I hope I am the First to Notice What is Wrong Here. Governors Aren't Suppossed to Have Corporate Sponsors. Are You Listening, Succubus Sarah?

Perhaps the real conflict of interest for Sarah Palin is not the corporations who furnish the prizes in her husband's snowmobile race, but instead (if not additionally) his racing team's corporate sponsors.

And before I go further, let me say the glaringly obvious. Can you imagine any other sitting governor wearing corporate logo clothing in public, at a large public event? How tacky. No wonder why the NASCAR and Pork Rind Republicans love this woman. You can dress her up in fancy elite designer clothes, but at heart she has no better taste than a Pit lizard at Talladega Superspeedway.

But the reason for this post is to criticize her judgment in walking around like a corporate billboard, not so much her tacky clothing on account of being tacky, per se.

Nothing says,"I'm bought and paid for. Yew betcha," like wearing the corporation's name right there on your clothing.

And I know that the likely Republican peanut gallery comments are likely to be on the order of, "It's her husband's sponsors, not hers." "That is just they way racing works. Ya got to have sponsors, unless you are stinking rich yourself."

And to that I repeat, and then add a little bit more:

Nothing says,"I'm bought and paid for. Yew betcha," like wearing the corporation's name right there on your clothing. It doesn't matter if it is technically your spouse who is actually bought and paid for, and you are just wearing the jacket.

Hell, it doesn't even matter if you wear the jacket or not. There is something unseemly with the idea of the spouse of a Governor not having a real job with a corporation but instead having a sponsorship deal. Granted, there are some kind of real jobs that would be a major conflict of interest for a governor's spouse, such as lobbyist, lawyer, PR flack, but I can imagine many that at least past the giggle test. Of course, whether or not there is a list of approved or not jobs for spouses of Alaskan Governors is a question I am likely to guess there is not. But Toddster's racing endorsements seems to me to be a bit too far to pass that test. I mean really. The job of the corporate sponsor is to pay for the stuff (if not give it outright), and in return for that, the racer is supposed to advertise the sponsor in public, if not specifically promote the corporate name and image.

That is too close to being a PR flack or a lobbyist. Don't you think?

And keeping that in mind, I just did some quick googling. Now I did not exhaust the topic, so don't take my word for it, but since (assuming I get this right) Todd is not an employee of the Arctic Snowmobile company, the sponsorship he gets from them could be considered gifts, and then that leads to the question (beyond conflict of interest inquiry), should he be reporting all that stuff on the financial disclosure forms?

I doubt he has. I think he likely should have to. That is my quickie guess, after just glancing at the requirements.