One problem with Mr. Royal's "positive ID." The present Alaska governor, while indeed born Sarah Heath, was already married by 1988, and by the mid '90s was going by "Sarah Heath Palin" or simply "Sarah Palin." It's my understanding that she was already out of journalism by 1990 (after the birth of first child Track in '89), so I can't imagine why, if it were really her, she'd ID herself by maiden name only at that late a date.

Did that conversation happen to include that she was married, had a one-year-old son with another baby on the way (Bristol was born in the fall of '90, I seem to recall reading), and was not much more than a housewife and a helping hand in her husband's businesses? (Mrs. Palin wasn't then in politics yet.)