Sarah Palin's parting shots:

Criticism and advice for the media in the former Alaska governor's farewell speech

Best opinion: Financial Times, Scared Monkeys, Wash. Post

From The Week

Sarah Palin's farewell speech was "an astonishing performance," said Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times, "and not in a good way." Her "inarticulate," unscripted opening was bad enough, but then Palin scolded her media critics by saying, "In honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up." She was saying that reporters are abusing press freedom and therefore betraying troops fighting to protect the American way of life—that's twisted, and "faintly sinister."

"Not to disappoint," said the blog Scared Monkeys, the liberal media are lashing out at Sarah Palin for lashing out at them. Palin spoke from the heart when she asked reporters to "stop making things up." (watch Sarah Palin's parting criticism of journalists) Let's hope this is the end of the unfair coverage that has dogged Palin since she was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

This is definitely the end of a "tumultuous chapter" in Sarah Palin's life, said Dan Balz in The Washington Post. Now that she has voluntarily relinquished power as Alaska's governor—"in classic Palin style"—Palin is free to do what she wants, whether it's writing her memoirs, hitting the lecture circuit, or preparing for a 2012 presidential bid. The question is, "does she have a second act in her repertoire?"

Photo: A frame grab of Sarah Palin's resignation speech

(STR/Reuters/Corbis)