my own belief is that she wanted her resignation to appeal to central/mainstream america... then she wanted her book to appeal to far-right readers.
her resignation was smiles, cheery and positive, with a few weird reasons.
her book specifically blamed the left.
when anyone else does it, this is called playing politics and choosing your speech based upon your audience. When palin does it... it's the same thing.
Now, has the grassroots Thune 2012 campaign started yet?