Matt Continetti, The Weekly Standard:
One thing you learn about Sarah Palin when you study her career is that she never, ever does things by the book. I think it's safe to say today's events are a further example of this tendency.
Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Corner:
Listening to her, it seems like this is a combination of stepping back and moving forward. Stepping back, because it's way too overwhelming to be Sarah Palin, political phenom, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and Sarah Palin, wife and mother. I don't know that anyone can fulfill all those roles well, simultaneously. And we're unrealistic, I think, when we assume people can or should.
One reservation I've always had about Sarah Palin has to do with her family. If she is stepping down because of what politics has done to her family, because of something in her family life she doesn't want to see as David Letterman fodder, because it's impossible to be governor, a star, and a mom to an infant ... this is good. It demonstrates good judgment and priorities.
And that is that.
It's over. You can't resign from a governorship and then run for higher office. Barring some strong reason, like needing treatment for cancer.
--Isaac Chotiner