Soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has announced that she will resign as governor of Alaska this month.

In a news conference from her home in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin announced Friday that she would resign later this month. The state’s lieutenant governor will assume the office of governor on July 26.

A CNN story quotes a source speaking on the condition of anonymity as saying Palin has accomplished all the goals she set out to accomplish. Much like our own Matt Blunt.  (It took Palin only three years. Poor Matt had to use his whole single term as governor to accomplish all his goals.)

In her announcement, she took heavy aim at the media and “politics as usual” for making it difficult for her to govern the state. She said putting her head down and working would be the easy thing to do. So instead she’s quitting.

She laid out her accomplishments in her three years as governor, placing special emphasis on a pipeline project that would deliver, she says, energy independence. She claimed victory over “frivolous” ethics charges that were politically motivated, and pointed out how expensive those complaints were for the state and for the Palins.

She said she knows she can “effect positive change from outside of government.”

The governor was the subject of an unflattering Vanity Fair story this month.