The demise of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated

On July 3rd Sarah Palin said she would resign from her role as governor of Alaska. On July 4th everyone said her political career and 2012 hopes were over. Today news items are out that shows quite the opposite.

First up Gallup: 70% of all voters say her resignation makes no difference to them and 72% of Republicans still like Palin. Although Palin has shown a little slippage with who is Republican’s first choice in 2012, she still has over 3 years to turn that around.

Next we have Palin actually getting better blog coverage (h/t Conservatives4Palin, via Washington Whispers)

Paul Bedard:

Chalk up another strange twist in the Sarah Palin affair. Just when we thought blogger attacks on the Alaska guv would spike, her surprise resignation is being met with positive blog buzz. Whereas her "Zeta Buzz" was 54 percent negative before her weekend resignation press conference, it has since changed to 69 percent positive, say our friends at Zeta Interactive. Here's what they tell us about Palin:

[...]

Following her resignation on July 3rd, activity in the blogosphere spiked dramatically, as did positive posts on the topic of Palin. The past five days has shown a significant increase in positive buzz on the Governor, coming in at 69% Positive and 31% Negative.

Finally the GOP seems to finally see the value of Palin:

(h/t Conservatives4Palin, via Politico)

Leading Republicans on Capitol Hill see Sarah Palin’s bombshell announcement last week that she’ll resign as Alaska governor as a potential win-win for her and their party. Their thinking: As a private citizen, she’ll be free to raise big bucks for 2010 candidates and at the same time restore her credibility and stature within the bruised party.

The reasoning goes against the grain of the current political conventional wisdom. Palin’s relationship with the Washington GOP has been chilly ever since she vaulted into national prominence as the running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — who told POLITICO Tuesday that he got no heads-up from Palin about her resignation. But while many national Republican strategists and operatives are dubious about how Palin’s surprising move will affect any potential plans to run for president in 2012, key Republican lawmakers — with a high degree of self-interest — believe that Palin has a chance to broaden her support beyond her fervent conservative base to other elements of the party by stumping for candidates and raising funds ahead of next year’s pivotal midterm elections.

From the moment Sarah Palin announced her liberation, I saw huge potential in her move. Following the expected root to the White House would have yielded a diminished Sarah Palin. Her record of accomplishment would have been diminished by wasting time fighting bogus ethic charges. She would have no doubt been in for extreme monkey business from outside Democratic operatives had she tried to run again for governor. Finally, she certainly would have missed out on big opportunities in the lower 48, while fighting bogus ethics charges and doing the people’s business.

For those who want to write off Palin’s political career, I leave you a little video I found on TeamSarah. Enjoy.