Sarah Palin's Emails: First Revelations

With 24,199 pages to comb through, the Sarah Palin email revelations will likely seep out for days (weeks?). We've rounded up some early highlights, as eagerly published by a number of publications, so you'll have enough tidbits to drop at whatever Friday-night event you're headed to.

• Daily Beast: Its headline reads "Sarah Palin Had Her Eye On Vice Presidential Slot Months Before Receiving Nomination" ... a conclusion the DB draws from the fact that she forwarded five emails from constituents who suggested she should be VP to her coordinator of constituent relations and to her executive secretary.

• Atlantic Wire: There are plenty more emails from constituents, including this "rather adorable one" sent Aug. 11, 2008, from Clare C.: "Your awesome Palin when I grow up I want to be the first girl president for the USA ... My old hamster died of well I think it died of eating too much paint off the bars on its cage so I got a new hamster named Captain Cheese she is a very fat hamster ... It is an honor to have you as our governor."
• Christian Science Monitor: Its first impression is that there are only "little nuggets of news" mixed into "mundane stuff." An example of the latter: A June 27, 2007, email from Todd reads, "Sarah says it is OK for Willow’s friends to jump on the trampoline but if they get out of control or one of them gets hurt on state grounds this could be a problem."
• Mother Jones: It cites numerous examples of what it calls Palin's "obsessive focus on the Lamestream Media" that "predated her arrival on the national stage." In one Aug. 15, 2008, email, she's upset that the AP reported Piper's age as 8; she was 7. She writes, "It may drive me crazy trying to catch all the corrections we'll be reading and seeing in the media. But please help me catch them and ask for the corrections."
• New York Times: Reports one tidbit that's gaining a lot of traction: Palin may be pretty critical of Obama's energy policy these days, but on Aug. 4, 2008, she sent the following to aides about an energy policy speech he had just given: "He gave a great speech this morn in Michigan—mentioned Alaska. Stole our Energy Rebate $1000 check idea, stole our TC-Alaska gasoline talking points, etc. We need to take advantage of this a write a statement saying he's right on." In a later email she wrote, "He did say 'yay' to our gasoline. Pretty cool. Wrong candidate."
• New York Times: In a less important finding (but definitely the one you'll mention tonight), the Times notes that Palin wanted a tanning bed in the governor's house. An email from the house's manager to Palin "makes clear" that Palin was asking about the possibility; it provides two options for installing one, next to the dryer in the basement, or in the "Cedar Closet."

(More Sarah Palin stories.)