This is a lovely piece, but Sarah Palin is not Alaska. She is a unique individual with her own idiosynchracies. Based on her interviews on ABC last week, her behaviour on the stump with McCain, and many reports on CNN from Alaska about her tenure as Mayor of Wassilla and as governor, you could summarize her qualities as follows: She is outgoing and appears very confident. She has a strong will that brooks no interference with what she wants: she doesn't hesitate to fire people who disagree with her. She is not diplomatic. Once in charge, she dominates and can be a critical, demanding and vindictive leader. She is very good at making enemies who want to bring her down. She doesn't exhibit a sustaining or nurturing kind of caring: Todd Palin seems to be the real nurturer of the Palin household. Sarah Palin can be passionate and aggressive, but she is hardly sweet. She considers herself a good Christian, but has difficulty putting herself in the other fellow's shoes. She is often quarrelsome and contentious, so she makes a good attack dog for McCain and doesn't hesitate to throw mud at her opponents. Most serious is that she is capable of deception and deceit. Although the facts are already well-known regarding "The Bridge to Nowhere", she continues to twist the facts in her favour. Like all politicans, she likes earmarks and lobbyists, but claims that this was OK because she was helping Alaskans. She is hardly the VP who is going to change corruption in Washington. Finally, her "hockey mom" schtick is just that: a manipulative schtick to get the votes of this heretofor unrecognized group of white female voters. It's been many years since Sarah Palin was a hockey mom. She's been way to busy advancing her political career. I suspect that the real hockey mom is Todd Palin: although he comes off like a man's man, he seems like the real nurturer in the Palin household, the house husband to Sarah Palin, the highly ambitious politician. Sarah Palin is not representative of Alaska. She could have grown up anywhere.

She is an Alaskan for exactly all the reasons you mention.

"She is hardly the VP who is going to change corruption in Washington"...

I take it then that you think Obiden is more likely to do something about corruption in Washington? Well, seeing how he's a fresh, new face in that town and all...I could see it............not.

Sounds like you're getting your info on her from the typical "in the tank for Obubba" media sources...MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, Wash. Post, and NYT. They did the same thing to Hillary. Were you in here piling on her too?

first of all, she does not have the power to do a goddamn thing in Washington. Zipola. Oh sure, she has a vote in case of a tie but after this election, it won't matter. Its all just words dude.

Sarah's roots are from Sandpoint Ida.

As I am an Independent I see alot of the same in Obama qualities.

:)

CNN is not in the tank for Obama. Their political pundits are drawn from both Democratic and Republican advisors. Others are neutral and equally critical of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palen. anyway, it's a myth peropetrated by the Right that the American MSM is pro-Obama. Web sites that monitor this sort of thing have said that the MSN press ahs covered both candidates fairly equally. Anyway, I'm smart enough to evaluate the candidates on their own merit. Obama is not perfect, but compared to mcCain and Palin, he's a breath of fresh air.