I don't know why Palin has quit her day job. Coulda got caught on film Frenchin' a sled dog for all I know. But what she has surely done is kill any chance of getting herself elected pres of the USA, or even VP.
Perhaps she thinks this resignation allows her time to prepare herself for such a job, but it has doomed her to failure at winning the job itself. Folks just don't like a quitter, and they really don't trust a person who jumps around doing the unexpected and providing such goofy reasons for it. She woulda been better off claimin' she was gonna hike the Appalachian Trail, if ya know what I mean.
Using the rationale she gave the press when she announced she was leaving the governor's job, every elected politician would be quitting the position at the beginning of a final term. In addition, in her case, she's saying that she is a lame duck governor out of choice, and still going to quit the position! That's just plain BS, the sort that insults our intelligence.
After making many promises and taking political contributions from many citizens in order to run for the governorship of Alaska, she quit the job in the middle of her FIRST TERM, (after spending a big chunk of that term out of the state, busily running for the VP job!) Yep, she never even completed her first term in office. That makes her a quitter, pure and simple. The folks who trusted her, believed in her, gave money to her, just got screwed. Ain't nobody can argue that.
She may get the presidential nod from the Tea Party, what's left of it, or from an independent party for that matter. The Tea Party's future is that grim. But this stunt has guaranteed she will lose the election, no matter who she runs with, just like last time.
If she runs from the platform of a third party, the Tea Party will, of course, lose along with her. The split will be most brutally effective at costing them the election, since I'd say right now the split would be just about right down the middle. The roughly 40% of the population the Tea Party now holds would become two 20% parties. One with the money and a lazy base. The other with all the rabid Fundies, but no money. True justice for them having put Bush/Cheney in power to start wars and rape our economy.
Having said all this, about all that's left to say is, "Run! Sarah! Run!"