The Barracuda is a migratory species

(She’s back, but not for long.)

One of the sports editors at my paper shook his head sadly as a Snickers bar clunked out of the candy machine in front of him.

“It never ends” he said.  “Election day is supposed to be the end of it but we’re going to be dealing with this shit for weeks.”

He was talking about the undecided elections for Ted Stevens’ Senate seat and Don Young’s congressional seat. The final vote tally is not expected to be completed for another two weeks (currently, they both still lead in their reelection bids). But it was clear that he was thinking beyond those races to the political turmoil ahead.

Here’s how I see the next four years playing out.

Sarah Palin will complete her first term as governor amid controversy and under constant attack from her enemies. She will not appoint herself as the temporary successor to Stevens’ Senate seat when he is expelled, even though she is legally entitled to do so. Nor will she  appoint  one of the Wasilla Mafia. She will appoint whomever the Alaska Republican Party wants her to (I’m thinking maybe Johne Binkley or Dave Cuddy).

Sarah must make nice to the Republicans. She needs them for her own nefarious plans which are to go for Lisa Murkowski’s Senate seat in 2010. Poor Lisa is nothing without her Uncle Ted in the Senate. Sarah will wax her in that election.

The barracuda is drawing a bead on Lisa Murkowski.

Maybe, she can use the same line Don Young used this year in response to Sean Parnell’s challenge to Young’s congressional seat. “I beat your dad and I’m going to beat you too.”

But the U.S. Senate is not the barracuda’s final destination. Like Hillary Clinton, she will use it as a platform from which to launch her 2012 presidential bid. She’ll use her two years in the Senate to work on her energy and foreign policy creds. She will avoid social conservative issues.

She will lose the Tina Fey glasses and the “working girl” updo with the carefully-placed wisps (I realize that the look is her trademark but even a Wasilla valley girl can see that it’s getting a little tired).

She will not win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

WJ