Opinion: On her new Twitter page, Sarah Palin offers a more personal look

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may not have been able to name a news publication she reads in last year’s interview with Katie Couric during her unsuccessful bid as the Republican nominee for vice president.

But now we know that Sen. John McCain‘s 2008 running mate reads Newsweek -- at least in less-than-140-character doses on her Twitter page. Also, the Juneau Empire, the Weekly Standard, Meet the Press, blogs from Politico and Karl Rove, several prominent Republican politicians and Mark Begich, Alaska’s new Democratic senator.

Also on the list of the 42 feeds she follows on her new Twitter account as of late last night are Fox News, CNN’s Breaking News, the Drudge Report, Bill O’Reilly, an apparent Sean Hannity imposter (the real one is over here, Gov), George Stephanopoulos and, oh yeah, John McCain.

Whoops, looks like McCain hasn’t returned the following.

But then during the campaign he was famous for professing ignorance of online and communications gadgets. His running mate, however, was regularly multi-tasking, working her twin BlackBerrys (state equipment is prohibited from political use), even while tending to baby son Trig (see photo above).

Yesterday, The Ticket reported here that Palin has signed a book contract with HarperCollins for a memoir to draw from her personal journals for publication in spring of 2010, when she’ll presumably be running for re-election as Alaska’s chief executive.

In the two weeks since she started twittering, Palin is, however, using the service exclusively as a one-way medium. She hasn’t engaged in public conversation with any of her more than 19,000 followers.

But she does provide a more personal window into her daily life, which is sort of what Twitter is all about anyway.

Oh, and for the record, the @AKGovSarahPalin Twitter account does indeed belong to Palin, wrote spokesman William McAllister. While Palin’s staff oversees account maintenance, the messages are hers, McAllister e-mails.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo credit: Associated Press (Palin campaigning in September works her 2 BlackBerrys while holding son Trig); Getty Images (bottom).