NP: Sky Sports News

Josh Marshall notes that David Frum also thinks Palin's resignation is a cash grab, but can't reconcile that with the abruptness of the announcement.

I think it works, but mostly because the cash is only one piece of the story. The more I think about it, it the more I like my explanation Palin thought she had stumbled on some sort of "miracle cure" for all that ailed her, politically. Gain momentum from taking some sort of perceived "high road" against criticism by the mean, nasty media, pay off legal debts for existing (and future) investigations, and get exposure among the rank and file to prepare for the next campaign. This must have somehow just crystallized in her brain, so she wanted to shout it from the rooftops as soon as possible, like a kid bringing home a math test or something.

Of course, among Republicans, the early read -- according to early polls -- is that the plan is working, but one of the key things we learned post-Dubya is that a pure base strategy is political suicide for the GOP right now, and the same survey that said the right was happy also showed that independents are not amused by Palin's shenanigans.