Senator Palin?

The 2008 US presidential election has been a seemingly-endless string of coincidences, missteps, lucky breaks, gaffes and recoveries. Don’t count on them to end, today. Sarah Palin might go to Washington, anyway, and sooner than we think.

Hear me out.

Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was a shoo-in to win re-election — until he was convicted on seven felony counts of tax evasion and bribery. As I write this, he is behind eight points, and looks to go down.

But Stevens is a tough politician, with 36 years in the Senate. He’s brought more money to Alaska than anyone. And a lot of Alaskans will be voting Republican, today — will they jump party against Stevens?

If Stevens does win election, he must successfully appeal his seven felony conviction. While he can serve as Senator during appeal (which, on the public evidence, looks to be an uphill fight), he can hardly be effective. And, at 84, he is no longer the young, energetic pork-manager of 1970.

So even if he wins, he may find it better — or be forced — to resign.

Enter Palin. If Stevens resigns, Sarah Palin, as governor of Alaska, can appoint herself as interim Senator, until a special election is called. Given her popularity in Alaska, and the strength of the Republican party there, I think its a safe bet she would win election to a full term.

And then she waits 8 years. In the meantime, she stirs up the “base” for Republican congressional candidates in 2010, 2012, and 2014 — building up a mountain of chits to cash in in 2016. Reminds me of another (though much smarter) Republican brawler — Richard Nixon.

Senator Palin? Watch the returns from Alaska .. if Stevens wins, we can just suck it up. Sarah goes to Washington.

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