Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News, Sept. 7, 2008:

She's a fighter, this one. And worth fighting for. Come what may in November, we now know what the future of the GOP and the conservative movement looks like.

Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 4, 2008:

Sarah Palin may come from the backwoods of Alaska, but she has the heart of a street fighter.

Jim Wooten, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Sept. 3, 2008:

Republicans want a fighter. I do believe they have one in Gov. Sarah Palin.

AFTER:

David Brody, CBN, today:

Oh and by the way, the last time I checked, her nickname is "Sarah Barracuda." Palin is a fighter.

Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton, quoted by the AP, today:

Palin remaining as governor is not good for Alaska, given the "political bloodsport" by her critics, Stapleton said. Stepping down is a "fighter's move," Stapleton said, essentially Palin stepping around political barriers in her way and pursuing her vision.

For the moment there's no clear evidence of or explanation for some massive political or scandal bombshell that would have driven Palin from office. And it can be difficult not to allow the preposterous to become credible when many supposedly rational people are saying it.

But logic and common sense seldom fail as a guide to understanding politics. And the idea that Gov. Palin just up and decided for no reason in particular to resign her office little more than half way through her term, with a hastily assembled press conference and a rambling and histrionic speech, is just too silly for serious consideration. Another sign of the confusion on the inside are the comments reporters are getting from supposed Palin insiders. Palin insiders told Andrew Mitchell that Palin was "out of politics for good." But she told the Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association that she's resigning to campaign for more candidates in the continental US, work on her book, all with an eye to gearing up for her run for president in 2012. Call me cynical but it seems hard to reconcile those two explanations.

As with her speech itself, the tell is that the decision was apparently so rushed and sudden that there was not enough time to come up with a plausible cover story or to get out the word about what it was.

It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. Either Palin is resigning ahead of some titanic scandal (which should emerge in short order if it exists) or her resignation was triggered by an even more extreme mental instability than we'd previously suspected.

Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out.

Quitters stick to it. Winners quit.

What a difference an hour makes.

At 5:06 ET, Kristol posted on the Weekly Standard website: "If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble - but it could be a shrewd one."

Is it a huge gamble or a shrewd move? Kristol leaves himself a big out there.

Late Update: Fox is coming around, too. A little while ago, Stuart Varney said, "Let's get back to this resignation," before pausing to correct himself. "Not the resignation but stepping aside from the governorship."

In other news, it seems our Top Seven Sarah Palin Moments of the last year slideshow may need some revising.

Said Palin, according to a reporter at the press conference, "You are naive if you don't see a full-court press on the national level, picking apart a good point guard."

More shortly.

3:52 PM ... So what happened exactly? As I just mentioned in our editorial chat, this clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn't even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation. Some context is probably helpful here, however. Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days -- though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven't heard about yet.

4:06 PM ... Wow. It just gets better and better. Apparently one of Palin's rationale's for resigning is that she would not stand by while so many taxpayer dollars were being spent investigating her. This from Politico has to be the best ...

Palin allies contend that her star power will still benefit her home state.

"She can be more of a help to Alaska from the outside now," said one Palin loyalist.

Now?

4:20 PM ... Hmmm. Even better. This is Gov. Palin's 'announcement', such as it is, on Twitter ...

We'll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election... this is in Alaska's best interest, my family's happy... it is good, stay tuned

She apparently didn't realize she was resigning yet. Stuff obviously moving pretty quickly ...

More in a moment.

3:26 PM ... A few have suggested that she's resigning to free up time to run for president in 2012. (She would have left office at the end of next year.) But I'm not so sure about that. Generally, when you run for election to a high office it's understood that you'll stick around to do the job. Many people run for another office while they're serving out one term and then resign to take the next job. Obama did that, after all. As did Bush and Clinton before them. But resigning an office just to run for another one leaves you open to a lot of criticism for not fulfilling your commitments. So I'm not certain this is really about freeing up time to run for president full time. And if it is, the wisdom of the move, from her perspective, is questionable.

Local station KTVA in Alaska has this ...

Palin announced that she will transfer power to Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. Parnell will be sworn in during the upcoming governor's picnic in Fairbanks on July 25. An emotionally choked-up Parnell said he plans to keep all state commissioners and continue to pursue a natural gas pipeline.

Palin did not field questions and would not give any indications as to her future plans.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Late Update: Worth noting that the SEIU state director, Jane Kleeb, who is complaining about what happened this morning, is married to Johann's Democratic opponent from the 2008 campaign, Scott Kleeb.