abrahamhyatt.com

So it’s been a while, but I’ve got a full plate of posts that I’m working on for this spring.

Here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks: why we need to start thinking about technology as journalism; the state of magazines in Oregon (a.k.a The Oregon Magazine Deathwatch); what we can learn from stupid Internet users; and a nonfiction piece on the youngest member of the Lincoln assassination plot.

Additionally, this Thursday I’ll speaking at the CASE regional conference in downtown Portland. My session is called “We Are the Media: You and the Emerging New Journalism“.

With the contraction of print and broadcast newsrooms, the media professionals we relied on for higher education coverage have started to disappear and so has their beat. Are there opportunities to become our own media with access and cost efficiency of the blogosphere, Twitter and other social media? As the digital revolution continues to reshape the journalism landscape, how is this changing the way we do our jobs? What trends and emerging journalism efforts can we expect to turn into mainstays of tomorrow’s journalism world?

As part of that I’ll also be posting a new media how-to guide for university administrators and teachers.

Sarah Palin: Wow.

Theory 1: Since she’s not running for reelection, why not use the time to fundraise and raise support for a presidential run instead of just sitting around as a lame duck governor? A similar theory says that instead of president, she’s going to run for the senate against current Alaska senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski.

Likelihood: Possible. She’s hit a political brick wall in Alaska. She doesn’t have a lot of support from the Legislature. The economy is crashing and she doesn’t want to be a governor who raises taxes. The GOP is desperate for a national leader and she could easily fill the void; up until last week polls clearly showed she’s popular among conservatives. As for the senate, there’s no love between her and Murkowski. This was the senator’s one-sentence statement yesterday: “I am deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded.”

Chance of success: Lukewarm. Here’s why: a) Romney doesn’t have a day job and to keep up, Palin needs to hit the 2012 trail right now. Right? Wrong. And not just because it’s possible to run a state while campaigning. It also has to do with how much experience you have when you step down to join the race. As Bruce Reed points out, ex-governors like Carter, Reagan, Clinton and George W. either termed out or had served multiple terms before running for president.

b) The Nixon argument. After Nixon lost the 1960 presidential and 1962 California gubernatorial elections, he gave a bitter, angry speech (a.k.a the Checkers Speech), and seemed destined for political exile. He spent the next six years traveling the nation and world rebuilding his — and his party’s — status as a foreign affairs leader, and went on to become president. Palin isn’t Nixon. She doesn’t have his knowledge of foreign affairs, or his brilliance as a political strategist. Or six years for that matter.

Theory 2: Rather than jumping straight into a new campaign, she’s going to turn herself into an even bigger political superstar (and make lots of money) by writing books, getting her own show on Fox, sitting on corporate boards, and traveling around the country speaking at lucrative speaking engagements.

Likelihood: Possible. The opportunities abound.

Chance of success: Unknown. She’s thrown even her most ardent supporters into a tailspin. Conservatives4Palin.com: “All of us in the Palin camp have found quicksand beneath our feet today. Nobody knows what to think.” How much will they pay to hear her talk? She’s going to have do some serious work to win them back. See also Theory 5.

Theory 3: She’s pregnant.

Likelihood: Um.

Theory 4: She’s facing a federal indictment of some kind. The rumors of an actual indictment are just that. The facts that may lead up to that indictment are, on the other hand, pretty solid. At the center of the case is a building contractor called Spenard Building Supplies. The Village Voice did a in-depth investigation last year; Max Blumenthal has a new roundup:

Likelihood: Completely unknown. This is based entirely on unverifiable comments by off-the-record sources. Yes, Palin has faced at least three separate ethics scandals in the last few years. But we’re not going to know anything about this one until the feds announce something.

Theory 5: She’s simply being her impulsive self.

Likelihood: Very high. Palin’s speech was weird. It was rambling and sometimes incoherent. It’s very likely she wrote it herself; the exclamation points (18 in all), oddly used quotation marks, and repeated ALL CAPS are not the hallmark of a professional speechwriter. Guess where her main spokesperson was at the time of the speech? New York City.

Chance of success: Very poor. Joe Gandelman: “Sarah Palin is again doing it her way — but the question is whether her way is on the same wavelength as America’s overall polity and the way the political system operates.” Friday’s announcement didn’t catapult her to a new level of politics. In fact it did the opposite. Her resignation, with all its uncertainty and caprice, has cemented the fact that this confusing and unpredictable person is the Sarah Palin we will always see, no matter how long she’s on the political scene.

To quote Nixon: “A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”

Ink spots in image by Paulo Correa