Getting to Know Her, Part III: Opinion on Palin from Alaska

By: Greg Mitchell Since even Republican leaders admit that John McCain's choice for running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, was unknown outside Alaska, E&P has been filling in some details and opinion -- strictly from those who may know her best, at newspapers in her home state. Reporters there have so far expressed much more critical views of the candidate than might be suggested by her overall high voter approval ratings.

Today we will excerpt from three pieces: this morning's editorial in the largest paper in the state, the Anchorage Daily News; an op-ed for that paper by a former columnist for the paper now serving as a Democrat in the state legislature; and a dispatch by AP's man in Anchorage.

The second largest daily, The Daily News-Miner in Fairbanks, had editorialized yesterday that Palin was notqualified for the vice presidency. The Anchorage paper also raises questions on this score, while expressing pride in the local "girl."

First, an excerpt from the editorial.
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Alaskans were stunned and delighted that John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Delighted because one of our own has burst into the national spotlight. You go, girl! Stunned because a woman from such ordinary circumstances -- a self-professed hockey mom from a small Alaska town -- is running for vice-president.

And it's stunning that someone with so little national and international experience might be heartbeat away from the presidency.

Gov. Palin is a classic Alaska story. She is an example of the opportunity our state offers to those with talent, initiative and determination...

McCain picked Palin despite a recent blemish on her ethically pure resume. While she was governor, members of her family and staff tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the Alaska State Troopers. Her public safety commissioner would not do so; she forced him out, supposedly for other reasons. While she runs for vice-president, the Legislature has an investigator on the case.

For all those advantages, Palin joins the ticket with one huge weakness: She's a total beginner on national and international issues.

Gov. Palin will have to spend the next two months convincing Americans that she's ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency....

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Now an excerpt from a column by Mike Doogan.
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John McCain looked all over the United States to find the single Republican who is qualified to be, as the saying goes, a heartbeat away from the presidency, and he came up with Sarah Palin.

Really?

Sure, I suppose that many Alaskans are feeling a surge of pride that someone from our state has gotten a spot on the big stage. And most Alaskans like Palin. I know I do.

But let's be honest here. Her resume is as thin as the meat in a vending machine sandwich. I'm thinking being mayor of Wasilla doesn't qualify her. And she's less than two years into her first term as governor. Except for her high-profile gas pipeline legislation -- which I like a lot -- she doesn't have much to show. Oil taxes? Most of that work was done by the legislature. Ethics? Ditto. And her role in killing the much-touted Bridge to Nowhere? Talk about coming in after the battle is over and bayoneting the wounded.

And there's a growing sense that the government isn't running all that well, that all that's keeping the wheels from coming off is that 25,000 state employees show up for work every day.

The long and short of it is this: We're not sure she's a competent governor of Alaska. And yet McCain, who is no spring chicken, has decided she's the best choice to replace him as president if he should win and then fall afoul of the Grim Reaper.

Sarah Palin? Really?

Debating foreign policy with Joe Biden? What's she going to do? Hit him with her briefing book? If Palin has two thoughts about foreign policy, she's managed to keep them to herself. Ditto health care. National energy policy. Fiscal policy. You could make a long, long list, but I'll stop there. She's going to need a lot of handlers feeding her a lot of talking points, and she's going to have to hope that the discussion only goes about yay-deep.

She's also going to have to hope that the national media is as pliable as Alaska's has been. Palin doesn't like people criticizing her, and she's as competitive as any linebacker you ever met. If the campaign gets a little rough and tumble, that could be a bad combination.
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Finally, the AP report from Dan Joling in Anchorage.
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(AP) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a comely candidate with a reputation for fighting corruption, but 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.

And despite John McCain's claim Friday that Palin is a budget-cutter, the governor this year oversaw a 6 percent increase in Alaska's operating and construction budget, fueled by a revised tax structure and skyrocketing crude oil prices.

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."

Her enormous popularity in the state took a hit this summer over her firing of her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, a former Anchorage police chief.

State lawmakers launched a $100,000 investigation to determine if Palin dismissed Monegan because he would not fire the governor's ex-brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who has been involved in a messy custody battle with Palin's sister.

In 2005, before Palin ran for office, the Palin family accused Wooten of drinking beer in his patrol car, illegally shooting a moose and firing a Taser at his 11-year-old stepson. The Palins also claimed Wooten threatened to kill Sarah Palin's father. Wooten was suspended over the allegations for five days in 2006 but still has his job.

Palin denied the commissioner's dismissal had anything to do with her former brother-in-law and denied orchestrating dozens of telephone calls made by staff and family members to Wooten's bosses. The investigation launched by state lawmakers is expected to take at least three months.

State Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, said Palin's candidacy does not change the investigation.

"I think it raises its profile. I don't think it changes the steps you go through. It is what it is. You have to find out what happened," French said.

The investigator hired by lawmakers two days ago told the Department of Law it was time to schedule Palin's deposition, French said.