Hard to believe

Jake Tapper, of ABC, reports that the Alaska Independence Party (which he describes as a "'fringe'"--that is, he puts "fringe" in quotes--party) claims that Sarah Palin was a member. There is a YouTube video of her sending a message to the party for its 2008 convention. In it, she sounds like she is trying to bring party members into the mainstream of Alaskan politics.

The party's vice-chair told a group of supporters that Palin was a member of the party before ran for mayor of Wasilla. If true--and as far as we know there is no support for the boast--that could--we emphasize "could"--mean that she was part of a party that looks toward an ultimate goal of separating Alaska from the United States as late as 2000.

It's hard to believe that Ms. Palin (or does she prefer Mrs.?) ever seriously flirted with the idea of Alaskan secession, and this page should be the last to indulge in the practice of guilt by association. Mere membership in any party should not be a license to attribute all of the party's platform proposals to any individual.

It seems fair to ask, however, how the Republican Party--given its premises and its platform--could run a vice-presidential nominee who ever seriously suggested breaking away from the United States.

Well, maybe they'll argue that that constitutes experience in international relations.

Update: The NYT reports that Palin has been confirmed to have been a member of the AIP "for two years in the 1990s." In 1990, she was 26 years old; in 1999, she was 35. So this was not exactly a youthful flirtation. She married in 1988 (according to Wikipedia, she and her husband eloped--what was that about?), and had her first child the following year. So she was at least a young mother when she joined the AIP.