I woke up in Rome, Italy this morning — the 4th of July — to the very surprising news that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was resigning her position at the end of the month.
I don’t know whether this is a July 4th gift — or a warning of a nationally divisive presidential run. But the news is big and the date she has chosen for the announcement — the initial punctuation point for America’s democracy — seems strangely appropriate.
For those who have been offering me great travel advice on my Italy excursion, many thanks. I have spent a few outstanding days in Rome — though I never got to see the one time home of Augustus Caesar, one of my goals for the trip. Got close though — and then watched the BBC video.
I want to offer a pre-introduction of Hugo Dobson, a friend from the UK I ran into in Rome who will be here next week covering the G-8 Summit. He will be issuing dispatches for The Washington Note from the G-8, so give him a warm welcome.
Today, I’m driving north up to a magnificent Umbrian estate outside Perugia with Helene Cooper of the New York Times, Elise Labott of CNN, and others on this trip. Cooper let the world in on what we were doing a couple of weeks ago in this piece by her in the Times‘ travel pages. I’ve not done anything like this before with a largish group and am looking forward to the break.
Tomorrow, in case any readers are in Spoleto, I may be up at this interesting tribute to Jerome Robbins thanks to one of his long time friends I met on the plane over here.
More soon — and again, Happy July 4th!
— Steve Clemons
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