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Palin steps down.
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Sarah Palin, as is her wont, took over a dormant news cycle today. By announcing her resignation from Alaska's governorship, the former vice-presidential nominee somewhat ironically reassured the public that she isn't going away anytime soon. Speculation on her motives and political future sent cable news into a dither as it headed for its slowest weekend of the year.
Palin's statement was delivered without any national media present. But the cables cut in for her remarks in their grinning, dissonant entirety. At their conclusion MSNBC and Fox News, both of whom typically eat up the spicier news, immediately went to all Palin, all the time. CNN, ever stoic, resumed its regular slate. Bill Schneider, its Shriner-like senior political pundit, used his slot to talk doggedly about Michael Jackson.
Most of the early analysis came by phone. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell cited sources close to the governor as saying she, the governor, would be leaving politics for good. FNC's Carl Cameron was more cautious: "the political prognosis is very difficult to calculate", he said.
Also on MSNBC Pat Buchanan, one of the oldest hands in political analysis, saw things as a kind of Nixon redux, suggesting Palin will simply spend her time ingratiating herself to Republicans nationally as Nixon did in his 1960s wilderness years. Nixon, of course, ran successfully for president in 1968.
On CNN, Rick Sanchez startled Candy Crowley by floating a Palin pregnancy rumor. "It's the one thing still left out there", he chirped.
MSNBC's David Shuster and others were as fascinated by the timing of Palin's announcement as by the announcement itself. "News tends to die" on July 3rd, said Shuster. But in modern media who's to say to what extent that concept applies.
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