On Friday Sarah Palin announced that not only will she not seek a second term as governor in Alaska, she is stepping down as governor of the state of Alaska. Her resignation will effective as of July 26th, 2009. This move, as well as the timing of the move, has left a lot of analysts and people all across the country scratching their heads. Why would Sarah Palin resign? Why would Palin choose the Friday before a holiday weekend to make such a big announcement?

Many political experts had been wondering whether Palin would seek a second term, but no one saw this sudden resignation coming. In fact, many experts thought it might be possible that she would challenge Lisa Murkowski for a senate seat in Alaska, but that now seems extremely unlikely. Will Palin run for the republican nomination for President in 2012? No one knows for sure right now, and there are widely differing opinions on how this move would affect such a run.

Why would Sarah Palin resign? Many different people have varying thoughts on this one, but there seem to be a couple main ideas that are coming to the forefront now. The first thought is that Sarah Palin is simply sick and tired of all the media scrutiny that her family has put up with ever since she was on the ticket with Senator John McCain in late 2008. The second thought is that maybe Sarah Palin has decided that this would be the best move for her to make so that she can ready herself for a run at the republican nomination for president in 2012. Regardless of the motive, it is hard to understand why Palin would pick the Friday afternoon right before Independence Day in the United States to deliver this speech.

Even after her unsuccessful run with John McCain in 2008 Palin has been in the news quite frequently, and has been the subject of many rumors and jokes. About a month ago David Letterman made an off-color joke about Palin's daughter and Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, which he later made a half-apology for. The current issue of Vanity Fair also includes a scathing article about Palin and her performance in the 2008 election, which raises many questions as to whether McCain staffers thought she was helping or hurting their cause.

In recent days since her resignation some have even gone as far as to spread rumors that she is being investigated by the FBI, which is why she resigned. It turns out this must not be the case, as the FBI went out of its way earlier today to announce publicly that it is not investigating her in any way.

Why Palin made this announcement is still a mystery to both her supporters and those who oppose her. Maybe in time we will understand exactly why this hastily done press conference actually took place and what the motive was, but as of now, your guess is as good as any.

If you would like to view the Sarah Palin resignation speech or view the full text of the Palin Resignation speech you can do so here.