As swarms of reporters descend on the Loussac, UAA Consortium, and Mat-Su College libraries, to go through micro-fiche rolls of old copies of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, coverage of Sarah Palin's possible candidacy on the GOP ticket for vice president of the United States, along with the oldest man to run for that office for the first time, has turned a corner. Judy reminded me, as we walked around the outskirts of Wasilla today, canvassing for Obama, that when Palin was first elected mayor there in 1996, she had to hire a city manager. When her predecessors had occupied the office, they did that job themselves. There went $60,000 per year. And so it has continued to go for her.
CNN seemed to turn this new corner this evening, in both the Anderson Cooper coverage of Palin, and in the panel Larry King put together.
Air America's Ed Schultz, who decided over the weekend to come up here for a town hall meeting at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium before the middle of September, was on King's show. He jumped all over the conservative talkng heads, who obviously weren't prepared to say more than "she cut taxes, stopped the bridge to nowhere, fought corruption in her own party, stood up to Ted Stevens," and "has been a fine commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard."The Nation's Ari Berman, today cited Talking Points Memo, which has been highly reliant on Alaska bloggers and journalists in keeping track of Palin's ethical lapses, brought up a name I have been stressing in conversations and e-mails with journalists on this since early Saturday - Sen. Thomas Eagleton.
Another name stressed in these forums have been Harriet Meiers. Watching CNN's Krya Philips, whose husband is a bigtime GOP operative try to spin and minimize Troopergate reminded me of her early reports on the Meiers Supreme Court nomination.
I've heard some Alaskans are starting office pools on when she's pulled from the ticket. My guess is a week from tomorrow.