Tom Foreman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

When Sarah Palin took her unexpected swan dive into Lake Nevermore by announcing she was quitting as Governor of Alaska, I was suitably puzzled. I assumed she must have been conked in the head by a rogue moose, or stumbled into a patch of unripe salmonberries, or she had some secret hidden on the Appalachian Trail, if you know what I mean.

Now, however, I am remembering something I understood well before I moved to DC and was enveloped by the mind-numbing fog inside the Beltway: Many people in the rest of the country do not see politics the same way as east coast politicos.

For many Americans, what Governor Palin did was not only reasonable, but even praiseworthy. The latest polls confirm it. Rather than grind through the numbers again, which you’ve probably seen by now, I’ll just tell you they pretty much add up to this: Those who thought she was an utterly unqualified political opportunist of the worst sort still do, and those who thought she was a fresh voice of conservative reason who is in touch with the needs and desires of working folks, still do too.

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Sarah Palin's attorney said there is no legal reason that compelled her to resign as governor.

Matthew Continetti
Special to CNN

“Everything changed on August 29 in politics in Alaska,” Sarah Palin told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell this week. The reference was to the day last year when John McCain announced that Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five who became Alaska’s governor only in December 2006, would be his presidential running mate.

McCain’s surprise pick altered the trajectory of the 2008 campaign — for a few weeks, at least — and launched Palin, until then an unknown political neophyte, on the path to global celebrity. But it also set in motion a chain of events that, a little more than 10 months later, would culminate in Palin’s surprise announcement that she would leave her office effective July 26.

Before the day she joined the 2008 Republican presidential ticket, Alaskans saw Sarah Palin as a champion of ethics in government who had twice defeated oil interests, governed with Democrats in a bipartisan manner and brought down powerful members of her own party. She enjoyed record approval ratings, and her major initiatives had all been signed into law.

But the good times didn’t last. By the following July, Palin’s approval numbers had sunk to the mid-50th percentile, the coalition on which she governed had collapsed, and most of her time was spent combating a hostile media and frivolous ethics complaints.

What happened? The campaign.

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When asked if he were the father of Jackson's oldest children, Klein said 'not to the best of my knowledge.'

Anna Duning
AC360º Intern

The memorial service is over, but there are new twists in the investigation surrounding Michael Jackson’s death. “To the best of my knowledge, I’m not the father of these children,” Dr. Arnold Klein, Jackson’s dermatologist, told ABC News this morning. It was a strange response, provoking questions about Klein’s relationship with the biological mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, Debbie Rowe, who worked in Klein’s office for 23 years.

Dr. Klein will be a guest on Larry King Live tonight. Don’t miss the interview on CNN at 9pm ET followed by AC360° at 10pm ET. Randi Kaye is working this story for us tonight. A source tells her that Dr. Klein is on a list of doctors investigators want to talk with as they look into the cause of Jackson’s death. We’ll have the late breaking details.

There’s also word tonight that the Jackson family tried an intervention to get Michael to stop using drugs. Drew Griffin will have that angle.

Overseas, President Obama is meeting with the world’s economic powers in Italy for the G8 conference where the global financial crisis is taking center stage. Mr. Obama is pushing foreign leaders to deliver stimulus packages abroad, but back inside the beltway, he took hard hits today from GOP congressional leaders. They’re concerned the $7.87 billion stimulus bill isn’t working at home and scrutinized the White House for overstating its ability to “save” and “create” jobs. We’ll have the raw politics.

And outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said it herself: she’s not a quitter, but then what is she up to next? In her surprise announcement last week, she mentioned she’s resigning because of a host of accusations of ethics violations, which are costly and time consuming for her and the state. Tonight, we’ll look over those accusations lobbied at Palin.

We’ll also take you to Nashville, where police are calling the death of former NFL star Steve McNair a murder- suicide. Police revealed today that McNair was shot two times in the head and two times in the chest. Then they say McNair’s 20-year-old girlfriend Sahel Kazemi turned the gun on herself with a fatal bullet to her head. What might have led Kazemi to commit this crime of passion? And, keep in mind, McNair’s wife says she had no idea her husband had a girlfriend. Criminologist James Fox chimes in on this case.

We’ll have all this and more starting at 10pm ET. See you then!

Alaska's Sarah Palin is stepping down as governor at the end of the month.

David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Editor-in-Chief, ZATZ Publishing

For those of us who follow politics like rabid sports fans follow their favorite teams, this weekend’s announcement by Sarah Palin was like a gift from the gods.

As you undoubtedly know, the former Vice Presidential candidate, who’s been in the national eye for all of about ten months or so, has just resigned as governor of Alaska — a full 18 months before her term officially ends.

For those of us in the chattering class, this resignation definitely gets our mouths a-flappin’. Is she nuts? Is she just quitting? Does she want to spend more time with her kids? Is she getting ready for a presidential run? Is scandalous news about to hit? Did someone threaten her with something unless she quits?

Is this political suicide?

The pundits are going crazy. If you’re a crazy conservative, then this is a sure sign she’s thought it all through and gearing up for the 2012 run. If you’re a looney liberal, this is uncontroversial proof that she’s a quitter and not suitable for the job of dog-catcher, let alone President.

But if you’re a political sports fan, this is just good, clean fun.

The fact is, we don’t know. Yet. Clearly more will become apparent. But that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate, and that’s what I’m going to do.

First, let’s eliminate the ‘nuts’ question. Despite the brittle cheerfulness shown in her resignation announcement, Sarah Palin still seems to be the same Sarah Palin we met last year. She’s probably no more nuts than any other obscure politician would be if forced into the limelight overnight. But, like I said, we can’t really know.

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John Feehery says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation is a good sign for the Republican Party.

John Feehery
Special to CNN

Editor’s note: John Feehery was a staffer for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans in Congress. He is president of Feehery Group, a Washington-based advocacy firm that has represented clients including the News Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He formerly was a government relations executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America.

It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Gov. Sarah Palin would surprise everyone by announcing that she was quitting her job by the end of July.

Everything about her career has been a surprise.

I remember distinctly when Arizona Sen. John McCain selected Palin to be his vice presidential running mate. It was, to say the least, a surprise.

I had just taken the red-eye from Denver, Colorado (and the Democratic convention), and friends were calling me, concerned that McCain was going to pick Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.

One friend, in particular, was pushing for a little-known governor from Alaska, of all places, who seemed to hit all the right buttons for conservatives. This governor was pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tax, had high popularity ratings in the state, and best of all, she was a woman. The thought was that she could help with that all-important female voting demographic.

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Paul Begala says Gov. Sarah Palin was an impediment to the hard work Republicans need to do to rebuild the party.

Paul Begala
CNN Contributor

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. He is an affiliated professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

I’m sure Republican strategists look at their bench and think of what Casey Stengel said of the 1962 Mets: “Can’t anybody here play this game?”

David Vitter is on the D.C. Madam’s call list. John Ensign confesses to an affair with a staffer. Mark Sanford cries for his soul mate in Argentina. And now Sarah Palin calls it quits.

The Republican Party was once a solid, serious, stable group of people. It was the party of Eisenhower, of Ford — and not too long ago, the party of Colin Powell. Now it’s got more flakes than Post Toasties.

For all her whining about the ethics complaints brought against her, Sarah Palin is not the victim of the politics of personal destruction. She’s the victim of the politics of self destruction.

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Drew Griffin | BIO
CNN Investigative Correspondent

Sarah Palin's attorney said there is no legal reason that compelled her to resign as governor.

Patrick Gavin
Politico

Forget the pundits and prognosticators. If you really want to find out what’s around the corner, just turn to the bookies. After all, there’s real money on the line.

And, because luck is the Irish way, who better to turn to for political predictions than Irish bookmaking outfit Paddy Power? Following Friday’s announcement by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that she will soon step down from her position, Paddy Power says there is a good chance that we haven’t seen the last of the former GOP vice presidential nominee: The firm is quoting short odds of 2-to-5 that Palin will seek the presidency in 2012. But beat Barack Obama? Fat chance, it says: Odds are just 10-to-1 of that happening.

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Program Note: Tune in to hear more from Todd Purdum tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Palin is stepping down.

Todd S. Purdum
Vanity Fair

Despite her disastrous performance in the 2008 election, Sarah Palin is still the sexiest brand in Republican politics, with a lucrative book contract for her story. But what Alaska’s charismatic governor wants the public to know about herself doesn’t always jibe with reality. As John McCain’s top campaign officials talk more candidly than ever before about the meltdown of his vice-presidential pick, the author tracks the signs—political and personal—that Palin was big trouble, and checks the forecast for her future.

The crowds begin streaming into the Evansville Auditorium and Convention Centre a couple of hours before the arrival of the “special guest speaker” at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life dinner on a soft Indiana spring evening—nearly 2,200 people in the banquet hall, 800 more in an adjacent auditorium watching the proceedings on a live video feed. The menu is thick slices of roast pork and red velvet cake, washed down with pitchers of iced tea, and when Sarah Palin finally enters, escorted by a phalanx of sheriff’s deputies and local police, she is mobbed.

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