• Alaska governor vows to save her state and America
• Palin makes clear she is still in the political game
• Resignation perplexes and divides Republicans

Sarah Palin has offered the tantalising prospect that she may have destroyed her own political career with her shock resignation as Alaska’s governor.

“You know, politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it,’” she told American television when pressed about the wisdom of her resignation on Friday which has baffled and divided her own party.

But those Americans hoping they had seen the last of the former Republican vice presidential candidate who stormed the political stage last year will have been disappointed by her reappearance, in fishing waders, in a series of television interviews today promising to save Alaska and the country.

The point of the interviews wasn’t clear other than to keep Palin in the news alongside Michael Jackson. But they were evidently staged to look as if the camera crews had stumbled on the Alaska governor hard at work as a fisherwoman in a remote village 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle. ABC news even took her out in her husband’s boat and noted the fish guts on her overalls.

Palin did, however, make clear that she’s still in the political game. “I don’t need a title to be the one to usher in what it is that needs to be done in our state and our country,” she told ABC news.

What that is remains a mystery other than vague assertions that she intends to focus on “energy independence, national security, small smarter government”.

CNN pressed her on whether she is planning a run for president as has been widely assumed. “Don’t know what the future holds. I’m not going to shut any doors. Who knows what door’s open. Can’t predict what the next fish run’s going to look like… so I certainly can’t predict what’s going to happen in a couple of years,” said Palin.

Asked why she quit, the Alaska governor fell back on her earlier explanation that she has resigned because her opponents unleashed a “political blood sport” of a barrage of ethics investigations that are costing the state millions of dollars. She also accused her opponents of trying to bankrupt her.

But resigning as governor will not necessarily kill off the investigations as the state would still be obliged to probe allegations of past transgressions. Today it was revealed that the Alaska attorney general is considering a fresh allegation, this time from a conservative watchdog, that Palin wrongly claimed a per diem to live in her own home.

If the pressure of the political blood sport is the real reason Palin resigned, it will suggest to some that she doesn’t have staying power in the bigger coliseum of American politics.

There has also been widespread speculation that one of the ethics investigations against Palin has turned up evidence of wrongdoing. Her lawyer has denied it.

Palin dismissed the general scepticism and confusion over her motives for resigning. “You know why they are confused? I guess they can’t take something nowadays at face value,” she told ABC news.

The move has even perplexed and divided Republicans, drawing stinging criticism from some big names such as George Bush’s political mastermind, Karl Rove, and Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan’s election campaign, and who described Palin as crashing and burning.

Even the highly partisan Fox News, which championed Sarah Palin at John McCain’s expense during the presidential election, is turning on Palin with one contributor caller her inarticulate and undereducated with “no credentials for any job”.

• Rivals believe she wants a shot at the White House
• Republican opinion split on timing of move

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate who electrified her party’s campaign last year, has resigned as Alaska’s governor in a decision that has fuelled speculation she is positioning herself to run for president.

After a sometimes rambling speech in which she compared herself to American soldiers wounded in battle in Kosovo, and said only dead fish go with the flow, Palin’s critics accused her of a “flaky” decision and walking away from her post.

Palin, who built strong support among conservative Republicans as John McCain’s running mate last year, said she will step down in three weeks because she can contribute more away from politics.

“We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities,” she said.

But Palin also hinted at continuing political ambitions when she repeated a quote she attributed to General Douglas MacArthur: “We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction.”

For someone who is supposedly stepping back from politics, Palin’s resignation speech was weighty with policy specifics which prompted speculation that she is positioning herself for a 2012 presidential bid or seeking another office which would move her from distant Alaska to the heart of Washington politics.

But coming during Independence Day, the move raised questions among some Republicans who accused her of attempting to escape falling poll numbers in Alaska as a series of economic problems and ethics investigations take their toll. A prominent Republican strategist, Ed Rollins, who directed Ronald Reagan’s election campaign, said Palin had made a serious mistake. “She was a shooting star who dimmed in recent months and now she’s crashed,” he said.

Another Republican strategist, Tony Blankley, disagreed and said Palin appeared to have made a smart move to position herself for a run for president.

“It looks like she’s moving down a path toward it,” he said. “It frees her up. The normal rules don’t seem to apply to her. She’s a fascinating character who seems to do things her own way.”

Blankley said that it makes sense for Palin to resign as governor if she is seeking higher office.

“This is going to be a pretty tough time for incumbents the next couple of years in America with everything going to hell, and this may be a pretty good time not to be in office,” he said.

Blankley also said that Palin faced particular difficulties trying to juggle a national campaign with being governor of Alaska, several time zones from Washington. Palin will need to spend time in the capital developing relationships with key Republican strategists.

Palin remains a frontrunner among Republicans nationwide as a potential presidential candidate.

But other Republicans were more critical, including John Weaver, a long time confidant of McCain.

“We’ve seen a lot of nutty behaviour from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of that,” Weaver told the Washington Post. Palin’s resignation was swiftly criticised as “flaky” by her Democratic opponents who said it was part of a pattern of “bizarre” behaviour. The Democratic National Committee said she is “leaving the people of Alaska high and dry … or she simply can’t handle the job now”.

The timing of the announcement led some critics to accuse her of trying to bury the news of her resignation. But given that almost nothing else was going on, it might have been a move to dominate the news bulletins, as it forced Michael Jackson’s death from the top slot.

Palin addressed the ethics investigations launched to examine her alleged misuse of office by saying that taxpayer money was being wasted and deriding them as part of the “superficial political blood sport” against her since she shot to prominence as McCain’s running mate.

Palin will hand power to her deputy, lieutenant governor Sean Parnell.

Republican favourite

Sarah Palin’s rise through politics was rapid after her election as a member of the council of the small Alaskan city of Wasilla in 1992. Four years later she was Wassilla’s mayor before going on to chair Alaska’s oil and gas conservation commission and then becoming the youngest elected governor of the state in 2006.

Two years later she was spotted by John McCain’s presidential campaign team as he searched for a running mate who could bring on board conservative Republicans who were suspicious of his more moderate views.

While Palin reinvigorated a lacklustre campaign, there were growing tensions with McCain as she was seen as positioning herself to advance her own ambitions at his expense, particularly as it became apparent that Barack Obama was likely to win the election.

Since the campaign, Palin has remained a favourite of Republican conservatives at a time when their party is largely leaderless and lacking a strategy to win back voters.

• 2008 vice-presidential nominee will leave office July 26
• Governor did not take questions at press conference

Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former Republican vice-presidential candidate, made a surprise announcement Friday that she is resigning from office at the end of the month without explaining why she plans to step down, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.

Palin hastily called a news conference this morning at her home in suburban Wasilla, giving such short notice that only a few reporters actually made it to the announcement. State troopers blocked late-arriving media outside her home, and her spokesman, Dave Murrow, finally emerged to confirm that Palin will step down July 26. He refused to give details about the governor’s future plans.

Lieutenat governor Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the governor’s picnic in Fairbanks at the end of the month, Murrow said.

Palin was first elected in 2006 on a populist platform. But her popularity has waned as she waged in partisan politics following her return from the presidential campaign. Her term would have ended in 2010.

Palin said she planned to make a “positive change outside government”, without elaborating. She also expressed frustration with her current role as governor.

“I cannot stand here as your governor and allow the millions of dollars and all that time go to waste just so I can hold the title of governor,” Palin said.

Later, on Twitter, she promised supporters more details: “We’ll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election … this is in Alaska’s best interest, my family’s happy … it is good. Stay tuned”

Palin’s decision even took Parnell by surprise. He said he was told on Wednesday evening, and was not aware that any presidential ambitions were behind the move.

Palin emerged from relative obscurity nearly a year ago when she was tapped as then Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.

She was a controversial figure from the start, with comedian Tina Fey famously imitating her elaborate hairstyle and folksy “You betcha!” on “Saturday Night Live”.

Most recently, she led a public spat with Late Show host David Letterman over a joke he made about one of her daughters being “knocked up” by New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez during the governor’s recent visit to New York. Palin’s 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, is an unwed, teenage mother.

Letterman later apologised for the joke.

Palin’s family and the ridicule they endure being in the public eye was part of her decision. She complained that her 14-month-old son, Trig, who was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, had been “mocked and ridiculed by some mean-spirited adults recently”. She didn’t elaborate.

Palin campaigned on ethics reform in the 2006 election, defeating incumbent governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary and a former two-term Democratic governor, Tony Knowles, in the general election.

She enjoyed an extended honeymoon with lawmakers and voters alike. Her popularity was in the 80 percentile range, even though that fell after the bruising, partisan presidential campaign.

Palin’s delivery of two weeks’ notice rattles a Republican Party plagued with setbacks in recent weeks, including extramarital affairs disclosed by two other 2012 presidential prospects, Nevada senator John Ensign and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

Ensign, a member of the Christian ministry Promise Keepers, stepped down from the Senate Republican leadership last month after admitting he had an affair for much of last year with a woman on his campaign staff who was married to one of his Senate aides. Ensign later disclosed he had helped the woman’s husband get two jobs during the affair.

A government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, wants the Senate ethics committee and the Federal Election Commission to investigate.

Just days after news of Ensign’s affair broke, Sanford admitted an affair with a woman in Argentina. Some lawmakers are now calling for his resignation. Before the admission, Sanford had been missing from the state for five days visiting his lover. He had slipped his security detail, lied to his staff about where he was and failed to transfer power to the lieutenant governor in case of a state emergency.

Sanford admitted he also saw the mistress during a state-funded trip to Argentina last year. He promised to reimburse the state for part of the trip’s costs. The state commerce department said the trip itinerary originally included only Brazil, but the governor requested economic development meetings in Argentina.

The Republican troubles seem to have left two prominent 2012 prospects, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and 2008 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, unscathed, however.