An Alaskan's view on Palin

[TitanTiger 20,708]

This was taken from the comments box of a blog I read, so it's not a news reporter or anything. Take it for what it's worth:

First: I have known Sarah Palin for years. How? I met her through AK Right to Life. She always came to our fund-raising dinners, she always came to pro-life events (even when she took time off from politics to be home with her children), and one of her kids became AK RTL’s baby mascot for our stationery. She is the real deal when it comes to pro-life matters. This became even more clear when at the age of 44 of this year, she gave birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome. BTW: No one knew she was pregnant until 1 month before giving birth!

Second: She worked under previous (Catholic-pro-life) Governor Frank Murkowski’s Admin and ended up resigning because the corruption was so blatant and so bad she could not effect change. She gave up her 6 figure income to do so. This catapulted her into stardom for Alaskans.

Third: When she ran for Governor, she was up against the incumbent Murkowski (the least popular Governor in the nation at the time) AND against two-time former super popula,r Governor Democrat Tony Knowles. Husband and I both had deep respect for her so we decided to join her campaign. We were not the only ones. I have worked many a campaign before and this was the first time in my experience where normal, average, non-partisan types joined the campaign. When I decided to wave signs for her on street corners (with my baby strapped on my back), I was blown away by the hundreds of other Alaskans who had the same idea.

Fourth: When she ran for Governor, the AK Republican Party threw fundraisers for Palin’s Democratic rival! No joke! They hated her because she was the one who blew the whistle on their corruption. Big Oil hates her because she refused and refuses to be bribed. She had very little campaign money and her very few tv ads always said “Frugally paid for by the Palin Campaign.” Yet, she won, sweeping the State.

Fifth: I worked the polls on voting day and Democrats, Independents and non-voters alike came to vote for her.

My advice: Don’t underestimate her, my friends.

[RunInRed 16,994]

It is probably worth adding a little blance to this thread. Here is what her home town newspapers have to say about her:

She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?...Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation's when he created the possibility that she might fill it. It's clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance.

http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/29/...-prove/?opinion

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said [state Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla]. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/510249.html

Lately her reputation within the state has been bit by allegations of mixing political and family business, and by mistreating one of the state's premier marine mammals. Palin's catch-phrase of "openness and transparency" has been tarnished by revelations that staff members tried to have Palin's former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper. Also, the governor of the only state with polar bears has adamantly opposed listing the animals as a threatened species, despite strong evidence that global warming has devastated their sea ice environment off Alaska's coast. Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist for Alaska's second largest newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, called McCain's choice of Palin "reckless" and questioned her credentials. "Sarah Palin's chief qualification for being elected governor was that she was not Frank Murkowski," Cole said of her enormously unpopular predecessor, who lost favor with Alaskans in part because of unpopular budget cuts. "She was not elected because she was a conservative. She was not elected because of her grasp of issues or because of her track record as the mayor of Wasilla."

http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/29/...ises-eyebrows-/

[autigeremt 6,970]

Balance between leading a state versus a state senate seat and a short run as a U.S. Senator, in my opinion, equal out.

[TitanTiger 20,708]

We've had several days now of your "balance." I've seen the quotes. I just thought I'd offer what an average Alaskan (and I think I can say "average" fairly accurately given that her approval ratings routinely approach 80% up there) thought about her.

[TitanTiger 20,708]

More "balance." This time from an "average" Democrat:

"Once I got the nomination, you know, that was also, you know, something that people would say to me - you really don't have the foreign policy experience. A person came on my staff, who is my national security adviser during the course of the campaign - her name was Madeline Albright. She was a teacher at Georgetown. And we got to be fast friends.

"She and Barry Carter, who was also teaching there - we managed to kind of alternate when they weren't teaching. They would be on my plane, they'd be feeding information into my head. We'd be watching everything that was going on, (unintelligible) papers. It was like a constant course.

"And so, you know, what she doesn't know so far she will learn very quickly - she seems smart enough. But the other piece of it is that whatever position she has, they have to be those of John McCain. He's the president. She's not going to take a position anything different from what he has on the latest foreign policy stuff."

--Geraldine Ferraro