you quit, too?

In retrospect, it's turning out that this blogger was right. Why? Because I was willing enough to let Sarah Palin tell the story and not listen to the media. What I heard was "money" and "kids." I didn't hear "quit." I heard "advance in a different direction."

"The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy, so you can't afford to serve," she said, calling the attacks "bull crap," Sarah Palin told Fox News. That confirms the money analysis. Palin's lawyer told CNN "off-color jokes by talk-show host David Letterman contributed to her decision to step down." That confirms the kid analysis.

Jay Tea on Wizbang writes:

At that point, she had run up about half a million dollars in legal bills, and pretty much every single complaint had been tossed. In other words, she had incurred debts equal to twice her family's net income and 40% of their net worth for absolutely nothing. And with the latest complaint going after her legal defense fund, it was shaping up to get more and more and more expensive, with no relief in sight. The agenda of her opponents was clear: to use Alaska's flawed ethics laws (the "flaw" being that no one foresaw a cabal filing an endless chain of worthless complaints purely to drive up the target's legal bills) to bankrupt her and her family.

Josh Painter writes: "The aim of her political opponents has always been to destroy Sarah Palin any way they can. So they staged an all-out assault not only on her character and her family, but on her personal finances as well."

John Ziegler says it best:

The bottom line is that Sarah Palin resigned simply because she was no longer allowed to do her job in a way that benefited her state and family. She saw that if she stayed on as Governor it would cost the state millions of dollars in wasted time and resources and doom it to gridlock. She knew that it would also continue to cost her family hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend against false and maliciously filed ethics complaints. And she had simply had enough of her children being fodder for inappropriate public attacks.

Like I said in a previous blog, this could not be answered by pundits. It could only be answered by Palin herself. Now that the answer has unfolded and her financial disclosure proves her right to resign, we can say that Sarah did in fact give us the answer.

We again are mere mortals who can thank the lucky stars and our God above that Sarah Palin had the wisdom to resign her governorship. If she didn't, we might as well have just kissed that shining city on a hill goodbye.

It's Not Just an Endorsement: It's A Shining of the Light

As Republicans navigate their way through the wilderness, bickering over whether to go center or right, the grassroots has stepped up their efforts in recruiting and supporting candidates who stand for limited government, strong national defense and no more political chicanery - from either party. The message resonating from the natural turf that grows quickly is "no more business as usual." In a hotly contested race for New York's 23rd Congressional seat, we are seeing a microcosm of the battle for the heart and soul of the Republican party.

When Sarah Palin endorsed Doug Hoffman, not only did she endorse him, but she articulated the true conservative philosophy in a way that not only referenced Ronald Reagan, but in a way we have not seen done since Reagan. In a facebook note where she clearly articulates a philosophy and a direction for the GOP, Palin writes "Our nation is at a crossroads, and this is once again a 'time for choosing.'"

Her endorsement is more than just an endorsement for a Congressional candidate. It is an articulation of the direction that Palin believes the Republican party must go.

Political parties must stand for something. When Republicans were in the wilderness in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan knew that the doctrine of "blurring the lines" between parties was not an appropriate way to win elections. Unfortunately, the Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate who more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. This is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party's ticket.

Palin shines the light on the movement in her acknowledgement that "Republicans and conservatives around the country are sending an important message to the Republican establishment in their outstanding grassroots support for Doug Hoffman: no more politics as usual."

Sarah Palin is clearly in touch with the movement that is staying true to the words of Ronald Reagan when he said bold colors - no pale pastels.

I Can See Liberty From Sarah Palin's House

It's been nearly a year since we lost our way as a nation and elected a radical socialist to lead us out of financial crisis that still has not been solved. As the Republican party nominated John McCain from a group of candidates, none of whom had all the traits necessary to be the leader Ronald Reagan was but all of whom individually possessed a different trait needed to lead, it had appeared that liberty's lamp was about to go dark. Faced with the prospects that the liberals could have finally reached their moment of triumph, traditional Americans silently sulked in the disappointment that had become a Republican party that had given in to the allures of big government spending. Then suddenly there was light.

While the lady who appeared and took hold of liberty's lamp was able to keep the flame lit, it just wasn't the right time to move forward yet. The majority was silent as the main stream media bashed the values of traditional America and those who espoused them. She came in triumph and was hailed by the base as our next great hope; but the foul winds of AstroTurf smear campaigns, media complicity in the election of Obama and the inability of the electorate to recognize someone who truly embodied what they wanted was enough to keep the holder of the lamp stymied.

Mitt Romney had the charisma, Fred Thompson the philosophy, Rudy Giuliani the national defense and anti-terrorism savvy, Mike Huckabee the religious and social views, John McCain the war hero status and Ron Paul the libertarianism. It's too bad we couldn't have combined them all into one candidate.

Then John McCain discovered someone who was that one candidate. Without the time necessary to get people to really know who she was, it was too late for that candidate to carry us home in 2008, but she came pretty damn close. Bill Bennett said that because of the economic crisis, McCain couldn't have won the 2008 election with Ronald Reagan on the ticket. I think it's fair to say that's basically what happened.

Like sheep suddenly realizing they were in the shearing pen, the majority was silent no more. They took to the streets with signs protesting big government. They showed up at town hall meetings and confronted their leaders, demanding answers not lies. They all showed up in Washington, DC to tell the government "we're not saying no, we're saying hell no" to the corruption and the flushing of our taxpayer dollars down a toilet bowl labeled "stimulus plan."

The "mob" as they are mockingly called by their detractors is a growing army that once seasoned will be stronger than any special interest group, any lobbyist or any corporate conglomerate. This army will make the founders misty eyed with joy in Heaven as they overlook their great experiment finally doing what they wanted it to do: having the people impose their will on the government and not the other way around.

Sarah Palin has risked her reputation by resigning as Alaska governor. She has taken on the ridicule and scorn of the left. She has locked herself away with books and a lap top, not simply learning talking points that she can use in running for office, but researching and digging deep into the existential mysteries and truths of what makes our country tick and what it will need to do to return to the greatness that once was what Ronald Reagan called "that shining city on a hill."

As she reveals to us the depths of her knowledge on things like the natural order and the desire to be free, she tells us simple things in complicated ways so that the intellectuals will understand it as well. She was criticized for telling us complicated things in simple ways, so in the words of General MacArthur, she decided not to retreat, but to advance in a different direction.

And as the flicker of twitter turned to the young flame of a facebook page, the light grew brighter. And as the light brightens again, flaming out into a book called "Going Rogue: An American Life," we begin to see the masses looking to a light we knew as the beacon of freedom. That beacon of freedom, which must once again be placed at the center of our nation's image for all the world to see, is now being held in the hands of a leader in exile who is mocked by those in power who fear her and revered by those in the wilderness who simply, simply just want to come home.

We see the crowds gathering. We see heads turning toward the light and we see people beginning to move en mass. These people revere our founders, our founding documents and the dream upon which our great nation was formed and they are willing now to travel the long hard road from a political tundra, through mountainous terrain, across open plains and down through the deserts. They will suffer the harshest of winters and the hottest of summers as they make their way out of the political wilderness, now having been given a map which began to unfold at a speech in Hong Kong and which will continue to unfold as we cross rivers and valleys, fight tumultous thunderstorms and tornadoes and crawl through the dust and the dirt.

Our leader will be bruised and bloodied. She will be skewered with rhetorical swords while simultaneously being showered with shouts of adoration and encouragement. Her head will be held down in the waters of insolence, yet she will keep the lamp held high enough so as the flame not be doused.

We will take wounds for her. We will speak out and offend. We will squabble with our families and friends. We will put those around us on notice that while we agree to disagree, we will not falter and we will not fail in the intensity with which we will fight to save our great nation and the great lady who we want to entrust it to with all of our loyalty and all our heart.

There can be no other way. If we are to make our way back to that shining city on a hill and plant that flame high above the halls of power once again, we must be committed to withstand the slings and the arrows which will come our way. We must continue to move forward and as our army takes Virginia and New Jersey, then House districts throughout the land, we will secure the positions needed and we will fire the deadliest of shots from the ballot box.

War weary and driven, we will be across the mall from the White House, resisting it not only from the street, but from the floor of the House of Representatives. And as we approach 2012, we will march in unison, Romney fans, Huckabee fans, Pawlenty fans and fans of those who may not have taken the movement's reigns but who will soon be part of the government that the movement will create.

We will be one. And Sarah will be our leader.

Sarah Palin will stand perched over the crowds at her podium and microphone as the city on a hill once again shines in its renewed glitter. And as she gives an innauguration speech, the likes we have not heard since 1981, we will cry tears of joy and hug each other tightly knowing that we have done something the founders would have died for. We will watch Sarah Palin, our president, tell us that the days of the nonsense are over. We will watch her tell us that the people, the grown ups are now back in charge.

She will look up to the sky and say "Mr. Reagan, because of your dream for us we have traveled a long hard road with liberty's lamp guiding our steps and opportunity's arm steadying our way. We have not forgotten that dream and we are home now."