Nothing has moved yet from our regular opinionators regarding John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his running mate. But I spotted this, in which former White House counsel Nanette Everson makes the case for why picking Palin was a good move for McCain.

By Nanette Everson

Let’s face it. John McCain’s a loner with a stern, "it’s-a-dangerous-world" message and fairly cold eyes. He isn’t charismatic. And no one can accuse him of being a sunny guy. In fact, he’s better known for his short, hot temper.

So how’s McCain going to overcome America’s infatuation with Barack Obama — a man who has bewitched voters with his smile, enchanted youth with the novelty of his candidacy, and lured war-weary Americans with his message of "change" and promises of free, universal everything?

The answer is clear. McCain needs Alaska’s Gov. Sarah Palin, who will connect with voters as an authentic American folk hero. First, as a governor she passes the competence test. American voters have shown again and again they will vote governors into the White House. There’s Clinton. Carter. Bush the Younger. Reagan.

So why not Palin, a heartbeat away from the aged McCain?

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We got a letter this week from Bill Mitchell of Anacortes plugging efforts to save the Enchantress, a shipwrecked tugboat in Fidalgo Bay just east of Anacortes. Since it’s from out of our circulation area – and much longer than our 250-word limit – it won’t run in our printed edition. But given the number of boaters around here who go up to the San Juan Islands, I thought I’d post some of it on our blog.

Mitchell, chairman of the Save Our Shipwreck organization, will be at Olympia Harbor Days Saturday and Sunday selling “tug mugs” for $10 to support SOS efforts. Look for him at Percival Landing in a three-wheel cart with a big blue Enchantress banner.

Mitchell writes:

The Enchantress sits in 7 to 14 feet of water, covered in a crust of barnacles and marine life, home to a family of otters and perch for a pair of nesting bald eagles. (Look closely and you can see them in the photo.)

The state Department of Ecology deems her a hazard to the bay on trumped-up and unsubstantiated charges, while turning a blind eye to more pressing problems.

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Russell Investments didn’t “lose” $4 billion in hedge funds, and the company is still doing relatively well despite the troubles in the financial markets.

That’s what I was told today by an acquaintance who asked not to be identified but is familiar with the workings of Russell Investments. He took issue with both a Wall Street Journal article the TNT published today and my blog post yesterday based on the same article.

The headline on the blog post was “Russell’s $4 billion loss.” Russell didn’t incur a financial loss of $4 billion, the source said.

True,

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Lots and lots of salmon in Columbia Basin. Not so much in Willamette Basin.

Translation: Why do those greenies go on about tearing down the Snake River dams?

NOAA Fisheries: Columbia River salmon numbers continue to grow; sockeye “best in decades”

PORTLAND, Ore. — Most of the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River Basin continues to see good returns of adult salmon as they head back to their native streams or their hatcheries to spawn. This week brings news that total 2008 chinook returns counted at Bonneville Dam so far stand at over 265,000, surpassing for the first time this year the 10-year average.

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1. Today’s list of Washington schools failing to meet federal guidelines for adequate yearly progress is disturbingly long. Some of the blame can be pinned on a rigid federal law that unfairly stigmatizes certain schools, but as the state’s WASL results showed earlier this week, this state still has far to go to improve classroom instruction.

2. Whatever he says in his acceptance speech tonight, Barack Obama has already secured his place in history as America’s first black major party presidential nominee. And Hillary Clinton came close to being the first woman.

About our editorials:

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Whenever I hear of a truly awful crime, something so depraved the news will reach the dark side of the moon, I cringe and hope that no Tacoma connection will surface. Sadly, a string of past atrocities have conditioned me to fear otherwise.

Joseph Edward Duncan (left), the torture-children-to-death murderer who just got the federal death penalty is from Tacoma.

David Brame, who may be the only big-city police chief ever to kill his wife and himself in this country, was – naturally – Tacoma’s police chief.

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Readers of our print edition could hardly miss that the lead editorial cartoon was repeated on the op-ed page, where it ran with the Leonard Pitts Jr. column.

The cartoon above is the one that should have appeared with the column. We’ll run it in the lead position Friday on B6; it will work well to illustrate the editorial on Barack Obama’s acceptance speech.

So how did the mistake happen? As the page designer, I plead guilty. Due to the intricacies of how we “name” items that we place

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