Alaska Gov

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) isn't committing to supporting his vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, if she runs for president in 2012. McCain -- the Republican Party's presidential nominee last year -- says he wants to see who the other candidates are and what the situation might be. McCain says he has great affection for Palin and her family. But he also cites three other governors -- Utah's Jon Huntsman Jr., Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty -- as potential candidates.

The death of any iconic global figure is often the occasion for colorful anecdotes, but the one that has been repeated Monday in the wake of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's death - that she snubbed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2011 - just doesn't pass the smell test with me. In 2011, as part of Palin's bid to be taken seriously as a political leader and potential presidential candidate after her difficult national coming...

Seeking to channel the sign-bearing, flag-waving enthusiasm of the "tea party" movement into ballot-box victories, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told hundreds of supporters Monday they couldn't "party like it's 1773" until Washington was flooded with like-minded conservatives. "I can see November from my house!" said Palin in a self-deprecating call to action that had been reprinted on buttons. Though an exuberant Palin plugged Sharron Angle, the Republican running neck-and-neck with Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, Palin spent much of her 26-minute speech denouncing the policies of Democrats, whose base is dispirited and whose congressional majorities are at stake in November.

On a day when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shook up the Republican presidential field with the news that she was launching a national bus tour, potential competitor Michele Bachmann said she was pressing ahead with her own effort and planned an announcement next month in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa. Palin’s decision on whether to run, the Minnesota congresswoman said, would not affect her plans. Bachmann was slated to headline a fundraiser for the Polk County GOP in Des Moines on Thursday night, but missed the event to stay in Washington for a vote on the Patriot Act. She appeared in an awkward live video chat at the banquet where her remarks echoed around the room, out of sync from her blurry image on screen.      Bachmann still plans several stops in Iowa on Friday and told reporters she has hired staff in South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa for her presidential effort.

A California university violated the state's open records law when it refused to release the contract and other documents related to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fundraising appearance in June, a judge has ruled. Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Roger M. Beauchesne ordered Cal State Stanislaus officials to release the contract as well as other documents related to the use of university facilities, personnel and services surrounding the June 25 fundraising gala. Cal State Stanislaus and a foundation affiliated with the campus were sued in April after failing to disclose details of Palin's contract, including her speaking fee. Officials argued that the nonprofit foundation that hosted the former Republican vice presidential candidate was not subject to the state's Public Records Act. They also argued that the contract with the Washington Speaker's Bureau, which represents Palin, was confidential.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul D. Ryan is approaching the biggest moment of his career: his address to the Republican convention and a prime-time national television audience on Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. EDT. If early opinion soundings are correct, his presentation could help sharpen public impressions of the 42-year-old Wisconsin congressman. When Americans are asked what single word best describes Ryan, the terms conservative, intelligent, good, unknown, and young get the most frequent responses.

Fresh off her speech to the Tea Party Convention, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Sunday left open the possibility that she would run for president in 2012 and asserted that President Obama would lose if the election were held today. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Palin was asked about a recent poll that showed her topping a field of potential Republican candidates by 5 percentage points. She told interviewer Chris Wallace that she would run for the 2012 GOP nomination "if I believed that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family."

You can't say she didn't warn them. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced herself to the nation with a now-famous joke about lipstick being the only difference between a certain dog breed and a hockey mom. On Saturday, the Republican vice presidential nominee unleashed her inner pit bull, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of being someone who would "pal around with terrorists. " Her accusation -- made before an overflow crowd of more than 8,000 at Home Depot Center's tennis stadium in Carson, and earlier in the day at a Denver fundraiser -- signaled an increasingly abrasive stance toward Obama on behalf of her running mate, Republican nominee John McCain.

When eight Japanese fishing executives arrived at the Sheraton Hotel Monday, they did not have to worry about the $98 per day cost. No bill would arrive at the table after their $30 dinners. And the flowers in their rooms and other gifts costing $150 for each member of the group were all paid for with public funds from the Alaska state treasury.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention whirled in their seats en masse and called out from the floor: "Tell the truth! Tell the truth!" The chants and finger-wagging were directed toward the sky boxes. Their target: the television networks and the rest of the "liberal mainstream media." It happened 20 years ago, as the GOP gathered in New Orleans, Times political writer Mark Z. Barabak recalled this week. But the scene could have come from the convention floor Tuesday in St. Paul, where the Republican faithful began working out once again on a favorite punching bag. Their goal: to lessen the burden on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, five election cycles after the media were lambasted because it dared to question the credentials of another would-be vice president, Dan Quayle.