Posted on 05/16/2011 6:40:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
From the moment Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech electrified the Republican convention, she was seen as an unbending, hard-charging, red-meat ideologue—to which soon was added “thin-skinned” and “vindictive.” But a look at what Palin did while in office in Alaska—the only record she has—shows a very different politician: one who worked with Democrats to tame Big Oil and solve the great problem at the heart of the state’s politics. That Sarah Palin might have set the nation on a different course. What went wrong?
It’s hard to escape Sarah Palin. On Facebook and Twitter, cable news and reality television, she is a constant object of dispute, the target or instigator of some distressingly large proportion of the political discourse. If she runs for president—well, brace yourself! But there is one place where a kind of collective resolve has been able to push her aside, make her a less suffocating presence than almost everywhere else: Alaska.
During a week spent traveling there recently, I learned that Palin occupies a place in the minds of most Alaskans roughly like that of an ex-spouse from a stormy marriage: she’s a distant bad memory, and questions about her seem vaguely unwelcome. Visitors to Juneau, the capital and a haven for cruise-ship tourism, are hard-pressed to find signs of the state’s most famous citizen—no “Mama Grizzly” memorabilia or T-shirts bearing her spunky slogans. Although the town was buzzing with politics because the legislature was in session, talk of Palin mainly revolved around a rumored Democratic poll showing her to be less popular in Alaska right now than Barack Obama. The only tangible evidence I saw was her official portrait in the capitol and a small sign in the window of a seedy-looking gift shop advertising “Sarah Palin toilet paper.” Alaska has moved on.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
God will have some questions for the crackerheads in charge of the MSM. The conversation might go something like this: “Your nation needed a leader and I sent you a shining beacon of moral courage... Why on earth did you trash her?”
I check the Alaska Daily News regularly. If the comments are from there (I’m dubious), the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the people of Alaska lack the courage to defend one of their own if the face of an MSM full-court press.
You don’t draw fire unless you are over the target. Palin has been hovering over the bullseye since she stepped out of Wasilla.
Omg. Palin is a constitutionalist, but more than that she isn’t that because she wants power. Let’s pretend that you’re right for a moment, and that your guy (or gal) can promise every laundry-list item you want. Do they also have the courage to actually DO IT? Palin doesn’t blink. This lady fights, therefore she is indispensible at this moment in our nation’s history.
Maybe The Atlantic would like to identify some present-day issues in which Gov. Palin should “work with Democrats”. There aren’t any that I can see! Bob
Yeah, if Juneau is anything like Austin, TX as capital of the state a bunch of libs live there. Not exactly a cross section of the state.
Yeah, if Juneau is anything like Austin, TX as capital of the state a bunch of libs live there. Not exactly a cross section of the state.
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