Palin: A view from Alaska

A reader from Alaska sends in the following, which I post with permission:

Hi Rod,

Thought you'd like to know that all the talking guys on the local radio up here in AK are saying that the cost to the State of defending Palin against the multitude of ethics complaints has risen into the millions of dollars. And the ethics complaints are still coming. One woman in particular has filed 14 separate complaints and is obviously on a vendetta against Palin. But this woman has the "right" to file the complaints and the state must pay out to defend Palin. Incidentally, 12 of the 14 ethics violations filed by this woman have been dismissed. Never the less, it has cost our state plenty.

It seems the general consensus up here is that Sarah may be just sick of the whole thing, and honestly tired of racking up a legal bill that the State of Alaska has to pay. I read the comments on your thread and everyone seems to think she is just sooooo ambitious. Maybe. But really this opportunity to serve as McCain's VP fell into her lap. She didn't seek it. Perhaps the better word would be "opportunistic". Still not a pretty word, but more accurate. In looking at her history, her rise in the State, she started out motivated to serve. She really did.

Of course she will be making money in the future with her story. But she really truly is a normal person. There isn't anybody up here who would qualify as an "elite" in either the media or in politics. We are just too far away and too culturally isolated and too small in population to make it into that group.

I would not be surprised if there is some scandal brewing. But then again, I would not be surprised if she is simply sick of this and is going to pursue a quieter life (more money from books and less stress). And incidentally, Sean Parnell, our new Governor, is a man of deep faith and good man. We are glad to have him.

This story shows how small and "normal" our state is. Our 10 year old daughter is involved in the first ever American Heritage Girls Troop to start up in Alaska. This scouting organization is the Christian answer to the liberal agenda and changes in Girls Scouts of America. This past year was the first year for the troop. At the Joining Award ceremony, where each girl was welcomed and given her Joining patch, Sarah Palin was supposed to come and present the awards, give a speech and greet each girl. But 10 days before this, she was tapped for VP by McCain. So Sean Parnell came. He talked about his faith, his own 2 daughters, age 10 and 12, and how Sarah is an example of a woman of faith and integrity and that each little girl there could do what she did. Lt. Gov. Parnell is a very mild mannered man, unassuming, kind, your age, my age. Normal. And he was handing out joining awards to 30 little girls in a small town, part of a small startup group, in a small church building. I can honestly say that growing up in AZ, things like this NEVER happened to most of us "normal" citizens. No one in leadership in the troop is especially connected politically or rich. And this was a government official supporting a VERY faith based organization. I think maybe one newspaper guy was there.

I think the lower 48 it is just so completely different than Alaska that the actions of our politicians make no sense to the people who don't live here. My husband has learned about the basic cultural impulses and thought patterns of various people in various parts of the US as part of his Master's degree, and Alaska has it's own subset within the grouping. Fiercely independent, favor-based politics, generous and mutually dependent. Exhibit A is the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens. Most of us believed he was innocent. We thought the timing of the trial was politically motivated to get Begich elected. We believed he would be acquitted. We were outraged that he was convicted. Most of the people I talked to and the radio personalities believed that evidence had been at best mishandled and at worst, withheld. We nearly voted him back into office despite his conviction...that is how strongly we believed in him. And indeed he WAS wrongfully convicted and evidence was withheld. And he has been cleared!

I apologize for the length of this. I just am so amused by the non-Alaskan response to the Palin resignation compared the to the Alaska response. Most of us up here still like her and believe in her innate goodness. We are also puzzled and suspect some other cause for the resignation. But we are quicker to believe that the cause is a positive one, rather than a negative one.