Few people in recent history have packed more drama into a single year. Less than 12 months after Senator John McCain tapped the Alaska governor for a spot on the GOP ticket that's nearly a year of expensive clothes, botched interviews, a teen pregnancy and hordes of adoring GOP followers Sarah Palin stepped off the national political stage ... for now. In a surprise press conference in early July, Palin announced that she would step down on July 26, ceding the governor's mansion to Lieut. Governor Sean Parnell. The exit was vintage Palin: mesmerizing and confounding, full of both tangled language and the homespun charm she used to woo millions of voters. And, as usual, it set the political rumor mill churning: Was she preparing for a run at the White House in 2012? Fed up, as allies whispered, with carping media criticism and the unwelcome spotlight on her family? Eager to leverage her celebrity with a lap on the lucrative lecture circuit? Or perhaps dodging some new, soon-to-be-unearthed scandal? The only certainty, it seems, is that we haven't seen the last of her.
Top 10 Quitters
Was it for love? Money? The stars in their eyes? As Sarah Palin prepares to step down as governor of Alaska on July 26, TIME takes a look at others who have bowed out at the height of their game