Palin wants Begich to resign?

Okay, here’s what I don’t get.  First of all, I’m an Alaskan at heart.  I grew up in Alaska, it’s what I identify with, and why I like Oregon (where I live now) so much.  But the big difference between Oregon and Alaska is politics.  Politics is something WAY different in Alaska; until you’ve experienced Alaskan politics yourself, you haven’t experienced REAL politics.

Which is why it doesn’t surprise me that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is calling for Democratic Senator Mark Begich to resign his office, the one he was elected to in November, 2008.  Her, and current Federally investigated Republican Don Young are crying foul because Stevens would have “hands down” been re-elected.

Let’s just look at the facts in the case, shall we?

According to the article at RealClearPolitics.com, Stevens was indicted on July 29th, 2008.  Sure, that would skew his numbers, right?  But here’s the thing, and something readers have to remember.  Republicans don’t care about history.  Not at all.  That’s why the polls from the Alaska Senate race of 2008 are so darn compelling.

If you look at the eighteen separate polls taken from April 7th, 2008 to October 28th, 2008 (which are conveniently found here) you will see that Begich was the clear winner of fifteen of these polls, and Stevens was the winner of just three.  When you do the math to find out the average for all polls, Begich had a total of 95 points lead in 15 polls which he led, whereas Stevens had a total of only 4 votes lead in 3 polls that he topped.  For Begich, that’s an average of 6.3 points lead over the life of his polls, and for Stevens, only a 1.3 points lead over the life of polls he led.

So clear winner, eh?  No, not so much.  Begich was the all around poll leader for the life of the 2008 Alaska Senate race.  Even if Stevens had not been indicted and found guilty, it appears that Begich would have won the race.  So Young and Palin, go find something else to lie about.