Anchorage Reporter at RNC: Everyone Thinks They Know Sarah Palin -- But They Don't

By: E&P Staff Since Friday, E&P has been following news and views from the leading Alaska papers concerning GOP veep choice, Sarah Palin.

Today, Anchorage Daily News reporter Michael Carey posted a lengthy blog item from the Republican National Convention, musing about how nearly everyone there thinks they know Palin but really don't.

"Thousands upon thousands of Americans have formed definite opinions of Gov. Sarah Palin without meeting her, without seeing her, without talking to her - without anything except glancing at her photograph, reading a news story or seeing her briefly on television. I have met some of them; they can tell me all about Sarah Palin."

Here is an excerpt. It is all at www.adn.com.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the land of celebrity -- major celebrity -- where facts compete with image and rumor. Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, their daughter Bristol, trooper Wooten and the whole Palin clan can expect to see themselves on the cover of the National Enquirer, News of the World and all the other tabloids, not just Newsweek - where I found Sarah Palin grinning at me yesterday. The experience was jolting, and I am still enough of a kid from Fairbanks to have blurted out "I know her."...

Obviously, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I am from Alaska, have met Sarah Palin, have written about her, have conducted debates in which she participated.

I have tried to be balanced in my assessment of Gov. Palin. Some people think I have been; others not. In politics, winning is everything, and that's how many people respond. If commentary helps them win, it's good. If not, it's bad.

One of the things that has been a problem for Palin is separating her personal life from her public life. The trooper Wooten story is the most glaring example. But the pregnancy stories fall into that category too. Palin can't be blamed for the fake pregancy rumour - I'm told the story line originally appeared on "Desperate Housewives" - but Wooten is another matter.

In 1860, the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for president. His views were well known to many Americans, especially his views on slavery, through the newspapers. But beyond Illinois, few Americans knew what he looked like. They had never seen a photograph of him, let alone the man himself. It came as a shock to discover he was six-foot three inches tall or more.

Here in 2008, everybody knows what Sarah Palin looks like. And too often, that's all they know.