Maybe we were too hasty, bringing Alaska into the union as the 49th state.
Let's go back even further. Maybe Seward's check for $7.2 million should have bounced.
I'm sure some people feel the same way about Hawaii, most of them Hawaiians. Both states have sovereignty movements, and Hawaii was an independent kingdom.
But Alaska has an actual, full-blown political organization, the Alaska Independence Party, and Todd Palin was for a number of years a member in good standing.
Hey, there's still room to deal. If Alaska sincerely wants out of the union, maybe something could be arranged. Open-ended payments of oil royalties to the Lower 48 to refund all the tax dollars that went to infrastructure would surely be on the table. Access to mineral rights would not be out of line, in exchange for a defense treaty that gives Alaska the protection of the vast strength of the U.S. military - seeing as how Russia is a polar bear's swim away from the Alaskan Aleutians.
But here's the best part: an independent Alaskan nation means that Sarah Palin wouldn't have to wait four years to be president. She could be president right now, of her own country!
Or perhaps Alaska could incorporate, and she could be its chief executive officer. She has already said she considers herself to be ``the state CEO'' for Alaska.
It's a nice turn of phrase. And it explains a lot.
Like why she thought she could get away with firing people at will. CEOs can do that. Companies are not democracies. But states, and this nation - they are.
Last I checked, anyway.
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