Palin to resign Governor's office.

From the tone, what I'm taking away is that she has plans "outside of politics", and that her leaving probably does have as much (read that as "probably more") to do with the ethics investigations as the lousy press she's gotten. When she's referring to the millions of dollars being spent and the "full court press", she's taking about those investigations (the one that cost the most, as I understand it, was initiated by her own office). In other words, she's being "forced out" ahead of being made totally ineffective. In so far as she says it's the right thing for Alaska and her family--I agree.

What does this mean for her political future? Difficult to say. After all, Nixon came back from his defeated run in California, didn't he? Sometimes an apparent defeat provides an opportunity to regroup and refocus. However, because she won't be in an elected office, the outside appearance of still being inexperienced, plus her resigning in an environment that could be construed as "a cloud of allegations and criticism" is liable to haunt her.

As for timing--announcing this the day before Independence Day, and a Friday at that, in a weekend that promised to be saturated with Michael Jackson coverage does indicate that she has "an ear" for timing.

A very interesting development, that's for sure.