Jigsaw Politics

That kind of makes it doubtful that she is going to make a swan-song appearance during the July 17-20 Biloxi, Miss., meeting of the National Governors Association. I figure that would be unpleasant for her, because who wants to hang around with dead fish? And it would be uncomfortable for those saps governing the other 49 states, who didn't realize they are entitled to quit their office ahead of time to pursue a "higher calling."

Interesting, that higher calling. Joining the priesthood is a higher calling. Going to a third-world country to work among the poverty-stricken and disease-ridden is a higher calling. Serving your country in a combat zone in the face of mortal danger is a higher calling.

But if Palin is quitting her governorship to traipse around the country denouncing big government spending and regulation and taxes that is exactly what Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and Massachusetts' Mitt Romney - conservatives who completed their full elected tenures as the governors of their home states - already are doing. And they'll probably soon be joined by Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty as he, presumably, fully serves out his full second term as governor that runs through the end of next year.

Perhaps the most astounding part of Palin's statement is that she decided, after concluding that she wouldn't run for re-election in 2010, that she would be doing her state a disservice by serving out her term as a "lame duck."

So, if she does have White House ambitions, does that mean she might resign if she were to decide halfway through a first term that she wouldn't run for re-election? If that's the case, then the Republican Party better be very careful about who they pick as her running mate if they nominate her for president.

More careful than John McCain was in 2008.