Sarah Palin has committed political suicide, as far as national office is concerned.
She should go back to being mayor of Wasilla.

In 1992, Ross Perot had a commanding lead of 39%, ahead of Bush 1 and Bill Clinton, when he suddenly quit in July, claiming threats of altered photos of his daughter would affect her wedding. Why that would cause him to drop out was never clear, but the public never bought in to it. In October Perot got back in the race, but despite spending over $60 million of his own spare change, he lost half of his lead, and got no electoral votes.

American voters don’t like a quitter.

This is pure speculation, but I have a theory as to why Sarah Palin has resigned her Alaska governorship.

The “Lion” of Alaskan politics is former longtime Senator and Alaskan Governor Ted Stevens. As you all may recall, after decades of service to Alaska in State and federal (U.S. Senate) service, and in his senior years – I believe he is 80+ years old – Senator Stevens was politically savaged recently, lost his Senate reelection campaign, and was even hauled into court and convicted of criminal, scandalous charges, a record of conviction very damaging to his personal and political reputation, which was recently completely overturned in a legal appeal to a higher court – (federal or U.S. Supreme Court?)

Now, as of just a few weeks ago, the Lion of Alaska is back. He might well have some scores to settle with what he might see as his ungrateful betrayals by the likes of John McCain and Sarah Palin. John McCain, for one, went after that “Bridge to Nowhere” that Ted Stevens definitely supported to the last breath and degree possible, with all his political strength, a political defeat which smarted. Certainly, those in control of Republican party politics from other states and territories, such as Arizona, as well as his own Successor as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, made much political coinage or capital or treasure from attacking Ted Stevens personally, as well as his old school style of politics, which is routinely referred to by slick, modern, poll driven politicians as “corrupt” or “old buddy” or by various other epithets of mass media concoction and distribution.

All you have to do, is review all the smears, slanders, political banditry and attacks against Ted Stevens, to realize that Sarah Palin and John McCain have succeeded in riling a true “Lion in Winter” at least in the precincts of Alaska. Ted Stevens has many friends and allies in Alaskan politics. Ted Stevens built the State of Alaska from scratch, much the same way Edmund Muskie built the Democratic Party in the State of Maine, again, from scratch. These old style politicians are truly great people, and slick, newly elected politicians like Sarah Palin, and rogue, raging, political point scoring hacks like John McCain, take them on at their own likely risk.

I do not see either McCain or Palin as a lion tamer in the least capable of handling a provoked Ted Stevens. Both Palin and McCain have been poking sticks into the cage of the lion for a good long time. The lion – Ted Stevens – is now out of the cage.

This is the explanation for Sarah Palin’s resignation as Governor of the State of Alaska.

I am looking for hire as a full time Journalist, if anybody is hiring. My intelligence, analysis, and insights are usually quite good. With a paid position, they might prove to be even better.

Thank you for discussing mental health issues, which are often ignored or silenced. A member in our nonprofit contacted us about your show, but I was unable to hear it. I’ll try to listen soon. In the meantime I wanted to bring up something about mental health courts. Today, generally, people assume that the best mental health care for people diagnosed with serious and persistent mental health problems, such as “schizophrenia,” would be psychiatric drugs. In fact, many of our members with such a diagnosis get multiple prescriptions, what is sometimes called polypharmacy. The most common in such as a situation is a neuroleptic, more commonly called an “antipsychotic.” We’d just like to raise the idea that for many of our members, non-drug choices ought to be far more readily available, especially for those who choose to be chemical-free. Non-drug full recovery is possible, even for so-called “serious mental illness.” This is an important option. Consider that many studies are now showing that long-term high-dosage neuroleptics can cause significant brain changes. Just google these three words to find out more: antipsychotic brain damage. Again, we’re pro-choice on this, many of our members choose to take prescribed psychiatric drugs including antipsychotics. But when a court can routinely order someone to take these drugs against their will, it’s important to look at the human rights implications. Would we as readily order, say, surgical lobotomies? Hopefully not, though back in the 1950’s thousands of lobotomies were done with little objection from the society. So creative sentencing is fine if people’s rights are protected. But if long-term forced drugging is ordered, this rises to an extremely intrusive and potentially irreversible infringement on a person’s basic human rights, including the First Amendment. In other words, forced brain shrinkage is cruel and unusual punishment. Thanks, David Oaks, Director, MindFreedom