This weekend, wherever we went or whoever we spoke with, our conversations inevitably turned to the topic of Sarah Palin. Whether we were discussing how hot her son and future son-in-law are, the relative merits of her convention speech, or just her qualifications in general, it seemed like everybody had endless things to say. Last night we even dreamed about Sarah Palin, all night long. We haven’t been this titillated by a politician since hottie Harold Ford Jr. was dating Julia Allison. Has everyone gone nuts? The conventional campaign wisdom is that a V.P. pick is never a game-changer. But based on word-of-mouth only, Palin looks like she’s changed not only the game, but the entire arena. Luckily, over the weekend the news gave us plenty of fodder for discussion. Here’s some of what we’ve learned over the past few days:
• After receiving flak from Joe Biden and Barack Obama on yesterday morning’s talk shows for refusing to be questioned on-camera by the media, Palin agreed to sit down with Charles Gibson later this week. It’s an interesting choice, given that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis claimed on Fox News Sunday that media “piranhas” seem to “have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children.” Gibson caught flak for his Democratic-debate moderating in April after he spent much of his time rehashing silly scandals. [NYP]
• There’s now a power struggle between the legislative and executive branches of the Alaska state government over whether or not to issue subpoenas to Palin’s staff over the firing of her ex-brother-in-law in an ethics investigation. [WSJ]
• For anyone questioning the time line of Palin’s pregnancy with youngest child Trig, the Times goes through it in detail and cites hospital witnesses. They also tell us that Palin considered calling the baby “Van,” “since Van Palin would sound sort of like the hard rock band Van Halen.” Which is totally awesome. [NYT]
• Palin didn’t initially support McCain during the GOP primary. She didn’t even endorse any of the candidates in the Alaska caucus, and berated the nominee for his position on ANWAR drilling, calling it the politically correct, but wrong, stance of “Eastern politicians.” The governor has been holed up for a week learning the rest of her new running mate’s positions. She’s using “large index cards.” [Newsweek]
• Palin’s husband, Todd (with whom the governor often sets salmon nets on their boats, and used to hunt, butcher, and cure moose and elk to feed the family), has a habit of sitting in on government meetings. [Baltimore Sun]
• The “Mavericks” theme from the Republican convention is continued in a new ad out plugging McCain and Palin. But the media is getting tired of the lies that Sarah Palin was always against the “bridge to nowhere” and McCain is a staunch opponent of pork-barrel spending. [Time]
• Unsurprisingly, William Kristol supports Palin, while Frank Rich is appalled at the pick. [NYT, NYT]
• Meanwhile, their colleague Maureen Dowd raised the question we kept hearing over the weekend: “Is Hillary Clinton really going to let Sarah Palin be the first woman president in the history of the United States?” [NYT]
