Sarah Palin, With a Rifle, in Rhode Island

It's a disturbing thought. But the rumor mill has Sarah Palin landing in lil' Rhody. And Tabassum Zakaria of Reuters imagines what she might gain by a move to the Ocean State. Among the pleasures: bloodying a few whitetail deer.

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.