So why is Sarah Palin stepping down as governor of AK? Days after she gave her two week’s notice (transcript), it’s still anyone’s guess. What is known:

† Contrary to wild-eyed left-wing speculation – she is not under investigation on corruption charges by the FBI, and her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, warns that anyone who publishes or re-publishes defamatory material about the Palins will have to answer for their “reckless” actions in a court of law.  

† AK Dems had lost that lovin’ feelin’ for Palin after she crisscrossed the country as John McCain’s running mate trashing Dems and their policies, reports The Associated Press:

Palin has become a polarizing figure, and the focus of multiple ethics complaints filed against her with the state personnel board. She has taken a beating from Senate Democrats over many of her recent appointments, including an attorney general candidate who became the first Cabinet appointment ever rejected by the Alaska Legislature. …

With the complete breakdown of her alliance with Democrats that marked her first two years as governor, she has no ability to move her policies forward in legislation.

Consequently, adds The Washington Post, she got “tired of being governor - of working with a legislature increasingly intent on blocking her agenda, of commuting 4½ hours from Wasilla to the state Capitol in Juneau, of watching her family be tabloid fodder.”

† Palin advisor John P. Coale (who is married to FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren) tells The WaPo that, “[S]he couldn't ignore the hits on the kids. … She acted like a mother grizzly bear when her cubs were being attacked."  Here’s how Mama Bear put it in Friday’s speech:

[T]his decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children (where the count was unanimous... well, in response to asking: "Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children's future from outside the Governor's office?" It was four "yes's" and one "hell yeah!" The "hell yeah" sealed it … I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.

Palin, a mother (of five) and grandmother must have also gotten tired of being compared to Anna Nicole Smith and “a slutty stewardess” (last item).

Was Palin hounded from office? In her speech, she indicated she was worn down by the spate of baseless ethics charges she had to defend herself against:

Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn't been cheap - the State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to “opposition research” - that’s money not going to fund teachers or troopers - or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the “politics of personal destruction” … Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime so they’re not going to stop draining public resources – spending other peoples’ money in their game. …

Some Alaskans don’t mind wasting public dollars and state time. I do. I cannot stand here as your Governor and allow millions upon millions of our dollars go to waste just so I can hold the title of Governor.

But if this was a major factor in Palin’s decision to step down – and her successor is suggesting it may have been – many believe that, as The Wall Street Journal put it: “Giving up on an executive job a year and a half early isn't the best way to persuade voters you're ready for the more demanding rigors and scrutiny of the White House.” Palin’s successor, AK Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, and former AR governor Mike Huckabee debate this very point on “FOX News Sunday”:

Parnell: [W]hat I heard from the governor really had to do with the weight on her, the concern she had for the cost of all the ethics investigations and the like, the way that that weighed on her with respect to her inability to just move forward Alaska's agenda on behalf of Alaskans in the current context of the environment. So that's what I saw. …

[I]t was costing just about $2 million of state taxpayers' dollars just to fund the staff to deal with the records requests and the like. …

Huckabee: [I]f she did get out, primarily because of the -- a feeling of being chased, that's not going to stop if she continues in politics. …

I was a Republican governor in a state where 89 percent of my legislature were Democrats.

I had constant ethics complaints filed against me, even by newspaper editors, and a lot of it was because if they can't attack you on policy, what they do - they just absolutely bombard you with personal attacks and keep you tied up in court, make you hire lawyers. Been there, done that.

Arkansas was a tough political environment, period, even tougher for a Republican, and one of the things you have to do is just decide, "Look, they're not going to, you know, chase me out."

Now, what they do - they throw all this stuff at you, and then they say, "Oh, there's a pattern of ethical issues." Actually, what the pattern is is a pattern of phony charges being filed by the opposition party. …

The challenge that she's going to have is that there will be people who say, "Well, look, you know, if they chase you out of this, it won't get any easier for you at other levels of the stage." …

Parnell: I think [Huckabee and Palin are] miles apart in terms of what he faced versus what she faced. She became a national figure - an international figure during the last presidential race. That's a clear distinction. What that means is that she not only had the local press after her, the local party after her, she had the national - national candidates, national party, after her - international, perhaps, even. …

Huckabee: In a primary, this is going to be an issue she'll have to face. Will she be able to withstand the pressure? …

The experience that I had in Arkansas politics was far more brutal than running for president. And in a primary, it may not be quite the same.

But I'm telling you, when your opponents within your own team spend millions of dollars to redefine you, it's very, very difficult. And she'll have to face that if she runs in 2012.

So does Palin still have presidential aspirations, or is she walking away from politics? Also an open question, at this juncture, given the ambiguous statements she made on this point in her speech:

I'll work hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government; strong national security for our country and support for our troops; energy independence; and for those who will protect freedom and equality and life... I'll work for and campaign for those proud to be American, and those who are inspired by our ideals and won't deride them.

I will support others who seek to serve, in or out of office, for the right reasons, and I don't care what party they're in or no party at all. Inside Alaska – or Outside Alaska.

Is she talking about setting up a think tank to promote conservative principles, to cultivate an army of mentors who can help her plug the holes in her political résumé (taking a page from political neophyte Barack Hussein Obama’s winning playbook), or stumping and fund-raising for Repub candidates nationwide so as to start amassing political capital? Hard to say.

If a 2012 presidential run is her ultimate aim, pundits and political commentators - with the notable exception (video) of Bill Kristol (“maybe she’s crazy like a fox”) – are either perplexed or dismayed (“a huge gamble;” she is “erratic”; “her life has unraveled”). For his part, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat hopes her resignation was “intentional”:

A Sarah Palin who stepped down for the sake of her family and her media-swarmed state deserves sympathy even from the millions of Americans who despise her. A Sarah Palin who resigned in the delusional belief that it would give her a better shot at the presidency in 2012 warrants no such kindness.

But as The WaPo’s Dan Balz points out, “[s]he doesn't need to make a decision now about whether she wants to run for president.” 2012 may not be her year, either – her wounds and the recriminations of some of McCain’s campaign staffers (those “opponents within your own team” to which Huckabee referred) will still be too fresh. Palin is only 45, and can afford to wait until 2016.

Editorial Note: New York Times columnist Gail Collins complains that, “[t]he timing of Palin’s announcement was extremely peculiar”:

Not only did she interrupt the plans of TV newscasters to spend the entire weekend pointing out that Michael Jackson is still dead, she delivered her big news just as the nation was settling into Fourth of July celebrations. You’d have thought she didn’t want us to notice.

No, she interrupted the much-anticipated plans of journos to cut out of work early on Friday, or to enjoy a vacation day off, by dropping her bombshell when she did. She ruined many a pundit’s and reporter’s three-day week-end. If revenge is a dish best eaten cold, her timing was perfect.

Collins’ colleague Maureen Dowd may not have “Caribou Barbie” to kick around anymore, but she will not have the last laugh. When Dowd is ensconced in an assisted living facility prattling on and on (yet again) about who she used to be while her paid caregiver looks on with a fixed smile and mentally calculates the dose of sedative needed to put her down for her afternoon nap, Palin will be running for office. Piper, not Sarah. Piper was right by her mother’s side when she accepted her party’s nomination for Vice President and again when she announced she would walk away from the governorship. That kid is a natural born political animal, and Dowd may even live long enough to see Piper become president – even if she won't be able to remember why she should be pissed off about it.