A Hardball panel discusses her future and her recent appears at the Republican Governors Association convention…

As usual, Pat Buchanan loves Palin, but the other Republican on the panel isn’t too keen to give her the same praise.
And frankly, I think many in the GOP are embarrassed by her performance on the trail. Especially guys like [...]

At least according to a leading GOP pollster in Alaska…
“I don’t think Stevens can come back,” [GOP pollster David] Dittman said, noting that he thinks the remaining trove of uncounted ballots will help Begich “increase his lead.”
Even if Begich’s advantage grows, however, Dittman believes it’s highly unlikely that Stevens will concede the race until every [...]

Pure fluff, but hey…it is Palin and she’s auditioning for 2012 at this point.
So, here’s Greta Van Susteren’s interview in five parts.
Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

And scene.

Stevens had a 3,200 vote lead on election night, but that has completely evaporated.
Yesterday, Doug posted that Mark Begich led by only 3 votes.
Today that total is up to around 800.
Begich: 132,196
Stevens: 131,382
And the Dems inch closer and closer to a supermajority…

What was once a 3,200 vote margin has disappeared, and Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Federal Prison) now trails in his re-election bid:
The elections division still has over 10,000 ballots left to count today and thousands more through next week, but the latest numbers show Mark Begich leading Sen. Ted Stevens 125,019 to 125,016.
The new numbers, [...]

Well, the woman certainly doesn’t mince words, does she?
This from her interview tonight on Greta Van Sustern’s show…
“You know, I have — faith is a very big part of my life. And putting my life in my creator’s hands — this is what I always do.
I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open [...]

First she said he should.
Now she’s deferring to others, which is the same as backing away from her previous statements without explicitly saying as much.
This is a pretty big development, and one that signals Palin’s unwillingness to cede the Senate seat to a Democrat. Because Stevens challenger Mark Begich would obviously be the favorite [...]

Why?
Because early, absentee and provisional votes seem to favor challenger Mark Begich (pictured above).
Analysis from Nate Silver:
Although Ted Stevens currently holds a lead of approximately 3,200 votes in ballots counted to date in Alaska’s senate contest, there is good reason to believe that the ballots yet to be counted — the vast majority of [...]

Probably a little too late to help McCain/Palin, but this is good news for the Republicans:
A report has cleared Gov. Sarah Palin of ethics violations in the firing of her public safety commissioner. The report, released Monday, said: “There is no probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the [...]

“We’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”
- Sarah Palin quoted in the latest New Yorker
Now, I don’t know about you, but “share in the wealth” certainly sounds exactly like “spreading the wealth.”
Do you [...]

Well, looks like he’s going to fight the conviction, but his claim of prosecutorial misconduct seems rather weak. I mean, Ted, the prosecutors didn’t remodel your home and put all that furniture in your house for free.
In any event, from Stevens website comes the following statement…
“I am obviously disappointed in the verdict but not surprised [...]

I found Palin’s response today to one of the biggest ethics scandal in her state to be pretty clear code for “Get lost old man.”
Here’s what she said…
“The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company that was allowed to control too much of our state. It was part [...]

Umm…ouch.
And the reason is clear…she just isn’t ready.
They go through a lot of reasons, but here’s the red meat of the piece…
Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made [...]

Since Palin has run as a “reformer”, any hint of improperly allocating funds to benefit herself at the taxpayers’ expense really puts a dent in her credibility.
And the AP has apparently discovered some weird shifting around of funds to cover her kid’s travel expenses.
Here’s more…
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for [...]

The second TrooperGate investigation gets under way soon.
Today is not a good day to be a Palin…
The Alaska Personnel Board is conducting the investigation, led by an independent counsel.
It will be the first deposition of the Alaska governor, but the second inquiry into the matter. The first investigation by the Alaska state legislature found that [...]

Her “hometown” paper fires back in one of the more strongly worded editorials I’ve seen this campaign season.
Again, I don’t know how she thought she was going to get away with it, but the press is now hammering her for trying to spin her way out of these ethics findings, thus ensuring that the story [...]

TODAY has the story…

They won’t let her spin her way out of this.
My guess is that this is the final nail in the McCain/Palin coffin. If people didn’t trust her before, now they have a real reason not to support her.

The Branchflower report and the McCain camp’s clearly dishonest spin was bad enough, but it looks like the McCain campaign opened up Palin to even more scrutiny when they didn’t even need to.
From Newsweek:
Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State [...]

Again, I don’t why she thought she was going to get away with this, but maybe she’s not used to reporters asking more follow up questions.
From Jake Tapper…
One can make the argument, as Palin and her allies have tried to do, that this investigation — launched by a bipartisan Republican-controlled legislative body — was somehow [...]

First, the McCain camp and Palin herself are saying that the investigation found no laws were broken or nothing unethical was done.
On the first count they’re right. No laws were broken. But do you know why she didn’t break any laws? Because the employment law states she A) could either fire him for any reason [...]