On her decision to resign - I don't think she ever used 500K as an excuse to resign - just to describe how painful all this political witchhunt has affected her personally. I think her decision was mainy affected by two factors 1) Her family/kids (and everyone who goes through such horribe attacks should put their family first, not everyone does though), 2) Her lame duck status as a governor - she's been unable to perform her job because she had to respond to all this friviolous complaints. I wish she didn't have to resign - she's been an excellent governor, but I respect her decision-family comes first.
However, she totally is a serious politician, or can become even a more serious one :-) if she chooses to. About her views being not mainstream - liberals have to stop reading liberal pubications only. The largest poitical group in US are conservatives 40%,and only 21% liberals.
***********.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx