Palin’s powers of persuasion are far greater than I gave her credit for. I’m wondering if June Lockhart of “Lassie” or whoever played Beaver Cleaver’s mom could have swayed me when I was younger had she happened to had the same qualifications.

The World According to Joe Biden: the US & France teamed up to run Hezbollah out of Lebanon.

Brilliant!

If Sarah Palin had uttered something half that stupid, she’d have been hounded out of the race by now.

Go here and all will become clear.

shakes head and mutters Kids.

I’ve read and respected many of your post. I have no idea how you’ve deduced a geographical prejudice in me. I have no clue as to what you’re saying. I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer but people tell me I catch on easily. Please allow me to impose on your good nature to help me out on this issue.

.. but the office address (1100 H Street NW 700) and the fax number are both from Capital City Partners.

Ralph Benko is one of the four principals of Capital City Partners.

used to be a common bumper sticker here in Alaska. People like you are the reason why.

I spent twenty years as a high-level bureaucrat and appointee in the Alaska government. I knew most of my peers in all those oh-so-sophistocated states down South. I dealt with the same investment firms, consultants, unions, and other interest groups as they did. I saw more than enough of what they did and how they did it to know that I could do their job and they couldn’t do mine.

Governing Alaska is more like governing a country than a state and is more like running a multi-national corporation than running a government. The Lower 48 media has developed the welfare state meme about Alaska largely because of federal spending here. First, the Federal government has a huge presence here and spends a lot of money for its own purposes rather than directly to or for the State of Alaska. Second, in furtherance of US energy policy we allowed Prudhoe Bay to be developed at the highest uplift rate of any major field in the World in order to help drive down the OPEC price in the ’80s. We were giving the oil away to help finance the boom in the Lower 48, so we did our best to get our hands in that burgeoning federal treasury. While we were a District and a Territory, the US grossly neglected Alaska and we still don’t have most of the things in much of the State that are taken for granted even in the poorest Lower 48 states – like roads and bridges! OK, we now know how you all feel about that, so it’ll be a cold day in Hell when we throw Alaska oil on the market again, and, no, I don’t care if your SUV is a lawn ornament. And, even in our “porkier” period when the price of oil was so low, most years the State’s largest source of revenue was neither oil nor federal revenue but investment earnings off the Permanent Fund.

In any event, ANY governor or public executive is more qualified for executive office than ANY Senator – period.