Talk about a political football.

The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska is reporting, and The Providence Journal is repeating, a tantalizing rumor that Sarah Palin is going to move to Rhode Island.

No one has confirmed that (including us, and we tried). Even the Anchorage paper which started the speculation says it’s probably not true.

But frankly, Sarah Palin — the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor — is a queen of surprises so one never knows…

Just in case, let’s look at what Palin would gain from moving to the scenic geographically smallest state on the Atlantic from the scenic geographically largest state on the Pacific.

On the favorite Palin pastime of hunting, Rhode Island offers whitetail deer and pheasant, somewhat smaller game than bear and caribou in Alaska.

Politically, Rhode Island – the last of the 13 original colonies to enter the Union in 1790 — has voted Democrat in all but four presidential elections since 1928.

That compares to Alaska — the 49th state to enter the Union in 1959 — which has voted for a Republican in the White House in all but one election since 1960.

But Rhode Island with four electoral votes has one more than Alaska. Hey every vote counts.

In the 2008 presidential contest, President Barack Obama won 63 percent of the vote in Rhode Island versus 35 percent for the McCain-Palin ticket.

So if Palin does have presidential aspirations, not sure that Rhode Island would be the obvious choice of abode for a conservative Republican.

Although the view is pretty nice from mansions along the cliffs of Newport and the shopping is great in Boston and New York.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch (Alaska brown bear);  Reuters/Shannon Stapleton (People listen to music at Newport Folk Festival)

WASHINGTON - Ready for the first polls in the 2012 presidential race? 

Neither are we, but the folks at the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion couldn’t resist scaring us anyway. 

 They sent an e-mail on Thursday with the subject line: Marist Poll: Matchups for the 2012 Presidential Election — For Immediate Release. 

 Once opened, however, the message read: “Did you really open this e-mail? Haven’t you had enough? You’ll be hearing from us soon … but not this soon. 

 Best wishes, 

 Your friends at The Marist Poll.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Mitch Dumke. Supporters of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama celebrate in front of the White House in Washington, Nov. 5, 2008

PHOENIX - “He’s a maverick.” “He’s the consummate maverick.” “We’re a team of mavericks.” - You’ve all heard it time and again in recent weeks as Republican John McCain and fresh-faced running mate Gov. Sarah Palin slap on the maverick label to differentiate themselves from the GOP herd corralled inside the beltway in Washington.

But the New York Times reported on Sunday that the real Mavericks - a storied south Texas family with a long tradition in progressive politics - are not too happy about what they say is the misappropriation of their family name.

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” the Times reported Terrellita Maverick, 82, saying. The San Antonio resident is the scion of a family which has been outspoken about liberal causes for generations, and has otherwise bucked conventions.

The family’s name crept into the language for Samuel Augustus Maverick, a rancher who became known for not branding his cattle in the 1800s. Any unbranded cows found out on the range were simply known as “Maverick’s.”

Ranching aside, the Times reported that members of the Maverick family also have a long history championing often unpopular civil libertarian causes — from the rights of indentured servants in long ago New England to defending the cause of “draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society” more recently in Texas. 

Aside from an unbranded calf, the word maverick has come to mean a lone dissenter who takes an independent stand from his or her associates - a label handy for McCain, who has tried to distance his campaign from eight years of rule by the increasingly unpopular President George W. Bush. Nevertheless, the veteran Republican Arizona senator’s appropriation of the word still grates on the original Mavericks.

He “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase,” the Times reported Terrellitta, 82, as saying.

“It’s just incredible - the nerve! - to suggest that he’s not part of that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, ‘Oh, my God, he said it again.’ ”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

Photo credit: REUTERS/Brian Snyder (McCain greets people in Sedona, Arizona)