{"id":110,"date":"2008-10-02T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-02T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2008\/10\/02\/its-alaska-day-for-political-wonks\/"},"modified":"2008-10-02T15:08:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-02T19:08:00","slug":"its-alaska-day-for-political-wonks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2008\/10\/02\/its-alaska-day-for-political-wonks\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Alaska Day — for political wonks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I grew up in Alaska and follow politics Way Up North with some fascination. Today, a state with fewer people than Newark, New Jersey, has pushed its way into America’s consciousness.<\/p>\n

Exhibit A, of course, is Gov. Sarah Palin — the small-town mayor from Wasilla whose meteoric rise will either prove one of the great success stories in political history…or it’ll prove a catastrophic flame-out.<\/p>\n

Tonight, she faces off in a debate against Joe Biden, the veteran Senator from Delaware. Bring your popcorn and your caribou jerky. <\/p>\n

Exhibit B is Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Two weeks ago, the Republican looked downright terminal, as he defended himself against federal charges that he failed to disclose gifts from a big oil-field services company.<\/p>\n

Stevens — whose long career as U.S. Senator has made him into an Alaska institution — was looking old, doddery, and politically vulnerable.<\/p>\n

But now the prosecution’s case seems to be falling apart, on charges that government attorneys failed to disclose evidence that weakens their case.<\/p>\n

The most recent poll – taken in mid-September – put Democratic challenger Mark Begich ahead of Stevens by six points (50-44%). <\/p>\n

But if Stevens prevails in court, look for an October surge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in Alaska and follow politics Way Up North with some fascination. Today, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}