Innocent Bystanders

Heh.  (via Michela M, at the Morristown NJ Tea Party)

How fucking often does THAT happen?

Look, I’m just spitballin here. Sarah’s move today has handed the left a huge, if somewhat superfluous victory. They feel as if they have defeated her, taken her down.

They are all about the feelings, the goddamn rats.

I don’t pretend to understand her motives. I know she took some hits that were ramped up lately by that Schmidt fucker. And also more on the right, including Krauthammer and Goldberg.

I’m just asking for a timeout, and some consideration of what the hell just happened.

I have lamented, recently more perhaps than I should have, the reaction from Palin fans whenever we offer up an honest criticism of her ability or motivation. I ain’t gonna dig into em now even the hugest fans at their gut level know what the hell we’re talking about, if for no other reason than when one of your own goes “huh”? you treat it differently than when your sworn enemies spit on her.

And yet, when you have a kitchen pass, and you still ask a question, you often get a visceral reaction from your own side that is largely “goddammit, look at all the shit she has had to take, and now YOU’RE doing it too?!? You FUCK”.

Yeah.

Politely, we seemingly cannot or will not separate legitimate criticism from the illegitimate vomit that has been spewed upon her in spades. Unlike how we treated Bush over say, Harriet Meiers or amnesty.

She has been treated unfairly because of what she espouses and what she represents. Yes. All true. Fucking duh. She’s been treated precisely the same way George W. Bush was treated. The same way.

Question. Did she think she would not be so treated? Her family? Her kids? And herself?

I believe the answer is, because I believe she isn’t an idiot, has to be “of course”.

So my question today is why the hell would she do this?

And my stupid answer is “I don’t know”. Honestly, I have no idea. But because I believe she isn’t an idiot I do believe she understands the ramifications of her decision. And they aren’t good. There is no spin that works here. Not the “I want to protect my family” spin (unless you’re out for good, then I believe that). Not the “goddamn lawsuits are wearing me out” spin, she could raise a half million or more for legal defense standing on her head, witness Billy Jeff’s ability to do the same from people who were fucking disgusted with him.

Nope. I don’t buy either one.

Why? I don’t know. I think the answer lies in what she does next. And that’s the only answer that means jack shit.

Michael took a stab at prognistication, over at H2:

FWIW, I thought her explanation of the resignation on her official website was awesome.

Now, she either retreats into private life, or she does what she says she is going to do — keep on fighting, and support others.

That means, basically, that she makes a ton of appearances in support of Republicans in the upcoming Congressional elections. She uses her star power to help them raise money. She collects chips. She also forms a PAC and starts collecting money with lucrative speaking engagements.

I’m with Rosetta (meaning, I agree that Dave is a doofus). I think Sarah knows exactly what she wants to do, and she can’t do it as Governor of Alaska. She’s looking at Obama, she’s looking at the weak Republican field, she’s looking at tea parties and unemployment data and the general fear of the public, and she smells blood on the water.

Could be wrong, but I think she is a very smart and very ambitious politician. And I agree with an earlier comment — she needs advisors, not “handlers.” She did not appear in Runners World by accident. She’s poking the MSM in the eye.

So my qualified assertion is Michael is right. Psychotic, but right. What she does after this tells us what the hell she’s thinking (duh again). We’ll know what we know when we know it.

My prognostication is she’s done. I would rather it not be so, and I would rather she fight. But if this has moved her to “fuck this shit”, well hell, who am I to say “no?”.

Nobody, that’s who.

Added: If she fades out, then I totally believe the “I’m tired of my family getting dragged through the mud” idea. Again, who could blame her?

Yesterday’s unemployment rate press release showed a very small increase in unemployment from May to June – only 0.1%. The natural question is: Why? Why is it so small? Are things getting better?

The answer is: Not Really.

Here’s why.

1. The civilian labor force dropped by 150,000 people, as people either retired or gave up looking for work.
2. The government added 200,000 people to its payroll, artificially lowering the unemployment rate.
3. Despite the preceding two items, the number of employed people dropped by almost 275,000.

If not for the first two factors, the unemployment rate could have hit 9.7%. It’s clearly not time to relax and wait for job offers to roll in.

But why do I say that Atlas is groaning? Take a gander:

What it means is that a year ago (the June ‘08 point) we had about 54 people working in private industry to support a total of 100 people. Now we only have ~50 to support the same number, and the maroon line shows that the trend is only continuing downward.

Note to President Obama: I don’t think it’s a good time to add to the regulatory restrictions, costs of living, or tax burdens of those 50.

Finally. Finally the slowing of the unemployment rate increase has arrived. We’ve been waiting for months for unemployment to show signs of topping out, and it looks like it may be happening at last.

The unemployment rate for June only went up 0.1%; much less than in previous months, and finally deviating from the near-linear increase we’ve seen since last year.

Is it the stimulus finally taking effect? The natural recovery of the economy? Just an anomaly?

Whatever. Tomorrow I’ll dissect it. Today I’ll just enjoy it (though it appears at first glance that the rate increased so slowly because a number of people dropped out of the labor market).

[It is assumed that by now this chart is self-explanatory. If not, delving into the posts over the past 3 months will tell you more than you need to know about the chart's pedigree.]