The abrupt and bizarre resignation of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, has befuddled many political commentators.  Why did she do it?  What is she thinking?  Is it a shrewd political move or a delusional political suicide?  She seems to have stumped the best journalists of the day…

But not me.  I understand Sarah Palin.  She is a Taoist politician, best described, a la passage 20 of the Daodejing as: "muddled," "inept," "a simpleton."  Thus her incoherent resignation statement makes perfect sense.  She said, essentially, that if she stayed in her job she would be a "quitter."  It was only by quitting that she would not be a quitter.  And no one understood this.  But it is clear (to me at least) that she is making a sly reference to passage 38 of the Daodejing, which begins:

High Integrity never has Integrity and so is indeed Integrity. 

Low Integrity never loses Integrity and so is not at all Integrity.

In other words, a really steadfast person (i.e. a non-quitter) is like the person of "High Integrity" in the quote above.  It is only because the steadfast person never has to live up to the artificial standards of "steadfastness" created by the mainstream media and established political leaders that she attains a genuine steadfastness.  Conversely, a quitter (i.e. a person of "Low Integrity") always publicly declares affinity to conventional standards of steadfastness and, thus, is not at all steadfast, a real quitter.  

Got it?

For those of you out there who are hoping that this is truly the end of Palin's political career, I can point out that, in the contemporary US, those who attempt to use a Taoist approach to gain power and influence, are not generally successful.  Save, of course, George W. Bush.