Sarah Palin Says, 'I Feel Great' After Leaving Office

ABCNews.com:

Alaskans start the work week with a new governor, Sean Parnell, and an old puzzle: Why exactly did the old governor, Sarah Palin, step down, and what are her plans for the future?

So far, only a possible family vacation is on tap, her husband Todd Palin told ABC News.

"Maybe a little moose hunting, what do you think?" he said, adding that he was "very proud" of his wife.

Palin officially stepped down as Alaska's governor late Sunday, saying her reasons for doing so should "be obvious." But for those still in the dark, she repeated her belief that she thought she could more effectively serve the people of the state by leaving office.

She went out with a bang, delivering a fiery and candid 15-minute farewell speech to a crowd of supporters in Fairbanks, Alaska, in which she lambasted the media and touted Alaska's history of energy independence.

At times, it sounded as if the former vice presidential candidate was back on the campaign trail, stumping for fiscal conservatism, the development of natural energy resources and moral conservatism.

Yet she gave no hint as to her future in politics, saying only she stepped down in order to spare Alaskans "politics as usual" from her governorship turning into a "lame duck session," with a year-and-a-half to go.

If Sarah Palin goes on to become a serious ideological force on the scene, stumping for conservatives and the GOP while offering alternatives to Barack Obama's quasi-socialist agenda, then maybe she makes up for abandoning Alaskan voters midterm. Besides that, if she wants to make as much as money as she can to make up for silly, warrantless ethics complaints, then that's her right. Other than that, if it's really about the "family" then it's time to leave the stage, exit left.