There are few thing I find more disturbing in a public figure than a thin skin. If you can't take the heat, join a garden club. You simply should not get into politics, particularly of the elected variety, if you cannot take being bounced around verbally. Well, not if you hope to maintain any credibility or sanity. As an elected official, you're a target, plain and simple. Whether for good or ill, you will be the target of anyone and everyone with an agenda and/or an ax to grind. This is neither good nor bad; it simply is. Accept it or find another, less emotionally taxing, line of work.
Sarah Palin, her reasons for resigning aside, has proven spectularly inept at dealing with the realities of being in public life. Threatening to sue those who happen to disagree with her, like Shannyn Moore, only serves to prove how narrow-minded and spectacularly ill-equipped she is to govern. What is it about far-right Republicans that leaves them believing that freedom of speech and expression are Constitutionally-guaranteed rights- unless you happen to disagree with them?
Palin may complain about the politics of personal destruction, but she was the one who set herself up to be used a a clay pigeon by the Left. Her simplistic, holier-than-thou attitude, her faux folksiness, and her transparent fakery created the atmosphere she faces today. By attempting to set herself above and apart from the fray, she's created atmosphere ripe for suspicion and investigation. I'm not saying that's there's necessarily anything wrong with ambition and calculation, but if you engage in those behaviors, you have to expect that someone somewhere will call you on it.
I don't know the reasons for Palin's resignation, and I don't much care. What I do know is that Alaska, and the rest of the country, are quite likely better off with her. While she should be free to pursue whatever path her heart leads her down, she can't, and shouldn't, expect that her motives will be universally appreciated or accepted. Intelligent people should be questioning her heart and her state of mind...and she has only herself to blame for it.
