You had to know she wasn’t going away. Like Arnold Schwartzenegger, Sarah Palin will be back, barring further disastrous developments (like, getting impeached over troopergate?) . . . in 2012.
In fact Palin’s first step toward 2012 was a rather unseemly step away from the man who made her a household name by putting her on the Republican ticket, John McCain. I just caught a post-election clip on MSNBC’s 1600 Pennsylvania Ave (formerly Race to the White House) with David Gregory of Sarah Palin responding to a question about her effect on the losing ticket. Palin insisted that the pundits shouldn’t ” attribute John’s McCain’s loss to me [being on the ticket].”
But did you catch that? It was John McCain who lost last night. She’s practically kicked him to the curb hardly twelve hours later. True, people vote for the top of the ticket, but it’s still a ticket, a team, a duo. And I’ve heard, anecdotally, a lot of folks say that they were turned off by McCain’s judgment in selecting Palin. And then there’s CNN’s non-scientific text-your-response poll result: 82% of respondents said that Palin’s presence on the ticket hurt McCain.
Now, I admit that this is a nutty theory that I am about to espouse, but in my defense, I am not the only one.
I think Sarah Palin might make a run at the U.S. Senate via recently-convicted, possibly re-elected (seriously, Alaska??) felon and senior senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens. Even if Stevens wins his race, which has yet to be called for either candidate while absentee votes get counted, you have to imagine that the Senate Ethics Committee will give him the boot. (Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already said Stevens should go.) His early departure would leave an empty chair for the governor of Alaska to fill on a temporary basis, until a special election for the seat can be called.
Would Palin – could Palin – appoint herself?? I’m not sure I know the second part of the answer, but of course, she would only take the seat after her supporters had begged her to do it. After what Ted Stevens put Alaskans through, it’s the least she can do. And it would be an awfully convenient way to stay in the national spotlight and to gain national experience (it worked for Barack Obama).
I do think, however, that she will probably stay where she is for one simple reason: it’s the quickest path to run for her party’s nomination in four years. Sarah Palin has two more years in Alaska to leave a mark on the state by which she can be favorably judged by the pundits and the people when she again seeks higher office. She can also take speaking engagements that keep her in the limelight, and help to burnish a national political persona over time. Then, she would be in position to get re-elected in Alaska (assuming she remains popular enough) and run in earnest for the Republican nomination. Last night, fifty-two percent of Americans chose a candidate who hadn’t even finished one Senate term in Washington; but I doubt they will be eager to do so again so soon.
Inform Your Consent 
katbur said
Here’s my understanding of the law. If Stevens wins the election and serves for a minute and then resigns the Governor gets to appoint someone to “finish out the balance of the term”. I know it sounds insane but that’s it. I think that’s why it hasn’t been called yet.