The attached message below was sent to me from someone who lives in Alaska. I think we should share these insights with as many people as possible.
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Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 12:55 AM
Subject: Palin in Alaska
After several weeks of watching Palin as a VP candidate, I thought it was time for an updated report on the Alaska perspective for those of you who have expressed interest.
It was been interesting to watch the reaction here as Palin has faced real scrutiny. As governor, she had it relatively easy: She replaced a mean, old lizard, and her biggest fiscal challenge was how to spend a huge budget surplus courtesy of high oil prices. The most controversial issue on her plate was how to broker a deal for the construction of a natural-gas pipeline, which her predecessor handled horribly. So, by comparison, her efforts to reach a pipeline agreement seemed to be progressing comparatively well amid the inevitable controversy over how it should be done.
"Troopergate" was becoming an embarrassment, but most of the public scrutiny was through the perspective of Alaska's relatively mild-mannered media, particularly the struggling Anchorage Daily News, which is staffed with ineffective reporters who now spend most of their time fretting about when they'll be laid off because the McClatchy chain is hemorrhaging money. Alaskans were watching, but largely laughing off the Walt Monegan/Trooper fiasco as little more than another Wasilla domestic dispute that was poorly handled. The rise of this issue was pretty much the first sign that the "honeymoon period" of her still-young administration was coming to an end, so we were waiting to see where it would go.
Then McCain stepped in.
Initially, most Alaskans weren't quite sure what to make of his choice. Some were immediately excited or appalled, but the rest of us were scratching our heads and trying to figure out what had just happened and what it all meant.
From what I'm seeing, the majority of Alaskans are growing increasingly disturbed by the idea of Palin becoming VP. We've been learning much more about her in the past few weeks, and most of it has been disappointing. My right-leaning friends -- and I do have a few -- never liked Palin because they've always seen her as a Democrat in disguise (skewer a few corrupt members of the GOP, and the rest of them never forgive you). My left-leaning friends weren't really fans, but they seemed to be trying to keep an open mind about Palin until her performance as a running mate became so appalling.
The growing perception here is that she has dropped everything she appeared to stand for (openness, integrity in government) as soon as might get in the way of her personal advancement. Her kids are off limits, unless she wants to drag them like puppies through a campaign rally. She wants transparency in her administration, unless she finds a way to make a critical investigation "confidential." And her attempts to appear experienced and knowledgeable about foreign policy ... well, you know. ("I can see Russia from my house!" Tina Fey pretty much captured it all.)
So now we find ourselves in the strange position of having the rest of the nation assume that Alaskans are eager to see Sarah Palin go to Washington while, in fact, Alaskans appear to be turning against her in a fairly dramatic fashion. At least one major anti-Palin rally has been held downtown, and yesterday morning the Daily News published a note explaining that it is not displaying a bias by running so many letters critical of her ... the letters it is receiving are running negative by a 2-to-1 ratio. Personally, I think we're all realizing she seemed a lot more harmless when she was on a much smaller stage.
I'm not sure what my point is here, exactly, except to say no, we are not all going to vote for McCain/Palin. As a matter of fact, there's a real chance that Alaska will begin turning from a red state to a blue state in November. Obama has a solid chance of winning here, and we could very well put Democrats in two of our three congressional seats. Mark Begich was giving Ted Stevens a serious challenge even before "Uncle Ted" was indicted, and Ethan Berkowitz is probably going to defeat Don Young, a redneck bully who barely survived the primary this year.
Two Democrats in Congress would be unprecedented. And a good start toward modernizing Alaska politics.
