How will the people of Alaska overcome this devastating loss?

She didn’t come right out and say it, but it appears pretty clear that Sarah Palin, who announced Friday that she’s abandoning her post as Alaska governor in a couple of weeks, grew tired of the actual job she was elected to do and yearned for something brighter and glitzier than the Northern Lights. At a hastily called news conference, and in her typically rambling and disjointed fashion, the “folksy” Palin said it wasn’t fair to the people of Alaska for her to serve as a lame-duck governor. Never mind that every governor, unless he or she dies in office or ascends to another post – or quits on a whim, of course - becomes a lame duck at some point. And would Palin, if elected president someday, serve only until she started feeling lame, or duckish? But, hey, Palin says she needs to shuck off those gubernatorial chains in order to best “fight for all our children’s future.” So, only a little more than halfway into her term, Palin is ditching the people of Alaska and leaving the office to her lieutenant governor. There’s no firm word on what she might do next. If Palin is planning to run against fellow Republican Lisa Murkowski for Murkowski’s U.S. Senate seat next year, then use that position as a springboard toward a 2012 run for the presidency, she’s not saying. But, really, it wouldn’t look good to bail out on the people of your state while admitting that something like that is your master plan. Perhaps she’s just eyeing the 2012 presidential race with no intervening elected position, but if that’s the case, couldn’t she have finished out the rest of her term, still leaving herself with two years to run for the White House? Oh, I forgot, it’s really inconvenient and difficult to keep oneself in the public eye from Wasilla. There’s also the possibility that she’ll turn up with a television talk show, but again, ditching your public-service job to become a talking head on TV doesn’t look very good. Maybe she just wants to travel the country, racking up huge fees for speaking engagements. Again, kind of mercenary. In making her decision to resign, Palin said she asked her kids if they thought she should move on, and she received “four yeses and one ‘Hell, yeah!’” I don’t know if it was baby Trig, or maybe Pyrex, Crater, Storm Window or Catch Basin who chimed in with the “Hell, yeah!” but Palin was wise to seek the kids’ counsel, since they’re probably deeper thinkers than their mother. But heck, maybe that’s the reason. She’s going to spend the next few years soaking up knowledge so that she can be a well-qualified presidential candidate in 2012. Just one problem. It’s like trying to stuff 10 pounds of excrement into a five-pound bag. The capacity is just not there. Palin might have fooled the people of Wasilla and even charmed the people of Alaska with her “aw shucks” manner and “I’m one of you” persona, but when it came time for her to hit a bigger stage, the majority of the people of America, to their credit, didn’t think it was wise to back up an elderly cancer survivor with a woman who displayed the intellectual depth of Ellie May Clampett. For the good of all of us, let’s hope Palin’s resignation is her first step on the path to oblivion.