Matt Yglesias

Begich After All

Of all the Election Day results, Ted Stevens’ re-election in Alaska was probably the one that surprised me most. Except now the recount’s done and it seems that Stevens has lost. It’s a pretty earth-shattering event in Alaska politics, as Stevens has been in office for almost the entirety of Alaska’s time as a state and they haven’t sent a Democrat to congress in decades.

Given the overall nature of Alaska politics it seems unlikely that Begich will be an especially reliable progressive vote. Liberals have basically no leverage in the state and natural resource extractors who tend not to take a very enlightened view of things are vital to the local economy. Still, Stevens was quite the bad actor so almost anything would be progress.

Other Famous Alaskans

It turns out that more people are from Alaska than I’d remembered, with pitcher Curt Schilling no doubt edging Carlos Boozer out for the title of (pre-Palin) Most Famous Alaskan. Jewel can also put in a strong claim:

Meanwhile, SDG observes:

In “other people who played their high school basketball in Alaska, then played at Duke and were then drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers” news, Trajan Langdon is keeping tabs on Putin for Palin. (she can actually see him playing basketball from her house)

Maybe after the election, Palin can work on convincing basketball defector Becky Hammon to stop working for the Russkies.

Socialism

Not that anything about the current “socialism” rhetoric is meant to be taken seriously, but isn’t the closest thing to socialism on the American policy agenda the status quo situation in . . . Sarah Palin’s Alaska? You have collective ownership of valuable natural resources that generates lots of revenue for the state, and then the government makes “spreading the wealth around” through the Permanent Fund, etc. its main priority. It’s actually, for all the flaws of Alaska politics and public policy, a pretty good system. But I think the best way to think about it is that it’s an example of a somewhat special case in which socialism is a good idea.

Of course another time where you need a dose of socialism is if, for example, there’s a financial system emergency and the government needs to partially nationalize large banks in order to recapitalize them. But that’s been brought to us by George W. Bush with the support of John McCain.

Authenticity

Mike Tomasky explains the difference between the authentic American experience of growing up in Alaska eating moose, and the frighteningly exotic experience of growing up in Hawaii raised by your grandparents.

Vetting

The Washington Independent’s Laura McGann reports from Alaska:

I told [the city clerk of Wasillia] I appreciated her help, since I’m sure she’s been bombarded with requests these last few weeks. The clerk’s office keeps all City Council meeting agendas, minutes, legislation, ordinances, etc. She chuckled. Then she told me that I’m the first person who has asked her office for anything.

I’ve got nothing to say to that.

Alaska Independence?

It seems that Sarah Palin is a former member of some sort of an Alaska secessionist movement known as the Alaska Independence Party and went so far as to send them a nice video:

All of which once again raises the question of whether John McCain did even cursory vetting of his Vice Presidential nominee. And it also raises the question of Alaskan independence — is it a good idea? The case for would be that “very small population” works well for a number of countries rich in natural resources — Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Norway — since you have fewer citizens among whom to spread the wealth. On the other hand, I believe Alaska is a very large net recipient of federal funds. And of course resource-rich states have a tendency to become corrupt autocracies, so maybe it’s good for Alaska to be part of the USA.And then of course there’s the other issue — was it such a hot idea to make Alaska a state in the first place? All that oil-related revenue could be going straight into the federal kitty. And Alaska’s representatives to the federal legislature haven’t exactly distinguished themselves as broad-minded statesmen.

Alaska Fun Facts Part III

John McCain is 23 years older than the state of Alaska.

Alaska Fun Facts

How many days per year is the Alaska State Legislature in session? 90 days.