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I don't know what other Alaskans think, but I think there ought to be a law which requires elected officials to resign from their current job if they are campaigning, more or less, full time for another job. Why should the government pay their salaries and other expenses when they aren't working their job at all? In many cases, the current job seems to be just a salaried placeholder, while traveling and interviewing for "something better."

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain campaigned essentially 24/7 for nearly two years, with government salaries of more than $170,000 a year, plus all campaign (and any other) expenses paid.

Similarly, Gov. Sarah Palin, without warning, disappeared from being governor of Alaska one day last September, was given a bunch of clothes on the National Republican Party's dime and then traveled the United States (with her family) making canned speeches, media and TV appearances for two-plus months, with state salary and all expenses paid. And she has done mostly opportunistic photo-ops in Alaska and campaigning elsewhere since the election.

Is she back? Who knows? Who really cares? Compared to Senators Ted Stevens or even Don Young, Palin really hasn't done anything yet for Alaska, except unseat Frank Murkowski. And now that she's the apparent "savior" for the GDP in 2012, Alaskans may see less and less of her while she's off making speeches and fostering her national political aspirations. Maybe Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell is up to the governor's tasks? Who is managing Alaska?

I thought being governor was a full time job. And think about this: If Palin is re-elected in 2010, that would be about the time she would disappear from Alaska again to begin her campaign for the U.S. presidency. There ought to be a law!

Richard Hahn

Soldotna