Sarah Palin will begin her book tour with an appearance on the O-Lady's show.

A book about the collision between Palin and the media that I happen to like will be out by then, incidentally.

Hat Tip: The Page.

I spoke to a few friends in Alaskan Republican politics yesterday. None of them had a clue that Palin was going to resign her office, and none has any idea what her motivation might be in doing so. It was widely assumed in Alaska that Palin wouldn't run for a second term. But this?

One friend pointed out that the biggest loser is Hollis French, the chairman of the State Senate Judiciary Committee and a longtime Palin adversary. French announced he was running for governor this week, on an explicitly anti-Palin platform. There was the possibility, however small, that French could have defeated Palin by running against her personality and not her policies. Now he won't have that chance. He'll face (one assumes) incumbent Sean Parnell, who shares Palin's ideas but not her baggage.

Palin's surprise announcement was another reminder of how impulsive a politician she is. She zig-zags from office to office, from Republican Revolutionary to bipartisan champion of clean government, with nary a second thought. She resigned from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission suddenly to make a point about self-dealing. She entered the race to unseat Frank Murkowski in October 2005, months before the primary. She accepted John McCain's offer to be his vice presidential nominee without hesitation.

Indeed, Palin's surprise move yesterday was another reminder of how she and McCain are so similar (remember McCain's decision to suspend his campaign?). They are both spontaneous and unpredictable. They are both known for their attitudes rather than their policies. They are both political gamblers, and they both have been extremely lucky. But sometimes luck runs out.

And sometimes it doesn't. "She is a lot of things," another Alaska Republican wrote me in an email. "But NOT stupid ..."

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.

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.

All in all, it's going to be a high-wire act. The odds are against her pulling it off. But I wouldn't bet against it.

We live in strange times.

How strange? Well, the politician whom Republicans like the most is resigning her office, while the embarrassing Mark Sanford is clutching to his.

You can find the governor's complete statement here.

For what it's worth, on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell is reporting that Palin is done with elective office.

One takeaway from Palin's speech today is how tired she's become of the frivolous ethics complaints launched against her since she returned to Alaska in November 2008. Even Palin critics will admit that these complaints don't hold water and distract from state business. The complaints also bring with them a heavy financial burden that Palin has struggled with.

From Palin's point of view, then, leaving the governor's office would free her from these burdens. No one can file a state ethics complaint against a private citizen. Departing now also allows Palin to travel the country freely, building networks of financial and popular support. She doesn't have to worry that visits to the Lower 48 may weaken her political standing back home. And retiring from the office in late July gives Palin more time to spend with her large family, too.

Palin's statement made clear that, while she'll be leaving the governor's office, she is not leaving the national stage. Her book is scheduled for release sometime next year. She pledged to support candidates in the upcoming elections without regard to partisan affiliation. She took aim at the Obama administration's budget-busting spending policies. Palin's enemies have already taken today's news to suggest that her political career is over. It isn't. But Palin may also be thinking that her retirement from office will cause her critics to stop attacking her. She would be wrong to think so. Neither Palin nor the Palin-haters are going away.

Sarah Palin will resign her office effective July 25. Here is the statement from her press team.

One thing you learn about Sarah Palin when you study her career is that she never, ever does things by the book. I think it's safe to say today's events are a further example of this tendency.

Jonathan Martin has the story here. For semi-professional Palin watchers like myself, this doesn't come as much of a surprise. On a recent trip to Alaska for my forthcoming book on the governor, I picked up a lot of chatter to the effect that Palin wouldn't run for a second term.

Palin's term ends in December 2010 -- right around the time when the next presidential cycle begins. She'll have plenty of time to spend in the Lower 48, in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in particular.

UPDATE: Time's Mark Helprin reports that Palin will be stepping down in a few weeks. More is sure to come.

Sarah Palin mentions a (perhaps apocryphal) quote from Plato in her fascinating interview with Runner's World.

The talk show host has apologized for his egregious joke directed at Palin's family.

In his Washington Post column on Sarah Palin's post-election media blitz, Howard Kurtz perpetuates the myth that Palin "never held a news conference" as a vice-presidential nominee. According to CBS News, she held a full-scale press conference on October 17:

"For the first time since becoming a candidate for the vice presidency in late August, Sarah Palin held an on-camera press conference with her full travelling press corps on the short flight from Ohio to Indiana this afternoon."

Today, Palin held a short press conference in Miami where she is attending the Republican Governors Association meeting. The first reporter to pose a question asked: "During the campaign, you never held a news conference, which I believe was unprecedented. What's changed?"

Palin replied that she doesn't want to talk about campaign strategy. Perhaps she didn't want to embarrass the reporter by pointing out that his question was based on a faulty premise.

Via Hot Air, Piper Palin tells Alaska radio that she'd like to be president someday.

Fox News's Shushannah Walshe reports:

GREEN, OHIO –- After some subdued crowds for the top of the ticket at his solo campaign events, John McCain and Sarah Palin joined back up today and were greeted by a boisterous crowd of thousands on a high school football field here.

Sarah Palin took the stage to introduce her running mate and she acknowledged country star Gretchen Wilson who had serenaded the crowd with her song, “Redneck Woman” before the ticket took the stage.

The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee seemed star struck, but told the singer they have something in common, “I see Gretchen Wilson over there and I need to get your autograph before we leave! Hello! Yes! Someone called me a redneck woman once and you know what I said back? I said, ‘Why thank you.’”

You can watch Wilson's "Redneck Woman" music video here.

Christopher Hitchens has a piece up at Slate titled: "Speak Up! Stop covering Palin until she gives a press conference."

Hitchens writes that he would like to query the Alaska governor about her views on teaching creationism in school. "There are several other questions I would like to ask her, as, no doubt, would you," he writes. "Lots of luck with that, because it seems that the Grand Old Party intends to go all the way to Election Day without exposing the No. 2 person on its ticket—the person who would become chief executive if President John McCain succumbed to illness—to a press conference."

Tiny problem: Contrary to the impression one might get from watching Palin's SNL skit, the Republican VP nominee held her first full-scale on-camera press conference on October 17. Per CBS News:

"For the first time since becoming a candidate for the vice presidency in late August, Sarah Palin held an on-camera press conference with her full travelling press corps on the short flight from Ohio to Indiana this afternoon."

Now, according to CBS, Palin fielded only 13 questions in this press conference that lasted all of 7 minutes, so one might say this doesn't count as a true press conference. To which I'd respond: "Guys, I mean come on. I just answered like eight questions."

Oh, and I'd also add this CBS News report from today:

In the past two days alone, Palin has answered questions from her national press corps on three separate occasions. On Saturday, she held another plane availability, and on Sunday, she offered an impromptu press conference on the tarmac upon landing in Colorado Springs. A few minutes later, she answered even more questions from reporters during an off-the-record stop at a local ice cream shop.

By contrast, Biden hasn’t held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn’t taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September. John McCain—who spent most of the primary season holding what seemed like one, never-ending media availability—hasn’t done one since Sept. 23.

Though she often turns the “mainstream media” into a punching bag on the stump, Palin clearly enjoys interacting with reporters. She seems to relish the opportunity to demonstrate that her breadth of knowledge far exceeds what she offered to CBS News’ Katie Couric in a series of interviews that were marked by vague, often convoluted answers to straightforward questions.

After her plane [landed] in Colorado Springs, Palin answered no less than 14 questions from the media. It took traveling press secretary Tracey Schmitt three attempts finally to get the governor to move along.

And the New York Times has even more on Palin's latest attempts "to wriggle free of her handlers."

On Sunday night, she twice took questions from reporters, the first time on an airport tarmac without her press staff’s knowledge.

After landing in Colorado Springs late Sunday, Ms. Palin marched over to a local television crew and began answering questions on camera, sending the traveling press corps sprinting in pursuit, and her press staff scrambling. ...

A reporter who transcribed her comments for a pool report later Sunday evening sounded his approval. “In her continuing evolution from the least accessible to the most accessible of the four candidates, Palin took questions from your pooler at the Coldstone Creamery in Colorado Springs.”

(Hat tip: Tom Maguire)