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Woke up to a cryptic e-mail this morning from Gov. Sarah Palin's office. All it says is she "will make an announcement at her Wasilla home this morning" at 11.

On Fourth of July weekend? From her home? Hmm.

My question: why did it have to be so cryptic? She's staying another month on guard -- so just wait until after the holiday, why don'tcha?

Maybe she thought that if she waited to make the announcement, she'd reconsider. Or maybe she wanted her July 4 weekend to relax without having to worry about throwing such a curve ball on Monday morning.

The bottom line is that no one knows why she did it - the timing, the reasoning, nothing.

Carol at Alarming News believes Palin's political career is over, and writes, "What (Palin) had, more than anything else, was a toughness and a dedication to her position. She blew all that with her announcement today."

This is exactly right. It may not be fair, but to succeed, a female politician has to come off 10 times tougher than any man -- "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher being the most obvious example. One of the things that Palin had going for her was that she was, as Cindy McCain described her during the Republican National Convention, a "hockey-mommin' ... basketball shootin' ... moose huntin' ... fly-fishin' ... pistol-packing ... mother of five." She had been nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda," and took on the "good ole' boys" who controlled Alaska politics.

However, to all but her most loyal supporters, today's bizarre press conference made her look brittle -- like a person who couldn't take the heat and was buckling in the face of attacks. Today's move is perfectly understandable if she wants to give up politics and protect her family from the blistering assaults of the media and her political opponents. Maybe this news -- odd within the political realm -- actually makes her a pretty normal person by real world standards. But normal people do not get elected president.

From Ezra Klein at the Washington Post:

The main thing I'd point out about Sarah Palin's dazzlingly incoherent farewell is that it's pretty clear she wrote it herself. The proof is in the punctuation. The transcript was posted to her official Web site earlier today. The style is closer to a high schooler's angry diary entry than to an official speech. I've read a lot of speech transcripts. They tend to have fewer words in all capital letters. And fewer things in quotation marks that aren't actually, you know, quotes. And I've never seen an official speech transcript, written by an actual speechwriter, that contains this:

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

And that's not even getting into the self-pitying shots at the press, the fact that she mocked those who take "the quitter's way out" in a speech dedicated to quitting, or this agonizing sports metaphor.......this looks like the impulsive decision of an impulsive politician. It doesn't exactly scream president-in-waiting.

...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.

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

"Stay home and do your job and your homework. You'll still be a national figure come the primaries. But if you can't surprise your detractors with your grasp of policy when you re-emerge on the national stage, you won't win the nomination. More important, you won't deserve to."

"One last thing: It's a holiday weekend. I don't plan on posting Palin-related e-mail all weekend. Feel free to send your thoughts, but I don't expect to run a Palin seminar all weekend."