Sarah Palin's AlaskaArizona

Politico's Ben Smith reports today that were Sarah Palin to run for president, she would base her campaign in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale.

The reason:

One lesson of Palin's sometimes-difficult time in the spotlight has been that Alaska is an extremely difficult base for national politics. From a distant political culture to a daunting time difference, Palin hasn't been terribly well served by the fact that her state is little-known to reporters in the lower 48, and that email inquiries arrive at 3:00 a.m. needing answers by 5:00 a.m.

There is a more specific rational for the Phoenix area: there are only 6 year-round detinations in the Lower 48 from Anchorage:

• Chicago (home base of the Obama campaign)


• Minneaplois (home base of the Pawlenty campaign)


• Salt Lake City (where both Huntsman and Romney dominate)


• Portland and Seattle (which lie in the Pacific time zone, an extra hour from most of the media)


• and Phoenix.

Seems like a pretty logicial and well-thought-out place. Couple that with the fact that Palin daughter Bristol has settled in the area and it makes one wonder if Sarah Palin may be more serious about running for president than the conventional wisdom suggests.