by Peter Brown
As bizarre as it may seem, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's presidential ambitions for 2012 hang to a considerable degree on her state's U.S. Senate race, a contest that could be decided this week
With about 24,000 votes still to be counted, it's less than even money that she will get the break she needs-Sen. Ted Stevens will win re-election over Democrat Mark Begich so that she can slide into the Senate seat.
Sen. Stevens, "Uncle Ted," as he is known around Alaska for his four decades in office and the federal dollars he brought home, was found guilty of felony corruption charges by a federal jury last month. If he wins another term, his Senate colleagues will almost certainly throw him out of the chamber next year, if he doesn't first resign on his own.
Gov. Palin could then appoint a successor, or there could be a special election. If Gov. Palin wants to run for president in 2012, common sense says she will appoint herself or run for the post, which would require her to stand for re-election in that job in 2010. Last week, she left open that possibility.
(Read the rest of Brown's posting from his Political Perceptions column on wsj.com. Brown is assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, specializes in polling of electoral battleground states. )
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Comments
Ted Stevens needs to lose as he is a convicted felon....Palin needs to stay in Alaska and do her job and forget about 2012 as she would never win..She could never reinvent herself to the public..bye bye
Posted by: Kaye C. | November 17, 2008 4:45 PM
Palin's already guaranteed a national platform by Faux Noise Channel... which is what Faux's Greta Van Halen's warm, wet neck-nuzzle was all about last week.
But if Palin does descend -- yes, descend -- to the Senate from her governor's ski chalet, so what?
Six more years of babbling incoherence, on subjects about which she knows absolutely nothing -- and about which she repeatedly proves her fundamental incapacity to learn anything -- will not help her any.
Historically, senators lose to governors in presidential races... and she wll have compiled a record as an intolerant, extremist ideologue.
Let her hitch up her moose, saddle up her Vapid Response Team and come on down to the Lower Forty-Eight. You betcha.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54Ae_bSz9w
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Posted by: ace mcfunkenstein | November 17, 2008 6:57 PM
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is a convicted felon and criminal. How in the world can he serve in the U.S. Senate?? He should be hauled off to federal prison, where he belongs. Any of you Stevens supporting Republicans can go visit him there...or write him a letter. Losers.
Posted by: Doug R. | November 18, 2008 8:51 AM
You are telling us that Sara Palin is a governor, but she needs to get into the Senate without being elected in order to make another run for the White House in 2012? What a bunch of nonsense!
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She doesn't need a seat in the Senate to run for office, and serving as a senator wouldn't help her chances. If she can't prove her worth as a governor, becoming a senator isn't going to help. To the contrary, a precipitous change to the U.S. Senate would only make her look like a political climber (like Obambi). Besides, with the exception of Duh'bya, former governors have routinely made better Presidents than any senator running for the job. If she is inclined to run for President or Vice President again, she would do better just to stick to the job she has.
Posted by: John W. | November 18, 2008 10:15 PM