As the immediate past Vice Presidential nominee, it’s hardly surprising that most people outside Alaska view Sarah Palin as a card-carrying member of the GOP establishment. Despite her husband Todd’s seven year dalliance with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and his quiet conversion to the GOP when his wife decided to run for office, Sarah has always been a party member—technically. Many are perplexed that Palin “suddenly” has turned against the very establishment that brought her national fame, and is now throwing her support (albeit not a formal endorsement) behind Newt Gingrich and against the party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney.

What surprised onlookers don’t realize is that going from toeing the line as the party’s VP pick to her new role as bomb thrower is, to Palin, like slipping out of those shiny red high heels and into a nice comfy old pair of running shoes. She’s back in her element. The truth is that the only political tactic that ever won Sarah Palin an election—from Mayor of Wasilla to Governor of Alaska—was proclaiming herself the outsider, and railing against the powers-that-be. As the expression goes, she’s not the one inside the tent pissing out, she’s the one outside the tent pissing in. And she likes it that way.

In 2006, Palin was facing an incumbent Republican in the Alaska gubernatorial primary. Corruption was widespread in the Alaska legislature, and oil companies were purchasing their very own lawmakers, sometimes for as little as a few thousand dollars a pop. After an FBI raid, microphoned informants, hidden cameras in hotel rooms, and cash changing hands, 10 percent of the legislature (Republicans all) ended up indicted for bribery related offenses. The Governor at the time, Frank Murkowski, was trying to rush approval of a Petroleum Profits Tax—negotiated behind closed doors and highly favorable to oil companies who were eager to take as much as they could get at the expense of Alaska citizens.

It was easy to find fault with the Republican party in 2006, and Palin did just that. She rose up from near obscurity, red-suited, fresh-faced, like Joan of Arc ready to take on an army of evil-doers who were running the show. “The machine,” “the good ol’ boys’ network,” “the establishment,” “evil-doers”—these phrases flowed from her lips like a mantra. In fact, literal comparisons to Joan of Arc, King David, and the biblical Queen Esther peppered the emails of support she got from fans. Palin welcomed the allusions. She quite literally believed that God had called her to take on the fight. He had a plan for her. However, the political pragmatist in her knew not to wear her religious zealotry on her sleeve, and those who inhabited that world with her saw the wisdom in it. Mainstream they are not.

Palin’s is not a religion where a quick crossing of oneself in the end zone, a “God bless America,” or a sticky fish on the bumper of the SUV is sufficient. She lives in a world of divine interventions, laying on of hands, secret prayer teams, Providence, Destiny, casting out witches, prayer warriors, intercession, visions and dreams from seers sent through email, or on slips of paper passed at rallies… It is a Dungeons and Dragons world of magic, treachery, and Good with a capital G vs. Evil with a capital E. The world is pregnant with secret meaning. Signs are everywhere. One can imagine a long-ago Sarah as one of those children who plays dress-up, puts on the tiara and doesn’t just pretend she’s a princess—she becomes one.

This is why it is sometimes so difficult and frustrating for politicos to predict what Palin may do next. It all depends on what God wants, and how he delivers his message. The one constant is that if God opens a door, it’s not just an invitation to plow through—it’s a mandate. Palin has thereby become a living example of some sort of divine, political Peter Principle—she has risen to and exceeded her own level of incompetence.

She is not intellectually curious because she doesn’t need to be. She doesn’t know much because it’s not necessary that she does. And she really doesn’t have an overriding political philosophy, because she will be presented with people who will act as instruments of advancement and who’ll tell her what she needs to say. “God brought us together,” she told her inner circle as governor. Everything will work out as it was meant to be. She will arrive at whatever the destination is, whenever the time is right, with a small and tightly knit circle of confidants around her. She can only function through that inner circle.

As long as she is the devoted martyr, the populist Everyman, eyes gazing upward, standing strong against the forces of evil, suffering the injustices and untruths, little else matters.

And as much as Governor Palin hated the villains (the Alaska Republican Party), they hated her right back. She ousted Gov. Frank Murkowski with more than 50% of the vote in a three-way race for the Republican nomination. She clobbered popular former two-term Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election. And then once in office, she did the unforgivable. She worked with Democrats in the legislature to revamp Alaska’s oil tax policy, stuck a stake in the heart of Murkowski’s oil-friendly Petroleum Profits Tax, and replaced it with something called ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share). She wrote every Alaskan man, woman and child an energy rebate check for $1200 to help ease the cost of high energy bills. She went toe to toe with members of her own party in leadership positions, who’d built careers kowtowing to big oil. She praised Obama’s energy plan.

Of course, her administration wasn’t all smooth sailing. Despite the political talents she possessed, her own narcissism, obsessive tendencies, cronyism, middle school drama, truth twisting, and need to settle personal scores emphasized her incompetence as a leader. But using the GOP as target practice was a delicious indulgence for Palin—and its time has come again on the national scene.

Even during the 2008 race, it was almost unbearable for Palin to play ball and do as she was told. At that time, the opportunity ahead didn’t call for working with Dems and throwing darts at Republicans, nor did it call for compromise or praise where it was due. The door was open, and this time it called for brass knuckles. Nobody was going to tell her that Michigan was out of play. Nobody was going to tell her not to talk about Obama palling around with terrorists. Nobody was going to tell her to sit down and shut up on election night. Nobody puts Sarah in the corner.

Her latest quip for the 2012 election cycle  is that the Republican party is “Stalinesque.” Other than perhaps knowing that Stalin came from that country you can see from Alaska, it’s doubtful that analogy sprang forth from her own grey matter. But Palin has surrounded herself with a fresh new “inner circle” that knows of such things, and has been delivered to her. They are the Cyrano to her Christian de Neuvillette. They whisper “Stalinesque” and other smart things from the rose bushes, and she stands in the moonlight, speaking the mavericky words of insurgency to the camera, eyes shining, and beams of righteous light emanating from her like a halo.

In a 2009 email, after being uninvited to speak at a Republican event, Palin had quite a bit to say about Newt Gingrich, the man she now defends.

…Yes, (Newt/GOP) are egotistical, narrow minded machine goons... but all the more reason God protected me from getting up on stage in front of 5000 political and media “elites” to praise him, then it be shown across the nation. At some point Newt would have shown his true colors anyway and we would have been devastated having known we’d earlier prostituted ourselves up in front of the country introducing him and acting like that good ol’ rich white guy is the savior of the party.

Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too. Party machinery sucks. I can’t tell you how much I hate it – nothing ever changes – we went through it before and after the VP campaign… I’ve gone through it all my career. We just don’t fit into it, and maybe we should thank God for that. [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

The blatant hypocrisy of it will not occur to her. That was then and this is now. Then, he was the establishment, the machine, the good ol’ boy, the goon—everything she despised. But now, Mitt Romney is the golden boy of the party and Newt has become the outcast—the misunderstood, the Rogue. It’s a new day of dress-up. A new fairy tale. Regardless of her costume du jour—newscaster, sex symbol, fisherman, hunter, hockey mom—she’ll be playing the same role.  And there’s a new good guy and a new bad guy. All she knows is that’s the way it worked out, and if this is where she was meant to be, then so be it.

It’s also interesting to note, that back in 2006, Palin’s other Republican rival was Fairbanks businessman John Binkley. Palin referred to him as “the machine candidate”, “Rich Man Binkley” with his “cheesy smile,” and even hesitated about using a particular local pollster because he was Binkley’s “mormon bro’” and it might affect his loyalty to her. Fair warning to Mitt Romney—Palin is no stranger to snarking at rich, smiling machine Mormons.

~John Binkley

Whether Palin will attempt to jump in the race this time, make her move at convention time, wait until 2016, or take a different path entirely will depend on factors as of yet unknown. A door will open, a cast of characters will present itself, and Palin will do whatever needs to be done. Whatever it is, rest assured it will not be with the blessing of the “machine.”

Was Sarah Palin’s proclamation, “If I were in South Carolina, I’d vote for Newt” really an endorsement, or just her attempt to keep the wounded elephant that is the current presidential GOP lineup limping forward as far as possible before it collapses under the weight of its own unelectability? Correspondence from Palin seems to indicate the latter.

During Palin’s VP candidacy, her relationship with Newt Gingrich was tumultuous at best. Emails sent on Palin’s Yahoo! account while she was governor, which (despite being in the hands of the state of Alaska) have never been made available to the public, reveal that Newt had some avuncular words of wisdom for the greenhorn candidate:

She didn’t need local and state allies, not with Newt Gingrich regularly emailing advice like suggesting she not answer difficult question and instead “she should reframe it into the question she wishes they asked,” or better yet, “When your opponent has posed a question designed to put you on defense, the right strategy is to destroy the very legitimacy of the question and pose a new question of your own.” [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

But after the unsuccessful campaign, the relationship between the two became more strained. Things came to a boiling point in the summer of 2009, just weeks before Palin quit the governorship of Alaska.

This transformation had to do with a speaking engagement on June 8 at the Washington D.C. Convention Center. Sarah was originally invited to be the keynote speaker at an annual congressional fundraising dinner. As was her custom, she hesitated before accepting and Gingrich was invited as a fall-back. A suddenly dis-invited and miffed Sarah threatened not to attend before begrudgingly relenting.

On June 7, the day before Gingrich’s speech, Sarah wrote to her close inner-circle of administration confidants (including Frank Bailey):

From: gshp

Subject: Fw: Newt

…I don’t know why we have to protect the elites who do things like this so we don’t “ruffle feathers” by keeping it to ourselves. Newt “uninvited” me yesterday to speak at tomorrow’s NSRC (sic for NRSC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee). I was the surprise guest … I’d be sitting at his table, unannounced (though I think they were purposefully already leaking it, I know Meg (Stapleton) leaked it to Politico), then would get up to do a surprise speech and introduction of Newt. So… I went from being the invited keynote speaker back in February, to just the surprise introducer of the speaker this month, to the back-of-the-bus’er (“sit down and shut up”) the day before the event. One of the organizers told Meg last night that Newt pulled the plug, said he didn’t want me to “steal the show”.

This has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the machine, and egos, and power. Their action…tells us they’re not ready to walk the walk and reform the party…

It knocks the political wind right out of my gut – but really we shouldn’t be surprised. And when I mentioned to Mike Reagan [Ronald Reagan’s stepson and GOP commentator] the other night that I’d be referencing Newt in my introduction of him, he wasn’t overly thrilled…maybe there’s something others see in Newt… Keep this confidential until we figure out how I’m supposed to explain flying all the flippin’ way across the country – leaving my baby at home – to be at this dinner, then we get accused of dodging the substantive events like the NSRC, when in reality they kicked us to the curb. I hate politics. 

Later that day, Sarah added more insight:

…Yes, (Newt/GOP) are egotistical, narrow minded machine goons... but all the more reason God protected me from getting up on stage in front of 5000 political and media “elites” to praise him, then it be shown across the nation. At some point Newt would have shown his true colors anyway and we would have been devastated having known we’d earlier prostituted ourselves up in front of the country introducing him and acting like that good ol’ rich white guy is the savior of the party.

Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too. Party machinery sucks. I can’t tell you how much I hate it – nothing ever changes – we went through it before and after the VP campaign… I’ve gone through it all my career. We just don’t fit into it, and maybe we should thank God for that. [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

Despite the good fortune of being saved from a wardroble gaffe by divine intervention, words of comfort and consolation came from Palin aide Ivy Frye: “Screw Newt, and let him take the heat for himself…”

None of this previous bad blood (of which Gingrich may or may not have been aware) seemed to dampen his enthusiasm over Sarah Palin’s comments yesterday. Nor did her explanation that the reason she’d vote for him is simply to see the carnage continue seem to faze him. He said he was “thrilled” after talking to Todd Palin who had formally endorsed him last week, and went on “It’s a signal to every conservative that the one conservative vote that’s effective is to Newt Gingrich and that’s very helpful.”

Palin’s desire to watch the five-way Republican cage fight is so appealing she told South Carolinians that she’d actually vote for the man she described as an “elite” “egotistical, narrow-minded machine goon” – a “good ol’ rich white guy” whom Palin said she didn’t even want to introduce to a crowd of a few thousand lest she “prostitute herself” in front of the nation.

We’ll find out on Saturday if the Palin non-endorsement endorsement helps Gingrich carry the day, and whether Palin continues to urge voters to cast their ballots for a man she actively dislikes.

Palin says that criticism of Romney’s record as the head of Bain Capital is fair and that he should provide the public with proof of his claims that he helped to create 100,000 jobs during his time with the firm.

“Sometimes it gets rough and tumble as you try to hold these candidates accountable for what they are claiming,” the woman who claimed to have said “thanks, but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere” said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel Wednesday.

The woman who told Alaskans to hold her accountable before she didn’t want them to, went on to defend candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry, saying he was simply holding Romney accountable when he called him a “vulture capitalist.”

“This isn’t about a politician making huge profits in the private sector,” best-selling author, Fox News analyst, and new lecture circuit multimillionaire Palin said. “I think what Governor Perry is getting at is that Governor Romney has claimed to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain and people are wanting to know is there proof of that claim?”

Back when Palin was a Republican governor herself, she was far less concerned with the goings on of Republicans on the national scene. When she was elected governor in 2006, current Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney who is now on the receiving end of Palin’s waggling finger, was the head of the Republican Governors’ Association. Then Republican Governor Sarah Palin wasn’t even sure who he was. Internal emails from Palin during that time show her referring to him as “Milt Romney” until she was finally corrected, and confessed:

I argued with [aide] Frank [Bailey] and others, as I insisted his name was MILT, not Mitt.

That’s keeping your finger on the pulse of the national party.

Palin said in the Hannity interview that it is better for the Republicans to do the vetting now, since the Obama campaign is only going to do it later if Romney is the nominee.

“They need to vet one another,” Palin said of the Republicans hoping to get the nomination. “We’re not going to get the lamestream media to help vetting on the other side of the ticket, so we’ll vet within our own party and we’ll allow that uh… most prepared candidate to rise to the top.”

Palin (who is on record as a tax cheat) went on to criticize Romney for not releasing his tax returns. She who authorized the creation of secret email accounts and withheld tens of thousands of state emails from public record, and who refused to release her own medical records during the 2008 campaign, also took Romney to task for not making his records transparent to the public.

The new convert to vetting within her own party received virtually no vetting herself in advance of the 2008 presidential race, as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. She was first formally notified that she was under serious consideration for the position, and received her first request for basic information about herself, on Sunday, August 24, 2008 – four days before she was announced.

Three days later, Palin was flown from Alaska to Flagstaff Arizona, arriving around 10:00pm, after which she was interviewed over the phone by Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr. who ran McCain’s “vetting team.” Apparently, by that point in the campaign he was all “vetted out,” because Palin was offered the job the following morning. (My emphasis added below for purposes of irony)

More startling, as of 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 26, nobody in the McCain camp had seen Sarah’s financial disclosures, tax records, or the formal lengthy questionnaire delving into her background. At that time, Sarah had not yet finished preparing them.

Culvahouse, only a day or two from having Sarah offered the job as running mate, seemed nonplussed and asked for the tax returns only “if possible.” As late as 9:30 p.m. Arizona time that same Tuesday, at least some of the financial documents were still being assembled by Todd with the assistance of Kris Perry. Not that Culvahouse seemed particularly concerned. He indicated to Sarah he did not intend to begin sifting through these materials until the next day anyway, which happened to be the same Wednesday Sarah arrived for her face-to-face with McCain. The process was: 1) review Sarah’s file for the first time on Wednesday 2) interview her late that night, and 3) based on that, it’s welcome-aboard the Maverick Express on Thursday, August 28, at around 11:00 a.m. [from Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

In 2009, Culvahouse proudly declared that “me and two of my most cynical partners interviewed (Palin) and came away impressed.” On Monday, September 1, two days after the announcement, McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said that Palin “was completely vetted by the campaign” before she was chosen.  Apparently, Republicans are not only easily impressed, but also not that hung up with the actual qualifications of candidates – but one look at any of the GOP debates thus far will tell you that.

So, by all means everyone, grab some popcorn, grab a seat next to Sarah, and enjoy the elephant on elephant pile-on. It’s their duty, after all, to give each other a good pounding so they can send their best and brightest limping bloodied elephant into the real fight in November.

So, with a couple year’s worth of perspective, and with the cold, hard realization that there may never have been a candidate so frighteningly unprepared, and so woefully inadequate to hold the position of Vice President of the United States, how does John McCain feel? How does he feel about having chosen an un-vetted running mate, who hadn’t even fully submitted the necessary basic documentation, to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

Speaking to Sean Hannity this evening in New Hampshire, John McCain said that naming Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 was “still the best decision I’ve ever made.”

This, of course, begs the question, “What’s the worst decision he’s ever made?”

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“Only in Alaska.”

We hear that said up here in the Last Frontier all the time. In the case of the rise of Sarah Palin, the fall of Bill Allen and the larger-than-life legacy of Ted Stevens, it is literally true. It only could have happened here.

Crude Awakening explains the growing pains and tribulations of a new state coming of age in the modern era – a state of wilderness, and Sourdoughs, thousands of years of Native culture, fishermen, prospectors and pioneers, brilliant minds and brave souls writing their own Constitution. In some ways comparable to the spirit of newness, hope and optimism of Philadelphia in the 1830s, Alaska’s coming out party had a darker and more raucous side. Heralded by the discovery of North Slope crude in 1968, Alaska’s coming of age meant that almost overnight in came the Outsiders – oil mavericks, religious zealots, guys in suits, Texans, and opportunists eager to make a buck. It has not been an easy or graceful adolescence for the 49th state which just celebrated its 50th Anniversary during the brief but eventful Palin administration.

Emerging from Alaska’s new-found wealth and opportunity came a handful of players who shaped the state for good and not-so-good. With opportunity comes greed. With power comes corruption. Crude Awakening focuses on three of these history makers – former half-term governor Sarah Palin, the late Senator Ted Stevens, and unlikely political kingmaker and entrepreneur Bill Allen.

After the 2008 election Alaskans were often asked by those Outside, with more than a little derision, “How could you have elected her?” Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger skillfully put into historical context the unique set of circumstances that rolled out Alaska’s political red carpet for an unknown Wasilla mayor who would change politics nationwide and put Alaska on the map in its proper place for many who thought of it only as the state in that box somewhere near Hawaii. And isn’t it dark all the time, and don’t they live in igloos? To fully understand Palin’s political career, you have to watch the prequel. Coyne and Hopfinger show us the reel. Sarah Palin’s political career was no accident and her sparkling ivory tower was built on a foundation of charred political bones with their own stories to tell.

For Alaskans, this book is sure to be a mix of comfortable known history and “hey, I never knew that” moments. For Outsiders (yes, we capitalize it), it will be a jaw-dropping, eye-popping look into a world of political intrigue that doesn’t seem possible – a small-town writ geographically large, where even the unlikeliest and shadiest of characters is one degree of separation from power-brokers and political hot-shots.

How did hard-scrabble, uneducated self-made oil services maverick Bill Allen befriend Harvard grad Senator Ted Stevens, at one time fourth in line for the presidency of the United States? And how did Stevens (whom most Outside know only as the “series of tubes guy” for his infamous description of the internet) earn the love and admiration of so many in his state? Nothing is ever black and white in the land of the midnight sun.

At times the book reads like an oil tax policy primer, oftentimes like a soap opera, and occasionally like a travel brochure. From price per barrel, and pipeline negotiations the reader suddenly pops into the seedy world of back room deals, love triangles, underage sex for drugs, nepotism, political favors, vengeance, and personalities as large as the wilderness they inhabit.

Coyne and Hopfinger explain how our nascent state got here. Where we go now is anyone’s guess. Alaska politically, geologically, and culturally is a dynamic and unpredictable work in progress. Many of the colorful characters portrayed in Crude Awakening have moved on – some dead, some in prison, some fled the state for greener and more lucrative pastures. But some of the players are still here and the characters they all played, from the broad-minded dreamers to the Corrupt Bastards, all remain (albeit with different faces and names). The tug o’ war over Alaska’s resources and how best to develop and tax them rages on. We, as a state, are ready in some ways to leave our wild youth behind, but geographic isolation, an economy which is still very much reliant on oil, and that same cast of untamable characters means that anything is possible. Alaska’s next fifty years promises a book that is just as entertaining and intriguing as Crude Awakening.

There’s another thing you often hear around these parts. “You just can’t make this stuff up.” In Alaska, you don’t have to.

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To read the discussion, go to Firedoglake HERE.

Are we really surprised that Alaska is overrepresented in anything having to do with bizarre politics?

No, we are not.

Inspired by the very strange Herman Cain ad, in which his campaign manager, as a finale, takes a nice deep drag off a half-smoked cigarette, followed by a cutaway to an extreme closeup of Herman Cain staring in to the camera and taking a full ten seconds to finally and veeery sloooowwwly smile, the Washington Post has posted the top ten most bizarre political ads of all time.

Guess who won the top spot?

Anyone living in Alaska at the time will remember it. The gold medal went to none other than Mike Gravel, former Alaska Senator and candidate for President in 2008. Behold the majesty. In a staring contest, our guy would wipe the floor with Herman Cain. But don’t tune out half way through. Something does happen, but I don’t want to be the spoiler.

Also making a showing in the top ten was a spot from Alaska Congressional candidate Diane Benson that same year. I actually thought this one was pretty hilarious.

You can check out the others HERE.

In February of this year, there was a deliberate and unauthorized leak of the draft manuscript of the book Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin (Frank Bailey with coauthors Ken Morris and Jeanne Devon). Rival Palin author Joe McGinniss obtained through his publisher a copy of the copyrighted manuscript and emailed it in its entirety to a host of media outlets inviting them to read and comment on the contents. The book, in first draft, was seeking a publisher at the time. Within days, the revelations shocked and amazed the media and public, making their way around the internet universe while being quoted extensively on Hardball, Last Word, Entertainment Tonight, Reuters News and Associated Press (among dozens of others), as well as substantial pieces being printed in the Anchorage Daily News, The Daily Beast, The New York Times, The London Times, and blogs around the world. We estimated that tens of thousands of copies were illegally downloaded via file-shares. Ken Morris spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in Ceases and Desist orders in an attempt to limit the damage. In fact, he spent more than he ever made on the eventual publication of the book,
despite devoting two years of his life to its production.

As a direct result, potential publishers dropped out, citing the leak. Later, when released by Howard Books, publicity opportunities dried up because, as news outlets told us, “The information is already out there.” In damaging our efforts to write an important book, we have a trail of disparaging and aggressive emails from Joe McGinniss. Despite Jeanne signing a legally binding Non-Disclosure Agreement, he believed she should have told him about our book. In other words, she should have broken the law as a favor to him.  He claimed that Blind Allegiance and its authors were “taking money out of my pocket.” Interestingly, both McGinniss and his attorney admitted he was the source of the leaked manuscript. Sounds a bit Palin-esque, doesn’t it?

Even less funny is the fact that this was not the first time Joe McGinniss found himself at the center of an ethical firestorm. In 1990, Janet Malcolm wrote a book based on a series of articles appearing in the New Yorker Magazine entitled The Journalist and the Murderer, an expose about the egregious behaviors of a rogue journalist named Joe McGinniss (who, along with his publisher, eventually settled a lawsuit with a convicted murderer by agreeing to pay him a multi-hundred thousand dollar settlement). While we could write about these breaches ad nauseum, there is scheduled to be a major expose on Mr. McGinniss appearing on Truthout.org in early September that will, we understand, deal with these behaviors in depth. We haven’t seen the story, but the word “bombshell” has been mentioned. Stay tuned.

Despite the pain and expense, some good came of this disaster. Because of the glut of leaked information and accounts of Sarah and Todd Palin’s behavior during the years Frank Bailey worked with them, we began to receive information and first-hand accounts from those in the know who had read the manuscript and wanted to speak of their own painful experiences with the Palins.

In all instances, we verified the relationship with our sources and the Palins and insisted on taped interviews or email transcripts. Many of these eye-witnesses had known the Palin family for dozens of years, going back to their early school years.

Some of these revelation appeared in Blind Allegiance (the eye-witness account of Palin violating campaign finance law), but most were cut by our publisher (Howard Books) at the last minute. After all, this book was Frank Bailey’s story and these bombshells were not part of his first-hand experience. It was a difficult call and one we debated long and hard, as the stories are as shocking as the other revelations in our book.

Over the next few days/weeks, The Mudflats will be reporting some of these stories, as told to the authors, directly from these confidential taped interviews and email communications. These accounts are too important to remain untold, especially in light of the fact that the former governor is still weighing her options regarding entering the presidential race in the coming weeks (not to mention the continuation of ridiculously fabricated stories that ignore reality-not just in Sarah Palin’s own books but now Bristol Palin’s whitewashed biography as well).

Our object in writing Blind Allegiance was always to disseminate information, reveal the truth, and ultimately let an informed public decide if this potential candidate is capable or worthy of holding the media spotlight, a place in the conservative movement, or the highest office in the land. It is in that spirit that we chose to share what we have learned.

Ken Morris and Jeanne Devon

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?

This is the intriguing premise set forth by Joshua Green from The Atlantic, and prefaces a four page article with information gathered during a week-long stay in Alaska. The article titled The Tragedy of Sarah Palin was fascinating, and made some valid points, but it reminded me of another story:

Three blindfolded men were led one at a time into a room containing an elephant. Each was asked to determine what was in the room without removing his blindfold. The first man touched the elephant’s trunk, and concluded a snake was in the room. The second felt its leg and determined it was a tree. The third man found the tail and said the object was a rope. All three were stunned when they removed their blindfolds to find that the object was indeed an elephant. With The Tragedy of Sarah Palin, it’s as though Joshua Green went to Alaska with a blindfold, felt the leg, the trunk, and the tail and decided that the object was a tree from which hung a rope and a snake.

His query “What went wrong?” is a false question.

But let’s start with what he got right. Green rightly notes that her home state is conspicuously devoid of Sarahphernalia – T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other items which Outsiders might expect to find sporting Palin’s visage and populating the shelves of gift shops in the state’s capital. I remember during the 2008 election cycle when even the local version of Whole Foods had racks of “Our Mama Beats Your Obama” shirts, and “Coldest State, Hottest Governor” slogans were everywhere. Green did find a roll of Sarah Palin toilet paper in Juneau, though. He’s right – we are very much over her.

One cause of the 49th state’s newly icy relationship with our ex-governor that cannot be overestimated is simply this – she quit. Quitters don’t make it far in the frontier, and Alaskans lose respect quickly for those that flee when the going gets tough. Surviving discomfort and hardship and risk is a badge of honor here. It’s practically the price of admission. We are the home of the bootstraps by which we tell everyone to pull themselves up. Alaskans don’t like a whiner, and we don’t like a quitter. Case closed.

That said, there’s no doubt that Palin won the day in the Pre-Quitting era. Her high approval ratings, image as a reformer, and willingness to challenge her own party did much to boost the nation’s initial impression of her. Her record in Alaska seemed to show her challenging authority, cleaning up corruption, implementing legislation with the help of Democrats, and getting our fair share of taxes from the oil companies that extract Alaska’s socialist state-owned oil from the ground. Not bad, right? Then, the story goes, she hit the big time and it all changed. Suddenly our hometown girl started hurling accusations of pallin’ around with terrorists, dissing community organizers, using divisive attack-dog language against Barack Obama. Like Napoleon, she put the laurel wreath upon her own head and crowned herself Miss Tea Party USA.

So, what went wrong? Here’s why it’s a false question.

The narrative above presumes one important thing – that Sarah Palin changed. She changed from a measured, reasonable bi-partisan reformer who did her state a lot of good, to a shrieking hatemonger of right wing rhetoric and partisan hackery. At first glance, it seems true on its face and we wonder how she went from one thing, to something quite different. It’s a mystery.

In science, there is a principle called Occam’s Razor which posits that all other things being equal, the simpler answer is usually the correct one. So, is there a simpler answer to Green’s question than that some inexplicable change happened – some tragic occurance – that turned Sarah Palin from her Alaska self into the very different national figure of today? Yes, there is.

Scratch the surface and look at the person underneath the public image, and another landscape reveals itself – one that is actually quite consistent. Sarah Palin was not a reformer at her core, who found a way to fulfill this abiding need, and self-actualization through a career in politics. She was not a person whose core values of bringing people together in a spirit of harmony for the greater good led her to extend her hand across the aisle to embrace Democrats. She was not an energy expert who used her unique, comprehensive knowledge and skill to earn her state back the money that had been robbed from us by Big Oil. She is not a hard core ideologue who will fall on her sword for her beliefs no matter the personal cost. Nor is she a hateful partisan hack who revels in stirring the pot and watching the carnage simply for its own sake.

But there is one thing that she is, that explains all of this and allows these seemingly incongruous traits to coexist in the same narrative, without the contradictions that seem so irreconcilable on their face. Ready?

Sarah Palin is an opportunist. It’s the simplest answer.

Palin the Reformer

When Palin first seriously set foot in the arena of state-wide politics, Alaskans were reeling from the flagrant corruption and carnal relationship between Big Oil and the governor’s office. Her gubernatorial predecessor, Frank Murkowski was so committed to oil, he may as well have been pouring the stuff on his cornflakes in the morning. A group of Republican legislators on the take who proudly dubbed themselves “The Corrupt Bastards Club” were investigated and charged by the FBI for selling political favors to the oil companies in the halls of the capitol. Those legislators went to trial and jail, one after the other. People in Alaska were sporting “Thanks FBI” and “Anyone but Frank” bumper stickers.

Sarah Palin and Frank Murkowski

It was a horrible, humiliating time for Alaskans – particularly the Republican ones whose representatives were ending up behind bars. So what might Alaskans have been craving in a politician at that time? What characteristic above all others would elicit cheers and flowers and adulation? What would a politician need to be to assure a stratospheric rise to the top? A reformer.

Sarah Palin seemed to be just such a person. Out with the “good ol’ boys network” and in with the gal from Wasilla ready to sweep the state clean. “Take a Stand” her signs read. She had used her position on the AOGCC (Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission) to point out the corruption of her fellow member who also happened to be the chair of the Republican Party. Then, because of rules which meant she couldn’t bring the scandal enough into the limelight, she “quit in frustration.” We wanted that to be true so badly that the virtually unknown Sarah Palin won her Republican gubernatorial primary leaving the incumbent with a staggeringly paltry 19% of the vote.

But the reality was that Palin was no energy expert. Her knowledge at the time of the oil and gas industry was so deficient that the legislature later passed a bill that was dubbed at the time the “No More Sarah Palin Bill.” When Republican Representative Vic Kohring stated about the legislation that “It’s critical all members of the Commission have a fundamental understanding of the industry they regulate, and this legislation helps accomplish that.” And although Mr. Kohring states categorically that he had no particular person in mind when he helped draft the legislation, it seemed clear to many at the time that Palin served as an inspiration for the bill. it was quite clear to whom he was referring. He added that with the increased highly technical nature of the industry, it further underscores the need to have experienced and knowledgeable appointees on the Commission. When she quit that job, her “dramatic public gesture” as Green called it, was a golden opportunity to leave a commission upon which she was unqualified to serve, didn’t enjoy, and to do so as the principled reformer who “took a stand.” It was a win-win for Palin, and allowed her to create an image of exactly what Alaskans so desperately wanted. It worked for her.

Palin the Bipartisan

Green goes on to point out how Palin “worked with Democrats” to get new tougher oil legislation passed. There was no question that the PPT (Petroleum Profits Tax) favored by Murkowski did much to further line the pockets of the oil companies at the expense of the state and its people. Palin was elected as a reformer and (to her credit) picked an oil and gas team that was smart and savvy and had good ideas. Her dedication to them and unwavering support for their opinions had as much to do with her lack of knowledge on the subject, as her faith in them, but it worked. When it came time to make a proposal, she went to Republicans in the legislature first. But trying to be both a reformer and a Republican in the state of Alaska is a tricky business. After trying to tiptoe through that minefield, she quickly realized that Republicans (the ones deepest in the pockets of Big Oil) were going to give her nothing – not the way to further a political career or look successful to those on the national scene who were already taking more than a passing glimpse at Palin.

So, Palin went to the only people left who could salvage her reformer image, and allow her to get something done – the Democrats. Dems were willing to work with Palin, and fully realized that they held the cards. For Palin the choice became clear – either become an ineffectual governor for whom “reform” was a nice thought only, or step up to the plate and salvage her image. The price to pay for Palin was that Dems insisted on making the bill tougher on oil, and better for the state. Palin, the opportunist, had little choice. Ultimately, the new better tougher Democratic bill passed and Palin won the day. It certainly wasn’t because Palin went to Juneau and embraced legislators on both sides of the aisle out of an abiding desire for peace, harmony and reconciliation. It was because the Democrats wanted the legislation and got their own bill through by giving the self-serving opportunist and opportunity. They saved the image of a Republican governor because to them, good policy was more important than who got credit and as a result, they saved her butt.

It’s no exaggeration to say that ACES has made the state one of the fiscally strongest in the union. Flush with cash, Alaska produced large capital budgets that blunted the effects of the recession. Moody’s just upped the state’s bond rating to AAA for the first time. While other states reel under staggering deficits, budget cuts, and protests, Alaska has built up a $12 billion surplus, most of it attributable to Palin’s tax.

“Palin’s tax” as Green calls it, was the Democrats’ tax, and it has worked quite well. Since Palin left, Governor Sean Parnell (her former Lt. Governor who won reelection this past cycle) has changed course. ACES, which saves the state billions of dollars a year has come under incessant attack from him and the Republicans in the legislature who now have an oily ally in the governor’s office. Sarah Palin has been virtually silent on the matter of ACES, and dead quiet on the role her former Lt. Governor has played in systematically trying to undermine his former boss’ achievement. It no longer serves her purposes. The Democrats, on the other hand, have been vigorously defending it and the interest of the people of the state of Alaska, just like they did in 2007. If Alaskans want more of what Palin took credit for doing, all they need to do is elect a progressive who serves a full term.

Palin the VP Nominee

When John McCain plucked Sarah Palin from obscurity, it wasn’t because he needed a moderate, sensible running mate who could stick it to corporate power and snuggle up to Democrats. He needed someone to capitalize on the female vote, and someone who could speak the language of the evangelical Christian right. He needed someone to shore up the conservative base. For Palin, this was the opportunity of opportunities, and she was happy to dust off social conservative issues, chuck a few hapless souls under the bus, and throw some red meat into a campaign that was anything but exciting, if that’s what it took. Those wedge issues weren’t the things adding to her popularity as Alaska’s governor, but suddenly they were critical to her success on the VP trail. There was nothing she could do about her woeful inadequacy in political knowledge, or grasp of history, or global affairs, and subsequently fell flat on her face in those arenas. But, boy could she put on a show and took that opportunity with both hands. Principles? Core values? Integrity? Whatever. Opportunity won the day.

Palin the Quitter

After the election, Palin found herself in an awkward spot. When she stepped on the national stage, nobody knew much about what she’d been doing in Alaska, but when she came back to Alaska we sure knew what she’d been up to on the national stage. The things that gave her the opportunity to obtain a measure of success in Alaska were thrown under the bus along with the Democrats who had handed her a victory with ACES. Key players in that legislation suddenly became haters conspiring with Barack Obama to keep her down. And the things that were better off unsaid in Alaska had been shrieked to the four corners of the country and couldn’t be taken back. Suddenly her opportunistic nature became apparent to Alaskans, and it was a whole new ballgame on her home turf. She couldn’t just step back to her former role, and as she did when on the AOGCC, she “quit in frustration.” But this time, Alaskans weren’t buying it.

Her claim that ethics complaints against her were all baseless and yet bankrupting the state simply wasn’t true. Her own actions cost the state more money than anyone else. And a couple of those ethics complaints stuck like the very legality of her legal defense fund. After Palin’s antics as governor, the Alaska legislature was forced to address a couple modern day “No More Sarah Palin” bills and court cases: Should the state pay for the governor’s children’s travel and lodgings at events? Should we pay the governor a per diem allowance when she is living in her own home? Should the governor be allowed to conduct state business from a personal Yahoo account the content of which is not subject to public scrutiny?

The truth is that Palin already had a book deal in the works that she knew could potentially make millions. A book tour and six-figure speaking engagements around the world presented a much more attractive opportunity than slogging it out in a state that didn’t want her, in a job she hated and was ill-prepared to do well. Opportunity demanded that she shake the glacial dust off those red Naughty Monkey pumps and move on to greener pastures.

Palin the Petty

Green recognizes some of Palin’s biggest hurdles in politics – obsession with personal grievances, preoccupation with her own image, and an unending focus on petty issues. Throw incompetence and lack of qualification into the mix, and the portrait is fleshed out even more.

Palin seems to have been driven by a will to advance herself and by a virulent animus against anyone who tried to impede her. But this didn’t prevent her from being an uncommonly effective governor, while she lasted. On the big issues, at least, she chose her enemies well, and left the state in better shape than most people, herself included, seem to realize or want to credit her for. It’s odd that someone so preoccupied with her image hasn’t gotten this across better. And it raises the question of what she could have achieved.

This is Green’s thought experiment. But the real question he’s asking is – What could Palin have achieved if she had a different personality, if she were not a political opportunist and had actual integrity, if she were qualified, if she knew her stuff, if she were an effective leader, if she knew how to manage people, if she were intellectually curious, if she didn’t quit? The question Green asks is really what Sarah Palin might have achieved if she hadn’t been Sarah Palin. And it’s why “What went wrong?” is a false question. “What went wrong” was Palin being who she is – consistently and predictably opportunistic. There are times when opportunity comes from doing the right thing, but there are times when opportunity comes from doing the wrong thing. It doesn’t mean that Palin changed, it just means she was true to what drives her always – her own self-interest.

Off all those quoted in the article, my favorite was former governor and Palin’s Democratic opponent in 2006, Tony Knowles.

“She’s what I call ‘alley-cat smart,’” Tony Knowles, the former Democratic governor, told me. “It’s not about ideology. She knows how to pick her way down the political route that she feels will be the most beneficial to what she wants to do.”

Yes, Tony Knowles and Occam’s Razor – the simplest answer is right.

So, what is the real tragedy of Sarah Palin? The tragedy is that we, the public, allow ourselves to be snowed. We see a pretty package, and someone holding a sign with a meaningless soundbite and we’re sold. Apathy, laziness, blind trust that someone so utterly unsuited for office would never have been selected, and a deep human wish for a hero to make it all better, blind us to reality.

Gov. Walker Rail Plan Derailed.

During his gubernatorial campaign, Governor Scott Walker consistently labeled the $800 million Wisconsin received in federal high speed rail funds as a waste of tax payer dollars, an Obama Administration boondoggle, and completely unnecessary.  Shortly after winning his election, he got his wish; US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood happily took back the money allotted to Wisconsin and redistributed it to other states who actually desired to enter the 21st century, provide transportation alternatives and create jobs.  Governor Walker then touted the loss of the money as a huge win for his administration, and the taxpayer.

Does this A** make my truck look big?

Fast forward a couple of months when our inept governor realized that the Milwaukee to Chicago Hiawatha line actually needs improvements, new train sets and 8 locomotives that would have been provided for with the original $810 million rail grant. So what does he do? He applies for $150 million in federal funds to, well, buy new train sets, replace locomotives, and upgrade the tracks. You can’t make this stuff up.

In a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation,  Secretary Ray LaHood said:

“President Obama and Vice President Biden’s vision for a national rail system will help ensure America is equipped to win the future with the fastest, safest and most efficient transportation network in the world,” said Secretary LaHood. “The investments we’re making today will help states across the country create jobs, spur economic development and boost manufacturing in their communities.”

In a conference call, LaHood avoided answering a question about whether Monday’s decision was related to Walker’s rejection of the original $810 million grant, which negated two decades of planning by previous administrations. But Secretary LaHood repeatedly used the word “reliable” in describing the leadership of states selected for rail funding.

WI State Rep. Brett Hulsey -D, Madison.

State Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, quickly showered the Walker Administration with well-deserved praise:

“This announcement shows all our neighbors get federal train help but Wisconsin,” he says. “Gov Walker’s war on transportation choices pays off for our neighbors while our outdated train lines don’t get the upgrades they need.”

It appears that Rep. Hulsey is talking about  Talgo, a Spanish high-speed train manufacturer that announced it would likely close and move its manufacturing facility, and the jobs that go with it, to Illinois shortly after completing the trains already ordered.

Wisconsin taxpayers will now foot the bill to upgrade the Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago. This is the busiest inter-city passenger rail corridor in the midwest and well-used by both business and leisure travelers. In fact,Ridership on the Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha rail line has doubled in the past eight years, hitting a record 792,848 in 2010. The $150 million in upgrades the state will now need to self-finance would have paid for maintenance costs on the proposed high-speed rail line for nearly 20 years.  Even the cost associated with the completely unjustified increased security measures at the Wisconsin State Capitol has now reached nearly $7 million in a matter of a few months. Yet Governor Walker derailed the train because it “might” have cost that much in subsidies annually.  More accurately, the federal government would have covered some, if not all, of the maintenance costs in contrast with Walker simply flushing money away to finance his personal palace guard. Sadly, while the rest of the midwest builds out high speed rail infrastructure with an eye toward the future, Wisconsin stays firmly planted in the 1950′s.  Thanks Scott.

Total Recall.