‘ACCOMPLISHMENTS’…. Bill Kristol thinks Sarah Palin’s bizarre resignation may be “shrewd,” in part because she’s “probably accomplished most of what she was going to get done as governor.”
Now, perhaps it’s unfair to expect Palin to have “accomplished” much. She’s only going to serve 30 of her 48 months in her one term, and a few of those 30 were spent traveling the country as a national candidate. Presumably, Palin could spend the next 18 pursuing more of her policy agenda, but by all appearances, she hasn’t actually thought of one.
But Kristol’s argument — Palin has already built a record of accomplishments that she “probably” couldn’t build on — leads one to wonder what, exactly, she’s done.
The outgoing governor’s press office put together a list of Palin “accomplishments,” which is quite thin.
Indeed, some of the points aren’t really “accomplishments” at all. “Maintained biologically-sound wildlife management” is not an accomplishment. Turning down a pay raise is not an accomplishment. The list boasts that Palin filled vacancies to state positions, but if that’s an accomplishment, her administration has lowered the bar pretty low, since that’s one of those basic duties for all governors.
My personal favorite was the list’s reference to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding Alaska — as if the justices’ work counts as one of her own personal “accomplishments.”
In the non-political world, I think this is known as “shamelessly padding one’s resume.” I wonder why Kristol would find this impressive?
