Palin-Stevens '12

If this whole election doesn't work out, the two Alaskans could team up for a comeback, just like the old days five years ago:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

Because she's a figure of the fundie right, and because to get anywhere in Alaska politics you have to suck up to Ted Stevens, this is completely unsurprising.

The delegates on the floor of the RNC cheered louder for Palin than McCain. They see her as one of their own. Given the pain and suffering Republicanism has given us over the past eight years, given how many elected officials wanted to stay as far away as possible from these people, that should tell you everything. Palin is out of step with mainstream Americans. This is her base:

Ninety percent of the Democratic delegates said the nation was in a recession, while 72 percent of the Republican delegates say it is not.

“If we were in a recession, people would not be eating out — they would be in the grocery store and cooking at home,” said Phyllis Gorman, 59, a business owner and delegate from Oklahoma, in an interview after the delegate poll was taken. “When I drive by McDonald’s, there are so many people in line there. There are still a lot of cars on the road. If we were still in a recession like we were in the ’70s, people wouldn’t be doing anything.”

That would sound right coming out of the mouth of Ted Stevens, too.