Emails: Palin Had Eye On Veepstakes

The Daily Beast reports:

Sarah Palin kept a close watch on her constituent mail in the months before Sen. John McCain picked her as the vice presidential nominee, especially a series of flattering messages suggesting she join the Republican presidential ticket.

“Sarah Palin should run for Vice President of the United States, ” Richard Casey of Fort Collins, Colo. wrote in a message sent to the governor through her website in June 2008. “She is terrific! A vote from Colorado.”

Palin, who was evidently personally monitoring her constituent email, forwarded the message—without comment—to Jessalyn Rintala, Palin’s coordinator of constituent relations and Janice Mason, the governor’s scheduler and executive secretary.

Another message sent on the same day, June 29, 2008, from William McKane of Yankton, SD read: “I think that she would make a first-rate running mater for Senator John McCain. Please encourage her to accept if asked! What can we do to encourage Senator McCain to put her on the ticket?”

Keith Mundy of Nogales, Ariz. wrote: “Maybe you should run at some point in time. I sure as hell would vote for you.”

Palin forwarded five separate emails to Rintala and Mason on June 30, 2008—a day when speculation about who McCain would name as his running mate was heating up.

On that day, conservative commentator Bill Kristol appeared on Fox News, predicting that if McCain were to pick Palin as his running mate gas prices would "plummet immediately" because she would convince him to drill in Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.