Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred-Forty-Four -- Palin Set To Elect Record Numbers of Democrats Nationwide

Scores of thousands of Alaskans realized, last August 29th, that our governor, Sarah Palin, is not qualified to be vice president of the United States of America.

Alaska's progressive bloggers were in the unique position of being able to spread the word rapidly. We did. Many of us hoped that by getting the truth about Palin out to the nation and the world, the GOP machine would pull her from the ticket, once they realized the destructive possibilities for their party inherent in what appeared at the time to be John McCain's impulsiveness in her selection.

Some of were also worried that her presence on a national ticket by a major party - the first such occurance in Alaska history - would have severe negative effects on many Alaska state legislative races, and on the AK-AL U.S. House race of Ethan Berkowitz, and the U.S. Senate race of Mark Begich. Local politicians struggled in late July and the first two weeks of August, waiting to see how this would shake out in our state-level races.

It still hasn't shaken out in ways that help our Alaska candidates. But it might yet. Two long weeks for Sarah Palin and her image are shaping up. Today, after a few days of respite for Palin, was not good for her, for her running mate's campaign, or for her long-term prospects in the GOP at the national level.

The Associated Press, doing simple investigative work any Alaska media outlet could have performed, connected a lot of dots on her penchant for taking advantage of your money and mine, so that she could bring the kids on trips Frank Murkowski would have found hard to justify.

Politico.com, doing more work any Alaska media outlet could have performed, found out that Palin and the RNC have decked her out in a wardrobe Sophia Loren, had she been picked for the VP slot, would have found hard to justify.

But the best news of the day for those of us who knew how unfit she was and is, from the beginning, is that the reality of Palin as the doom machine of the McCain-Palin ticket is intensifying. This, from today's NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll:

Now, Palin's qualifications to be president rank as voters' top concern about McCain's candidacy -- ahead of continuing President Bush's policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq.

So, voters perceive Sarah Palin's association with John McCain to be a bigger liability to his campaign than his rubber-stamp approval of George Bush, and McCain's close association with the deregulation paradigm, that fueled our current economic crisis. That's pretty fucking impressive, to say the least.

Depending on how much more comes out on Palin between now and the election - time for the Alaska MSM to REDEEM THEMSELVES!!! - and how the Stevens verdict rolls out, we may even salvage a few important Democratic Party victories in Alaska, along with the ones we're already looking forward to.

But, we can rest assured, that Sarah Palin's unique role - so far - in American history, being the prime (and fairly oblivious) catalyst in a powerfully driven shift toward the center, has made our local and state-level sacrifice worthwhile.

psst - spread the word to your RNC buddies: Sarah needs to spend at least $500,000 more on clothes in the next two weeks, to save the campaign.

image - Sarah Palin in one of her earlier wardrobes