Sarah Palin's emails: There's hardly any there [LA Times]

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 15, 2011 | by Michael Carey

[Oldeconomybuyer]

If the emails have a tale to tell, it is this: Sarah Palin was a typical governor of a state of less than a million people until John McCain selected her as his running mate. After that, she became a celebrity.

Although she has a journalism degree, she is in no way a polished writer whose email prose leaves you begging for more. She is an ordinary stylist and ordinary thinker.

These characteristics don't bring Abraham Lincoln to mind. But they aren't symptoms of incompetence either. Many of Alaska's governors have feuded with the media, struggled with the Legislature, run amok pursuing trivia, relied on only a handful of advisors, wearied of the congressional delegation rolling the truth downhill in the direction of the Capitol, and written unimpressively. Palin's open reliance on her Christian faith, however, is definitely different than her predecessors, a first.

It may be shocking, but as governor of Alaska, Palin spent a lot of time trying to do the job she had been elected to do, surrounded by people who sometimes agreed with her, sometimes not. This is not the banality of evil; it's the reality of governing.

[chiefqc]

Sarah Palin is making all the media elite look and act like the stupid morons that people only thought they wrere, and she does it with a smile on her face.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Michael Carey is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News

Which is your next step on the career ladder after the Oopalakaia County Pennysaver...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I do “polish” my business emails pretty carefully, and regret the exceptions.

Two watch words: Conciseness and clarity.

Also, never put anything in an email you won’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow morning. (They actually teach us that in a mandatory “ethics” class.)

[Arrowhead1952]

I don’t know how to do the italics deal that most people use for quotations.

<I> = Italics

<b> = Bold

<u> = Underline

</i> = Italics off

</b> = Bold off

</u> = Underline off

[G L Tirebiter]

typical governor of a state of less than a million people

That should be fewer than a million people, Mr. Polished Writer.

[fantail 1952]

their stuff is pet rat cage linning.

My pet rat has better taste than me using the LAT for lining.

[6SJ7]

Poor girl. All my emails read like the Gettysburg Address.

I was going for a sort of "William Faulkner" motif with my email, but I maxed out my ISP's email quota.

[FourPeas]

don't bring Abraham Lincoln to mind.

For e-mails, I shoot for a combination of Joseph Conrad and e.e. cummings...

I wonder how Mr. Carey assumes to know how, given the technology, Pres. Lincoln's emails would read. I doubt he'd spend as much time composing them as he did his writings that we have today.

[Polybius]

"Sarah Palin was a typical governor of a state of less than a million people"

And we know this because we have 24,000 emails of other governors to compare with hers........oh wait...

Forget how the the media vulture phrases it. The fact remains, whether "typical" or not, that Sarah Palin was the Governor, for half a term, of a State with a population of 710,231 according to the 2010 Census.

By comparison, the City of San Diego, CA had a population of 1,307,402 according to the 2010 Census.

The City of San Diego has almost twice the population of Alaska and, instead of serving half a term, this middle aged white man has been it's Mayor since December of 2005 and still is.

"I'm the Mayor of San Diego, California. Without using Google, do you have any idea what my name is."

Would this middle aged white man, with far more executive experience than Sarah Palin or Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 be considered a serious candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America by the majority of voters?

No. Middle aged white men are held to far higher standards than Affirmative Action candidates with far less executive experience who are judged by how cute and adorable a female candidate may be or how black a male candidate's skin may be.

America was severely burned by Affirmative Action once and refuses to be burned by Affirmative Action twice. That is one of the reasons that sixty five percent (65%) of all voters have stated that they will "definitely NOT vote for Sarah Palin".

Of all the debaters in the recent Republican debate, most American voters would choose "None of the Above".

Bill Clinton did not announce his first winning candidacy until October of the year before the election. The GOP has until around October of 2011 to attract a strong conservative candidate whose poll numbers are not lower than whale scat at the bottom of the ocean and who can actually defeat Obama.

If not, we will have either RINO Romney or Marxist Obama as the President for the next four years.

[ctdonath2]

sheThe author is in no way a polished writer whose emailnews story prose leaves you begging for more.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Thanks, but I'd just screw it up!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

WOW!

[GOPJ]

I wish the dipshit New York Times and Washington Post would do us the favor of reading tons of email from some RANDOMLY selected Democrat governor and do a friggin' comparison.

An honest comparison...

I doubt we'd have to worry about things like 'writing style' when it comes to the likes of democrat Ill. Gov. Blagojevich ... and even if he's an extreme crook by dem standards, I'll like to see the emails of ANY randomly selected dem politician. Of course the MSM would cheat - they'd pick the best dem - and then pick the five best emails and pretend they're 'typical'. The only thing the press has to offer is credibility - and they've made a point of throwing that away... idiots.

[GOPJ]

That should be fewer than a million people, Mr. Polished Writer.

Thanks for being one of the freeper writers here - you guys keep us from being beat up by the liberal elites... Thanks.

[meadsjn]

Job openings in the USA for English majors recently increased to 50, as every sitting governor began accepting applications for official email writers and editors.

[JPG]

Does your pony know another trick or is this it?

[unseen1]

problem is that looking at her writting it appears it is better than the vast majority of Americans.

[Charlemagne on the Fox]

The writer claims that Palin is not a “polished writer”. Yet in the same column he uses the phrase (in the form of a complete sentence) “But know what?”.

What a joke. I wonder when he will be releasing his emails from the past several years?

[Arrowhead1952]

WOW!

Also, when you turn off the italics, dont forget to do the < P> or you will get a run on sentence.

It will look like this

WOW! See what I can do.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Thanks much!
Bogie