What's Alaskan for "P.U.M.A."?

James T Harris links approvingly to a statement that can only be accepted with a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief:

If Sarah Palin had intended to make media heads collectively explode, she couldn't have planned it better. She called a press conference on short notice, then announced that not only would she not seek a second term as Alaska's governor, but she intended to resign later this month. All that would remain for her to do is pop some Orville's, sit back and enjoy the show as the punditocracy begins wildly speculating about that which it does not know.

Far from causing heads to explode, Palin's resignation has caused the media to collectively salivate. They now have a story that will last for the entire month of July (and likely beyond), and if anyone thought the media was tough on her before they have not seen anything yet.

If Palin's departure on Friday was some kind of elaborate "I'm Ron Burgundy: go fuck yourself, San Diego!" moment then it was a monumentally stupid tactical maneuver. In one fell swoop she supplied her enemies and critics with an infinite source of ammunition while giving her allies in the conservative press reason to feel betrayed. All she has left now is a scattered fringe of devotees who will be of no use to her, whatever the Sarah Palin equivilant to Hillary Clinton's PUMAs turn out to be.

Right now Palin seems to have no further ambition save only to pick a fight with the national press corps. Forget all the speculation about 2012 or 2016 -- it's pretty clear that she doesn't have the slightest idea what she's doing in August ... and I mean this August. Right now the only thing she seems interested in doing is hunting down every reporter and/or blogger that ever said anything critical about her.

Good luck with that. As this weekend has clearly shown, Sarah Palin does not have the skill, training or support network to conduct a total scorched Earth campaign against the national media. Between her awful statement Friday and the sorry attempts at damage control that followed, she's devolving into an object lesson in how not to conduct public relations and she's given every indication that this will get much worse before it gets better.

[via memeorandum]