How Palin's success could help Stevens....Young....Begich.....and Berkowitz. The Hill notes that Palin's ascendancy has overshadowed two big battles going on in the state right now, obviously the Begich/Stevens U.S. Senate race, and the Young/Berkowitz U.S. House race. All four of the campaigns now emphasize their ties to Palin, recognizing her popularity in the state. Which can be awkward, to say the least.

For one, Berkowitz and Begich are Democrats. But, in this political climate, no problem.

"If you listen to what McCain says on the campaign trail, he always goes back to her having fought corruption in the Alaska Republican Party," Shurtleff said. "That's talking about Ted Stevens and Don Young."

The Berkowitz campaign suggests a Palin endorsement for Ethan would solidify her maverick credentials. The Begich campaign emphasizes their mutual youthfulness.

Palin has been careful about criticizing Sen. Ted Stevens. "We expect Gov. Palin to create a significant turnout among Alaskans and her base, which are the Republicans," Stevens spokesman Aaron Saunders said.

And as for Young?

"They both have a deep love for the state of Alaska," said Young's spokesman, Michael Anderson. "They do sometimes see things a bit differently."

David Brooks wants more prudence than Palin professes. The New York Times columnist David Brooks:

Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she'd be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

The idea that "the people" will take on and destroy "the establishment" is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.

***

"It's vetting gone haywire." That's Palin press aide Bill McAllister talking, as reported by ABC NEWS. Apparently he's been left to answer questions about a tanning bed installed in the Governor's Mansion in Juneau at her own expense, while the McCain campaign handles the Troopergate hoopla.

McAllister has apparently been cut out of the loop by McCain campaign aides who have taken charge of the "troopergate" issue while leaving the tanning bed questions to him.

"There's some press conference going on somewhere right now, but I don't know where or with whom," McAllister said Monday.

Arguments continue on whether Palin is being even-handledly treated in the media. Newsreader offered a story last week from the Chicago Tribune that shared details from a NexisLexis Analytics review of more than 2,000 stories.

Perhaps the most surprising finding from last week-at least to those who claim the media have been attacking Palin-was that the coverage of Palin was deemed balanced.

Based on 6,027 stories analyzed, LexisNexis found that 26 percent were positive, 22 percent negative and 52 percent neutral.

But today, Fox News posted an opinion piece from John Lott, author of Freedomnomics and a senior research fellow at the University of Maryland. Lott says the media has been one-sided on Palin. Even when corrections are made, say to earmark coverage, the follow up is never as great as the initial coverage.

I spent some time looking at questions of whether Palin was properly vetted or the taxes that she imposed on oil companies, but the results were similar. Palin just doesn't seem to get an even break, let alone the extremely protective news coverage offered Obama.

***

NOW PAC endorses Obama. Palin may be a woman, but she's not strong on women's issues. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that - in what is perceived as a blow to the McCain campaign - the NOW PAC came out today for Obama/Biden.

The story quotes NOW officials saying that Palin never responded to the nonpartisan Project Vote Smart's National Political Courage Test, despite encouragement from national leaders that included Sen. John McCain. You can find McCain's VoteSmart scores here.

***

Permanent Fund takes hit as Wall Street stumbles. The Juneau Empire says the full damage assessment will come midday today, but those who manage the fund know the fund is vulnerable in Monday's widening financial crisis on Wall Street.

"I've had better days," said Mike Burns, executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state's oil revenue investment account.

"The equity is going, the bonds are well below junk level," he said. "I would think between the two we would have in excess of $20 million lost."

Burns said Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch will give the Permanent Fund some B of A stock but will also lock in Merrill's losses.

As of June 30, the Permanent Fund had Merrill Lynch stock it had purchased for more than $24 million, some at nearly $80 a share. By Monday, it had fallen in value to around $10 a share, and Merrill leaped at the chance to be bought out at $29 a share after recently trading at $17 a share.

The Permanent Fund's biggest losses, however, may come from insurance giant AIG. As of June 30, the fund had stock it had paid $144 million for, though it had by that time fallen to $75 million in value as AIG's shares tumbled to around $25 each.

Another business note: Alaskans carry the most debt on their credit cards, according to a new report from TransUnion.com. The highest state average card debt per credit card borrower was in Alaska at $2,494, followed by Tennessee at $2,109 and Alabama at $2,015.

***

"The involvement of Todd Palin in state matters is very troubling." So said Stephen Haycox, a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage to the Toronto Star. Both Salon.com and the Toronto Star spent time and energy looking closer at Palin's unofficial but significant role in his wife's administration.

From Salon:

According to local politicos and observers, he lurks around the Capitol if he doesn't have anything better to do, which, since he works seasonal jobs in oil and fishing, is fairly often.

"It's sort of puzzling," says Gregg Erickson, a Juneau columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and a longtime watchdog of state government. "He obviously plays an important role. ... I've seen him in the governor's office, and I know she's conducted interviews in the governor's office with him present."

His subpoena in the Troopergate investigation is expected to reveal more details.

The Salon piece also includes two insights on Palin's leadership, one from a Republican, one from a Democrat.

John McCain's campaign has used that number of employees to talk up Palin as having the executive experience necessary to be vice president or president, but critics say she hasn't displayed an understanding of the details needed to manage even a state as sparsely populated as Alaska. "As far as her governing ability goes, it's a learning curve," says House Speaker John Harris, a Republican who has clashed with Palin since she took office. "I think she's trying to learn, and that's one of the problems of somebody who comes from the outside -- completely from outside government, or state government, and maybe even federal government, for that matter."

Democrat Les Gara, a state representative in Alaska, says that Palin is too detached from the job to do it well. "I do not believe that she's paid enough attention to the details of policy and how government works and the issues facing the state to run the nation," Gara says. "It's not her lack of experience. I think a smart person who's really engaged and really curious can be in national office (without experience.) It's the lack of curiosity on the day-to-day workings of government that I've got the concern about."

***

Tone in Troopergate goes razor with Monday's press conference. Now former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan stands accused of insubordination and rogue behavior. And Palin is unlikely to cooperate with the legislative investigation, contrary to what she had said earlier.

Watch the 11-minute video at KTUU.

Other coverage:

> Palin aide says Obama backers politicizing Alaska investigations (CNN.com)

Former Palin press secretary Meg Stapleton told reporters in Anchorage that the investigation has been "hijacked" by "Obama operatives" for the Democratic presidential nominee, namely, Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker managing the investigation and an Obama supporter. French has denied working on behalf of the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign described Stapleton's charge as "complete paranoia."

> Fired official: Governor Sarah Palin did not tell the truth to ABC (ABCNews.com)

"I was called to her Anchorage formal governor's office to talk with Todd Palin about an issue that was a private family matter," recounted Monegan. Todd became "upset," Monegan recalled, when told the allegations had already been investigated and the case would not be re-opened.

"When Sarah later called to tell me the same thing, I thought to myself, 'I may not be long for this job.'" But Monegan said he stood by his position. "I held the public trust. As chief, I was responsible.

> McCain campaign should clear the air hanging over Palin (Washington Post PostPartisan blog)

The lawmakers were forced down that road because Palin, after promising to cooperate with the joint legislative committee, reversed course once nominated and is now resisting the Legislature's inquiry. Her staff, upon the advice of a Palin legal appointee, has refused to meet with the Legislature's investigator.

That's preposterous.

American voters need to know if Palin has abused the powers of the governor's office. And they need to know it before, not after, they go to the polls in November.

> Monegan had his own domestic violence issues. (San Francisco Chronicle)

The story claims Monegan bears no grudge against Palin but says the experience revealed her character:

No matter how it plays out, Monegan says that as far as he's concerned, the trooper case has highlighted a character flaw in the would-be veep.

"Inside all of us, we have our likes and dislikes," he said. "But when it comes time for doing official business, you put those back in the personal corner.

"Your motivator may be your heart, but your rudder should be your mind."

The issues with a past wife, identified as an emergency room doctor and Stanford University professor, come deep in the story, and Monegan refuted them in court documents.

***

ABC News gets a bad review on Palin interviews. Stephen Coll in The New Yorker says ABC has lost its way between news and entertainment.

There is no shame in winning an exclusive interview with a reclusive subject, of course, and David Westin is hardly responsible for the McCain campaign's cynical handling of its Eliza Doolittle problem, but if he had managed his network's "get" more responsibly he might have expelled its odor of compromise. The occasion of the Alaska governor's debut before the national media called for a lightly edited, extended one-on-one, aired on a single night so that American voters might assess the candidate's answers and demeanor in full.

Instead, apparently to maximize ratings and branding opportunities,

ABC doled out Palin sound bites on six network broadcasts over two days as well as in supplemental ABC Radio and Web releases. In the end, Westin exploited the governor's moose-hunting, baby-juggling appeal as if she were a magnetic contestant on one of the network's prime-time reality shows -"Extreme Makeover: White House Edition."

***

Meanwhile, Tina Fey gets a good review from Chevy Chase. Fox News says Chase loved the piece from SNL and wants more.

"I want her to decimate this woman. This woman is, I can't believe there hasn't been more about it. ... It's just unbelievable to me this woman is actually running for vice president," he continued.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post offers a long and hyperlinked review of the campaigns' behavior and how reporters are doing on their job.

"Has your candidate gone too far? Has he stretched the truth with the voters?" spokesman Tucker Bounds was asked. In reply, Bounds repeated McCain's claim that Barack Obama would raise taxes.

The anchor fired back: "But you guys have suggested that he'll raise taxes on the middle class, and virtually every independent analyst who took a look at that claim says that's not true. . . . And if that's false, why would John McCain do that?"

Some hopelessly biased agent of the liberal media? No, it was Megyn Kelly of Fox News.

***

The "other" Bridge to Nowhere is on tonight's Assembly agenda. KTUU reports that the Assembly will consider a resolution to voice disapproval over the bridge that would link Anchorage and Knik. The Associated Press offers a backgrounder on the issue.

A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.

Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span.

***

"Blue-eyed Arabs of the North." Dermot Cole at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner takes a historical and sobering look at Alaska's history of earmarks, noting: "There are already increasing demands to end what some critics portray as a culture of federal dependence in Alaska."

Between 1995 and 2005, federal spending in Alaska doubled, topping $9 billion, with a per capita level 71 percent above the national average. Uncle Sam now accounts for one of every three jobs in the state, according to University of Alaska Anchorage economist Scott Goldsmith.

In a report released in July, before Alaska earmarks entered the presidential contest in a big way, Goldsmith said the state may be vulnerable to federal spending cuts in the years ahead that could eliminate 7,000 to 20,000 jobs.

***

Speaking of how well the campaigns are doing their jobs.... Palin's remark in Ohio that her teleprompter malfunctioned at the Republican National Convention so that she just spoke directly to the Ohio delegation right in front of her has sparked debate over whether she's fibbing about that.

Politico.com says the "teleprompter did not break," despite an assertion from another blogger, Erick Ercikson of RedState, that "the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, halfway through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Gov. Palin was in the speech."

Writes Politico's Jonathan Martin: Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech. But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.

***

Other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> Redoubt Reporter makes its print debut on the Peninsula (Homer Tribune)

> Senior rent hike in the Valley investigated (Frontiersman)

> A majority in Kodiak struggle over rent, can't afford health care costs (Kodiak Daily Mirror)