MAN: Me either.

WOMAN: In her press conference, she said something about being opposed to "politics as usual."

MAN: Well, that explains it. 'Cause people usually finish their terms.

It's close to midnight here and I just can't stop wondering about this whole Palin resignation. So many mysteries! Rich Lowry linked to a Politico story that he thinks makes sense.

After reading the Politico article, you might want to watch the actual resignation. Seems bizarrely off-the-cuff for such an important speech:

The first article I read was this Wall Street Journal article, about how Gov. Romney was a formidable candidate left standing for 2012.

But that was written before Sarah Palin resigned as Governor of Alaska:

"I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory," soon-to-be-former Governor Sarah Palin says at a press conference with her family, standing before a picturesque river and seaplane.

She says she's looking forward to the swearing in of Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. "All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision," she says. "I cannot millions of dollars and time go to waste just so I can remain as governor of Alaska.

"This decision has been in the works for a while. It comes after a great deal of prayer and deliberation."

She said when she put the decision to her family, the vote was four "yes"es and one 'Hell yeah.' She mentions the family's reaction to the mockery of Trig.

She said her decision was "fortified during her visit to the troops in Kosovo."

"It hurts to make this choice, but I've given my reasons. I'm reminded of a sign on my parents' refrigerator, 'Don't explain; your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you anyway.'"

UPDATE: Kristol says it is shrewd?

After all, she's freeing herself from the duties of the governorship. Now she can do her book, give speeches, travel the country and the world, campaign for others, meet people, get more educated on the issues - and without being criticized for neglecting her duties in Alaska. I suppose she'll take a hit for leaving the governorship early - but how much of one? She's probably accomplished most of what she was going to get done as governor, and is leaving a sympatico lieutenant governor in charge.

And haven't conservatives been lamenting the lack of a national leader? Well, now she'll try to be that. She may not succeed. Everything rests on her talents, and on her performance. She'll be under intense and hostile scrutiny, and she'll have to perform well.

UPDATE: The Campaign Spot thinks it's over for Palin:

Way back on Tuesday, I wrote about Sarah Palin, “I can only imagine a life running a state while caring for a son with Down syndrome and a son in Iraq and a daughter who is a new mother in the sharp glare of the public spotlight and a grandson and another daughter suddenly appearing in David Letterman’s routine. This may not be the right time for another go-round in a multi-year process in which vast swaths of the political world will aim to see her torn down to nothing. She's 45 years old; it's not like the window is closing.”

Perhaps, it became too much.

Not finishing her first term will provide a major, major, major obstacle to any presidential bid. I thought a 2012 campaign would be a mistake; from today's comments, it's not clear whether Palin is still interested in that option.

But the moment she expresses an interest in a presidential bid, every rival, Republican and Democrat, will uncork the ready-made zinger: "If elected, would she serve the full four years, or quit sometime in the third year again?"

Romney really is the frontrunner. He has done himself well. He is a grown-up. He knows economics. He's trusted on that. There is also a tradition among Republicans of nominating the next in line, as we did with George Bush, Sr. in 1988, Dole in '96, and McCain in '08, sort of the last grown-up who was left over from the last campaign. And I think that Romney has done well. Look, he is the guy who is as clean as clean can get. You are not going to wake up in the morning and discover he is crying in Argentina. This is a solid guy and he's got a record.

That's some relentless logic, right there.

Find your station here.

He's one of the few commentators who accurately notes how close the Governor came to capturing the Republican nomination (just a 3% shift in some key states, and it's a whole different ballgame), but I think he's wrong about on thing. He writes:

Imagine for a minute another possible Romney 2008 strategy: run primarily as a fiscal conservative, skip Iowa and concentrate on New Hampshire, get that extra 3 percent between January 19 and Super Tuesday February 5, and then enter the next run of primaries—Maryland and Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana—running even with McCain in delegates and far ahead of him in money. In those circumstances it is conceivable Romney might have won the nomination and have been in a position to cast himself as an expert on economics and finance—more expert certainly than Barack Obama—after the failure of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis in mid-September.

But could Romney have won running primarily as a fiscal conservative that early in the process? Obviously, that's the Governor's unquestioned strength, but I think Michael is misreading the time. In the early primary season Republicans were focused on finding the "true conservative" and on the Iraq war. The narrative on the economy was the consistent refrain that the media wasn't giving the Bush administration enough credit for the (then) robust growth. Running as "the economy guy" would have catapulted him to the nomination if the market had crashed a few months earlier, but as of January/February 2008, few people knew (and the public had definitely not perceived) that the housing market Titanic had already hit the iceberg.

Also, from the beginning the Governor ran as what we called the "full spectrum conservative" (he always referred to three legs of the Republican stool: national security, fiscal responsibility, and family values). His opponents highlighted the social conservative aspect of his message because that presented the easiest target.

Obviously the Governor's strategy wasn't flawless, but it was better than he gets credit for. A previously unknown (Mormon) Massachusetts governor who is a recent pro-life convert comes within 3% of winning the Republican nomination? That's not bad on its own terms, and it looks even better when one realizes that Republican primary voters are not known for embracing candidates their first time through. (Just ask Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain). Heck, just ask any Republican in the modern primary era not named "George Bush."

Anyway, I hope your vacation travels were easier than ours.

(Note to American Airlines: I loathe you. I hope to never voluntarily fly on your awful planes again. After sending our bags to Tokyo and making us sit on an un-airconditioned, 90 degree plane for three hours -- after a 9 hour red-eye -- I'm not sure I can forgive... yet again. Our total travel time home? 23 hours.)

Exciting news tomorrow! The official portrait of Gov. Romney will be unveiled in Boston. Richard Whitney is the artist, also known for his portrait of John Sununu. (Check out Sununu's portrait here -- the painting has an old-fashioned computer and telephone in it!)

Anyway, I can't wait to see the painting and I'll link to the photo when I see one.

Actually, it was a bit surreal being there. I read about the "Where's the governor?" stuff several days after it broke (at least in our family, news reaches the beach late). Then, the day of Gov. Sanford's press conference, we were actually slated to have dinner with a former aide of his who is a friend of ours. I frankly didn't think there'd be any real news. You can imagine my shock when around 3 p.m., as we were in the middle of our drive from the coast to the capital city, the DJ on the country radio station we were listening to said something about an affair. I honestly thought he was kidding, knowing Gov. Sanford not only to be a strong conservative but also a sincere Christian believer. In fact, it was so jarring that I decided not to write about it until I had made sense of it a bit more -- who wants to speak rashly of a brother who is in a crisis?

With all of that said, I do agree with David's comments on the wrongheadedness of the "Boy Scout" taunt against Gov. Romney. The situation in which the Sanford family finds itself is deeply sad, but that in which our culture finds itself -- where the attitude deployed against people like Gov. Romney is fashionable -- is probably even sadder, because it is more destructive, inasmuch as a culture affects an entire society, not just one family.

I also think we must laud Gov. Romney's recent comments regarding public officials. Here's what Politico had to say about the matter:

Discussing disgraced South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a fellow Republican, said governors and other national leaders are expected “to live by a higher standard because … the culture of the nation” can be hurt by their failings.

“Seeing this family become healed is our highest priority,” Romney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“At the same time, and not commenting particularly on Governor Sanford, … people in public life ought to be held to a higher standard. … I heard one … former governor say, ‘Well, everybody makes mistakes.’ Well, that’s true.

“But not all mistakes are the same. And not everybody is a governor or a senator or a president. And we expect [those] people to live by a higher standard, because what they do is going to be magnified, their families are going to be hurt more by what they do, the things they care about will be hurt, and the culture of the nation
and the people who follow them will be hurt.”

And further down in the story, I must say, is a real gem from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fellow South Carolinian. Sen. Graham is Sen. John McCain's favorite Republican and, not coincidentally, not mine. But he was right on here:

Moderator David Gregory asked: “Is the Republican Party still a party of values?”

“Yeah — I think we’re a party of sinners,” Graham replied with a chuckle, “just like every other group in America. But we’re also a party that openly talks about good things. It is good for Mark and Jenny to get back together, if that’s possible, ’cause it’s good for families to have a mom and dad. And it’s OK to talk about those things.”

This was particularly striking to me because every week, our church publishes a statement in the bulletin beginning with the fact that we are "a church of sinners." And I know we have to be careful about the parallels we draw between a church and a political party, but I think they're still there. Our church cares about holiness, but acknowledges that we Christians will fall short and need help. The Republican Party cares (or at least should) about good moral values, but should acknowledge that some of its members will still fall short. In neither case does our falling short invalidate what we believe in. It just indicates that we are not perfect.

Kudos to both Gov. Romney and Sen. Graham for their comments. And pray for the Sanfords.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s favorability rating has spiked since the 2008 presidential primary, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday.

The Republican’s favorability rating has climbed to 40 percent — a 10-point increase over the past 16 months. The Pew poll found that 28 percent of Americans view him unfavorably and another 32 percent don’t know.

Just days before Romney bowed out of the race last February, following the Super Tuesday primaries, 30 percent rated him favorably and 44 percent said they held an unfavorable opinion of him.

Still in Maui -- had a wonderful dinner with David last night at a shoreline restaurant!

Well, Chris, I think we know just the guy.

On a more uplifting note, we are in Maui! This is the view of where we are staying.

After the kids' luggage took a scenic tour to Tokyo, it has arrived today! But not after we had to buy them new clothes here. Nevertheless, having a wonderful time and are about to go get sushi!

Interestingly, David invariably has these media appearances and I'll ask, "What are you going to speak about?"

This means, obviously, "what specific case is the topic of the day?"

Always a smart aleck, he thinks this is an absurd question, since he always is speaking on religious freedom on college campuses. So when I ask what he's going to speak on, he makes it up.

Once, it was the benefits versus the detriments of free trade coffee. Another time it was whether Adam Lambert would beat Kris Allen. Today?

Before he left for his 6 a.m. flight, I drearily asked him, "What are you going to talk about?" And he said, "the auto bailout."

To find out the real answer, tune in. Find your station here.

Four years from now, Mitt Romney will be president of the United States.

My reasoning is as follows. Point One: The Obama team, while still basking in honeymoon-level approval ratings today, has pointed itself in a direction that will result in disappointed hopes for the American people. They have drastically overpromised, and their policies—even if they are not outright disastrous—will end up inciting more passionate discontent than passionate support. Point Two: The Republicans always nominate for president the candidate who’s next in line, even if that person is deeply unpopular (e.g., the GOP base’s hatred for John McCain did not prevent him from being nominated; he was the guy who lost to Bush in 2000, ergo…). In 2008, the runner-up was Romney. Add to that frontrunner status the fact that Romney has credibility on economics and budgeting, and he’s the prohibitive favorite. Add Point One to Point Two, and the result is a Romney presidency.

A preemptive rejoinder, lest anyone dismiss this prediction as Romney propaganda: I supported McCain over Romney in 2008, and am nowhere near deciding whom to support in 2012.

But what's this? The American Medical Association is daring to challenge The One? We should never, ever assume that trends are permanent and that real-world events can't change the facts on the ground. In 2001, real world events pushed millions of Americans (including Nancy Pelosi) into George Bush's camp when it came to the conduct of the war. It is only when the smoke cleared, the economy roared back, and the messy wars were fought mostly by people they didn't know (and never would meet) that the cultural divisions reasserted themselves with a vengeance.

But what if instead of military necessity, economic necessity causes urban professionals to re-order their political priorities? After all, there is a Republican leader who -- while conservative -- is certainly culturally conversant with the economic and professional elite. And he knows more than a little about health care as well.

The real world is a stern teacher, and is certainly more responsible for Ronald Reagan's rise than even Reagan's considerable political gifts. Stagflation and foreign shame does a lot to make a nation think about different approaches. Will massive government intervention in health care (not to mention car manufacturing) and ballooning deficits do the same a few years hence?

The best submission will receive an all-expense paid trip for 2 to join me in the Romney family seats at Fenway Park for a Red Sox game. And four runner-ups will receive a baseball personally autographed by my dad.

How do you qualify? Simply (1) visit www.FreeStrongAmerica.com/essay for complete details and to see a special video message from my dad, (2) contribute at least $50 to my dad's PAC, and (3) email your 250-words-or-less answer to the question "What does a free and strong America mean to you?" to Essay@FreeStrongAmerica.com. The five best submissions will be featured on FreeStrongAmerica.com, and the author of the best answer, as decided by us, will win the baseball trip.

The contest ends June 24th, so get writing. It's only 250 words. That's fewer words than are contained in this email. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Tagg

Okay, guys -- game on. Which of our lovely readers will get to hang out with Tagg? What are you waiting for? Open up Word and get to typing!

Update: Nancy, we're Apple snobs, remember? Our readers should be opening up Pages, not Word.

NANCY ADDS:

Come on, David, you're the only snob. Hey, here is Gov. Romney's pitch: