{"id":71,"date":"2009-07-04T13:08:25","date_gmt":"2009-07-04T13:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/sarah-palin-resigns-ethical-behavior-from-a-future-presidential-nominee.html"},"modified":"2009-07-04T13:08:25","modified_gmt":"2009-07-04T13:08:25","slug":"sarah-palin-resigns-ethical-behavior-from-a-future-presidential-nominee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/sarah-palin-resigns-ethical-behavior-from-a-future-presidential-nominee.html","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin Resigns Early: Ethical Behavior from a Future Presidential Nominee?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Warning: This post is based
\non a series of assumptions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday, Sarah Palin
\nresigned from her position as governor of Alaska<\/a>. Her supporters are left
\nreeling in confusion, and her critics are chalking this up to more bizarre
\nbehavior from the 2008 vice-presidential candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n

To some, such as the
\nDemocratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse, her motives are
\ncompletely self-involved:<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span><\/span>Either Sarah Palin is
\nleaving the people of <\/span>Alaska<\/span><\/span><\/a> high and dry
\nto pursue her long-shot national political ambitions, or she simply can’t
\nhandle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are
\ndown.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Palin,
\nhowever, said in her announcement<\/a> that she wants to work for all Americans, not
\njust Alaskans:<\/span><\/p>\n

“And finally, I polled the most important people
\nin my life, my kids. And the count was unanimous. While in response to asking,
\n‘Hey, do you want me to be a positive influence and fight for all our
\nchildren’s futures from outside the governor’s office?’ it was four yeses and
\none ‘Hell, yeah.’ The ‘Hell, yeah’ sold it.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m just as intrigued by this sudden and surprising move as the next person,
\nbut I’m also wondering whether abandoning one cause (the Alaskan people and
\nstate) for a higher cause (the future of America) is the type of ethical
\nbehavior we want from a future leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously
\nthis is assuming that Palin is resigning to better her chances in 2012. It’s
\nalso assuming she’s doing this because she feels she can “be a positive
\ninfluence and fight for all our children’s futures”.<\/span><\/p>\n

One
\nof the qualities we look for in a leader is the ability to sometimes<\/span> put aside the needs of the
\nfew in order to serve the needs of the many. However we rarely look for a
\nleader who has a history of abandonment, regardless of the reasons behind that
\nabandonment.<\/span><\/p>\n

What
\ndo you think? If Palin made <\/span>this<\/span> decision in order to
\nenact positive change in America, was it the ethical choice? Or should she have
\nrespected her commitment to the people of Alaska and finished out her term?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: This post is based on a series of assumptions. Yesterday, Sarah Palin resigned from her position as governor of Alaska. Her supporters are left reeling in confusion, and her critics are chalking this up to more bizarre behavior from the 2008 vice-presidential candidate. To some, such as the Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-political-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nSarah Palin Resigns Early: Ethical Behavior from a Future Presidential Nominee? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/07\/sarah-palin-resigns-ethical-behavior-from-a-future-presidential-nominee.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sarah Palin Resigns Early: Ethical Behavior from a Future Presidential Nominee? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Warning: This post is based on a series of assumptions. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}