Friday 3 July 2009

By-bye Governor - Hell-o Runner.

The US media are buzzing about the anticipated confirmed announcement by Sarah Palin that she won't seek re-election for a second term as governor of Alaska - in order to concentrate on her run at the nomination for presidential candidate for the Republican Party? Some in Alaska will be happy to see her and her micro-management strategies leave. For example, some might hold her accountable for the loss of two dedicated public servants in the state department of Health and Social Services: Director Beverley Wooley and the state's chief medical officer, Jay Butler.


Wooley said her office did get direct criticism from the governor's office regarding the wording of a press release on teen pregnancy. The governor didn't like a quote from one of Wooley's staff so the quote was removed.


Wooley said she never had a policy discussion with Palin on any health topic, and they never met one-on-one. ... [She] says she was forced out of office because Gov. Sarah Palin felt she wasn't in step on social issues. ...


The division has about 550 employees and a budget of $100 million. It includes nurses and epidemiologists, health facility inspectors and keepers of birth and death records. Its staff members run health laboratories and try to prevent diseases like HIV and diabetes. The key source of tension was legislation that would have required girls under age 17 to get parental consent for an abortion, Wooley said Thursday. ...


Wooley said she also intended to answer questions from legislators and said she would rely on data, not anyone's personal beliefs. Whether she personally agreed with the governor is beside the point, Wooley said.


She intended to refer to studies from states that already had passed similar legislation, she said. Some of the research shows that, with parental involvement requirements, girls tend to get abortions later in their pregnancy, which is riskier and more expensive, she said. Other research shows fewer girls get abortions, which abortion foes like Palin likely would applaud. Wooley cautioned that the studies are small and not definitive because such laws are still fairly new.


"You let those facts speak for themselves. And truly, people will interpret those facts differently based on their own personal history and experience," Wooley said.


This interview in Runner's World with Palin is informative, with regard to her running style.

Update: Palin has resigned from her office, effective July 26.

Added by fern hill: AKMudflats is burning up. Just now, there were 205 comments, but subsequent pages wouldn't open. I'm going to check back later.

5 comments:

croghan27 said...

The comments, I read the first dozen or so, are deluded. Vote for someone because they are a runner? OOOOOkay ...

For that matter, I have seen newsreel shots of Clinton running - do you suppose they voted for him?

fern hill said...

One theory I gleaned from Mudflats is that she's deeply in debt and needs to make some Serious $$$, prolly as a Faux News commenter.

deBeauxOs said...

It's a teeny-tiny but loyal demographic Croghy: religious fundamentalist pro-gun, pro-drilling, fetus fetishizing runners.

The Mound of Sound said...

Joe Scarborough at MSNBC says the resignation, in the midst of her first term as governor, creates a huge setback to any political aspirations she may have. The former congressman says that quitting like that, especially in one's first term, suggests a real reliability problem.

JJ said...

I'm betting there's a scandal about to break.

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