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?”

Join me and author Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch today at firedoglake.com for a book salon featuring the new release Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska by Coyne and co-author Tony Hopfinger. Details below. Hope to see you there!

[Cross-posted from Alaska Dispatch]

Jeanne Devon, AKA AK Muckraker, who runs the popular Alaska-based website The Mudflats, is hosting an online discussion Sunday, Nov. 13, of “Crude Awakening: Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska.” The discussion will be held at Firedoglake Book Salon. “Crude Awakening” was penned by Alaska Dispatch founders Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger. Coyne will answer questions from 1-3 p.m. Alaska Time (5-7 p.m. Eastern Time, 2-4 p.m Pacific).

Here’s the book jacket description (though Devon’s description, which will appear tomorrow on Firedoglake, is better than what the authors came up with):

Crude Awakening is the rollicking story of politics in America’s last frontier and oil province—Alaska, the nation’s most wild and mysterious state, where politics and oil blurred on the day wildcatters struck it big in 1968. Living in a northern Never Land, where oil companies and the federal government kept the state living high and wild, a handful of players ran the show. Among them were the late Sen. Ted Stevens and oilman Bill Allen, the Tony Soprano of Alaska who controlled the political machine until the FBI arrived to root out corruption, only to be accused of playing as dirty as those they were investigating. These characters and events paved the way for Sarah Palin’s rise to fame and fall from glory in Alaska. Authors Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger chart the epic tale of these three characters, set in a state of soaring hopes, fading dreams, drying oil fields and an uncertain future.

The authors will also be on Alaska Public Radio’s Alaska New Nightly at 6 p.m. on Monday, APRN’s talk of Alaska at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and Moore Up North on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the Taproot Cafe in Anchorage. The authors will be reading and signing books on Nov. 19 at 11:30 a.m. at Fireside Books in Palmer.

Reviews of the book can be found here, here and here.

This year, they were not only in the same city, they were in the same hotel – mine. This made for several uncomfortable elevator rides with people wearing Right Online badges, who glared at my Netroots badge, and also for a couple impromptu sightings of Andrew Breitbart. His favorite activity was standing around the lobby having people take pictures of him while he looked important. His second favorite activity was standing around outside the main doors having people take pictures of him while he looked important. I noticed that he was constantly followed around by creepy guy in a hat with a strange gait. Bela Lugosi will play him in the movie, if (God help us) there is a movie.

All that said, this serendipitous confluence of politicos did have one little perk – that thing I noticed slipped in the crack of my door. Actually, it was slipped in the cracks of every door of the hotel, and this is what it was:

You can imagine me standing by my door, card key in hand, letting out a huge, “HA!” in the empty hallway. Now, I’ll grant you that this is not everyone’s idea of a good time. But it is mine. I would have been happy to go to the screening of The Undefeated alone, but as luck would have it, I had the best date on the planet!  Also attending the conference was my Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin co-author Ken Morris. We were fresh from a radio interview which meant we missed the first half. But as soon as we were able, we went to the ballroom and quietly entered the side door.

The title of the movie alone indicates what will be in store, because of course politically Palin has been defeated in the Lt. Governor’s race in Alaska, and also was soundly defeated in her bid for the Vice Presidency. So spin promises to be the order of the day.

There were a couple hundred people sitting at round tables watching the movie when we entered. I’m not sure what I was expecting to see on the screen, but it wasn’t what I saw. Lo and behold, there was the six-foot tall head of none other than Alaska State Senator Bill Wielechowski (Will a cow ski), who we fondly referred to as “the best Bill in Juneau.” Once my saucer eyes had returned to normal size, I realized why he was there. He was talking about ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share), the oil tax system implemented under the Palin administration.

Palin went to Republicans with a version of the idea, and was soundly rejected. The Democrats galloped to the rescue of the new governor, strengthened the bill, and got it passed. Of course, that whole “Democrats saving the day” narrative was overlooked for some reason. But nevertheless, ACES was great, and it happened under Palin. Alaska is now pocketing $2 billion a year it wouldn’t have had otherwise. Regrettably, the new Parnell-Conoco administration is doing its best to scuttle ACES and return that money to the oil companies, but legislators like Wielechowski are working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. [You can read all about that HERE]

The next half hour of the film was dedicated to talking about oil tax policy, opening leases in the Arctic, the gas pipeline (which is dying an ignominious death, and which sounded in the movie like it was already happily flowing the gas to eager consumers), and all sorts of topics that had most of the audience glazing over like they were sitting in a 9th grade history class. These things are very important, but it’s not what most people get excited about, or why most people go to a Palin rally. As testament to this, a couple dozen people quietly left their seats and slipped past us to freedom.

After the oil and gas lesson, those that stayed were treated to a full on extravaganza of gushing Palinbots. There was former communications harpie Meg Stapleton (known as “Stapletongue” for good reason). She was all decked out in a dark suit, standing against a white background telling the story of the VP nomination, subsequent defeat, and the return home to Alaska. We heard from her throughout the film, usually beginning her sentences with “It was SO sad…” She referred of course to the constant perceived victimization of Palin and her family by the big bad media, fellow Republicans, Democrats, bloggers, voters, and everything and everyone else under the sun.

And who else should pop up but our favorite arch-villain Thomas Van Flein, the Palins’ personal attorney!

And then there was the aforementioned Andrew Breitbart who was ubiquitous, and couldn’t have spoken of Sarah Palin in more glowing terms. Over. And over. And over. Breitbart’s sycophantic appendage (the creepy guy with the hat) was conspicuously absent.

Conservative filmmaker Steven Bannon, who is responsible for all this, seems to have a fondness for freakishly violent imagery.  The media attacks, and criticism from Alaskan politicians and commentators were accompanied by devastating scenes of earthquakes, concrete overpasses collapsing and crushing cars full of people, ominously dripping oil, a pack of lions graphically ripping apart a hapless zebra (lions = bloggers, zebra = Palin) – and what would a right wing fearfest be without the obligatory mushroom cloud? Nothing, that’s what.

It was SO sad, Stapleton told us with tight esophagus, that the governor had to leave “the job she loved more than anything else in the world.”  She apparently missed that email from Palin that said, “I hate this damn job.” And the other one that expounds “I hate this flipping kangaroo joke of a job.”

It was SO sad, she went on, that when the governor came back to Alaska and it was like a car “going from 60mph to zero.” Cue scene of white van racing down the highway, doing a wicked rollover and coming to rest upside down at zero miles per hour. You get the idea.

According to published reports, “Palin did not have any editorial role in the project and was not interviewed for the film.” At first I found this odd, since large portions of the movie were actually narrated by Palin herself, who was clearly reading from a script. But I guess reading the script doesn’t technically imply editorial control or being “interviewed.”  Those conservatives love their sneaky wording.

There was no doubt that this feature length propaganda flick was a campaign film, but it had a twist. This was no Republican propaganda film – this was a Tea Party film that slammed both the left and the right. Any time Nancy Pelosi was mentioned, the crowd in the ballroom swelled with hisses. When Obama was mentioned, boos erupted, and there was even a cry of “Terrorist!” which sent a little chill up my spine. My date and I locked eyes at that one, but tried quickly to look inconspicuous.

Interestingly, the Republicans fared not much better. Slightly less venemous jabs were made at the “entrenched” GOP “elite” while images of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner flashed on the screen. No booing and hissing on this one – just a clenched awkward silence and a bunch of raised eyebrows.

The Tea Party, the film tells us, is going to be our political savior because it’s really “grass roots.” They never mentioned the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, Freedomworks or the other conservative foundations funded by the wealthiest families in the nation. But good propaganda must select its message without letting fair and balanced facts intrude.

Bannon, I think it’s safe to say, has guzzled the Kool-Aid.

All in all the film did a great job of selecting all possible 10-second clips where Palin looked like an energetic, funny, spunky, stubborn advocate for all that is great and good. It also did a good job of making me queazy and scaring the bejeesus out of me. The Good vs. Evil themes, the charismatic leader, the cheering crowds, the larger than life personality, the persecution of the martyr, the selective scrubbing of the bad, the exaggeration and bending of the true… It all felt like some horrible history lesson of the future. It even came complete with an enraptured audience clinking their glasses with forks and wooooing and cheering in concert with the woooooing and cheering crowds on the screen.

I even found a review of the film from someone in the room attending the Right Online conference. This impartial critique comes from… you’ll see.

I’ve long been a Palin supporter. I grew up in Wasilla. My family have been friends with the Palins and the Heaths (Sarah’s family) for some time now. I can’t help but support the hometown girl. But even I was taken aback.I had expected, frankly, Palin propaganda. And I don’t mean that derisively. After the treatment Palin has gotten at the hands of the media and the left, she deserves some propaganda. I had expected an hours-long run-down of all the ways the media/left were unfair to Palin.

What I got was a thorough, eye-opening (even for a Palin supporter) run-down of why Palin is everything the media says she isn’t.

A Palin supporter and friend of the family from Wasilla thinks she deserves some propaganda, expected to hear about nothing but how badly the media treated her, and instead found out that everything the media said about her was a lie. What can you say?

After a segment about Ronald Reagan, and a quote from Thomas Paine, this surreal episode of Sarah in Wonderland came to an end. Ken and I filtered out into the hallway with nothing on our lips but “Wow.”  Then I noticed a set of oil paintings propped up on a table just next to the main doors. One was of Sarah Palin, and the other was (wait for it) Thomas Jefferson. Yup, Palin was shoulder to shoulder at her screening with a French-loving Democrat who snipped up the Bible and made his own version. I wonder if there’s an army of Palinbots changing history on Jefferson’s Wikipedia page at this very moment.

One of my fellow Alaskans at the convention made it a point to talk to a Palin supporter who was actually in the film and said a few words on the stage after it was over.  I caught snippets of their conversation, and the comment that struck me was when the woman said, “Look, all I know is that the left hates her, and the right hates her, so she must be doing something right.”

Everyone hates you = You’re the greatest

It’s all starting to make sense.

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.

Zounds! That’s not who you think it is. The movie based on the political best-seller Game Change is coming to HBO, and actress Julianne Moore will have the .. um.. honor of playing our favorite ex-half-governor.  Yes, we only have one ex-half-governor which is why she is, by default, our favorite.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that Moore has “nailed” the Palin look, complete with glasses, updo, and a patriotic flag pin. But conoisseurs of Palin accessory trivia will note that it is in actuality a blue star pin. Palin wore the pin religiously throughout the campaign, signifying that she had a child in the military. The pin vanished as suddenly and silently as Track vanished from the military.

My only critique of Ms. Moore’s caricature of the caricature that is Sarah Palin is the “point.” I would respectfully direct the actress’ attention to Sarah Palin’s preferred method of indicating something in her physical space – the scary knuckle.

The scary knuckle is not only used as a pointing tool, but also (as above) to make rapid-fire noogie-like motions for emphasis. I simply bring this up because it’s those small details that can really make or break a production.

Production of the movie begins this very day, with Ed Harris playing John McCain and Woody Harrelson as McCain adviser Steve Schmidt.

So, what’s the real Sarah up to today?  Latest is she’s challenging President Obama to produce his academic papers from college and his “um.. uhh… Harvard Law Review papers.”  I presume if she decides to declare a 2012 presidential candidacy, we’ll be treated to her own academic treatises like “Why I think being a sportscaster would be really cool” and “Asians – Why are there so many?” After all, she’s got five whole colleges worth of stuff to share.

Now, there have been rumors before that Sarah Palin was shopping for new digs outside the great state of Alaska. For a while it was being reported that she was looking for some sandy turf in the exclusive enclave of The Hamptons on Long Island. I tried to imagine how the tight-lipped residents of that particular area would take to the invariable jet skis covered by a blue tarp in the yard, a couple saw horses, some ATV being saved for parts, a 55-gallon drum and a pile of tires (the requisite yard dressing for respectable homes in the Last Frontier). But that didn’t pan out.

But now, there’s a new story you just might believe. And, Arizona? I’m afraid we have to have a little talk. Things like this are never easy, but I’ve just gotta be straight with you.

It seems that the latest rumors have the Palins fleeing the 30% approval rating and moving to Arizona. Now that’s a rumor that makes some sense. I mean yeah… Alaskans are a little nutty and all, but let’s face it people. Arizona has been gunning for us (pardon the pun) and the number one slot on the crazy list for some time now. And daughter Bristol has already bought a house there.

Governor Jan Brewer actually came to Alaska for a visit last week to see the start of the Iditarod. Perhaps our Sarah has heard the siren song of crazy right from the source, and was powerless to resist. Like the rare and mesmerizing Whack Job Moth, she is drawn from her nest in the 49th state to the irresistible flickering flame of the 48th, with it’s draconian immigration laws, love of firearms, and its Jan Brewer and John Kyle, and Sheriff Arpaio, and the man who created her in the first place – her very own Doctor Frankenstein, John McCain. Yes, moth…. follllllowwww the liiiiiight.

(If they hadn’t cropped the picture, you’d see the red Naughty Monkey pumps)

And how do I feel about losing Sarah? About perhaps bidding farewell to the subject of hundreds of posts, and great fodder for this blog?

I feel like eating cake. Or perhaps throwing confetti. Oh, I know… she’ll probably keep the place on Lake Lucille, and the snowmachining cabin on Safari Lake. I don’t delude myself that she’ll be gone for good, but even the thought of her being a ‘snowbird’ who comes for the summer and then hightails it out to warmer climes as soon as the first flakes begin to fall makes me smile a little – like when you’ve been listening to a test of the Emergency Broadcast System, and then it stops.

Before you say anything Arizona… I do feel your pain. I get it. You’ve got your share of wingnuts and you’re not looking forward to any more. But I submit to you that my state still houses Joe Miller, Don Young, Sean Parnell, Dan Sullivan, and a host of other lesser demons. It’s not like we don’t have enough to go around. The 49th state has carried the water for a long time now. And by “the water” I mean the agonizing burden and humiliation of claiming the most vapid and divisive figure in modern politics.

I’m sure she’ll tire of you eventually. When it gets over 75 degrees Alaskans start to get really uncomfortable and sweaty. And we don’t have to contend with things like scorpions, or snakes, or fleas, or ticks, or poisonous lizards or whatever you guys have down there. Here, if it’s going to kill you you’ll see it coming, and chances are it weighs several hundred pounds more than you do.

Rumors are also swirling that she’ll be using Arizona for the purposes of launching her upcoming presidential bid from Scottsdale. Oh, joy.

All we ask is that when you’re ready to hand her off, please do NOT return to sender. Alaskans encourage you to pay it forward. I’m thinking Oklahoma, or Utah… Maybe Alabama or Arkansas. You decide.

Nothing defines Alaska quite so much as the gigantic size and small population. We are far flung, and disconnected. When 1500 miles separates two towns, it’s hard to remember you’re supposed to be in the same state. Alaska is larger than many countries, and pretty darn empty when it comes to people.

Because of this peculiarity, and the fact that Alaska is a relatively young state (Anchorage was a tent city back in the 1940s) we tend to be a little lacking in the infrastructure department. Roads through hundreds or thousands of miles of wilderness, for almost non-existent traffic are certainly not cost-efficient. So, we do have a road “system” but it’s pretty limited. Boats and bush planes will get you to everywhere roads will not.

~Heading out with friends for a camping trip in 1995. Small planes will get you to some interesting places.

As a result of this, Alaska has a lot of recreational pilots and a lot of small planes. People in tiny communities off the road system rely on regular flights in and out for basic services more than anywhere else in the country. No planes means no mail, no supplies, no transportation to visit relatives, or get to a larger town to shop, or get medical help when you or your family needs it. It’s the difference between a connection to the outside world, and a completely isolated existence akin to living on a deserted island.

So, it was particularly alarming to hear of an amendment to Senate bill by a Senator who seems to be making a career out of misunderstanding Alaskan things. His first misunderstanding is now blathering away on Fox News. And now this.

House Republicans, eager to show how fiscally watchdoggy they are, passed a bill to eliminate Essential Air Services (EAS) from all states except Alaska and Hawaii. The program subsidizes air travel to rural communities who otherwise would not be able to sustain it. The bill passed.

But now, it faces a Senate vote which would eliminate the program entirely – Alaska included. As you can imagine this has caused a bit of a furor with the Alaska congressional delegation. Don Young already spoke up in the House for exempting Alaska, and both Senators Murkowski and Begich have advocated for continuing the program in-state as well.

Opposition to keeping the program comes from the organization “Citizens Against Government Waste” who apparently doesn’t think broadly enough to encompass Alaska.

The decision to do away with the program should be an easy one when so many other tough budget decisions must be made, [Tim] Schatz, [President of Citizens Against Government Waste] said.

“Frankly, we consider the EAS low-hanging fruit, something all members of Congress should oppose if they do not wish to leave future generations under a mountain of debt,” he said. “If Congress balks at cutting programs that overreach their objectives and waste taxpayer dollars as flagrantly as the EAS, hope for a long-term cultural shift is dubious.”

This bill is especially important for states like mine. Aviation is the lifeblood of Alaska. It’s truly our highway in the sky. We have six times more pilots and sixteen times more planes per capita than the rest of the country. In Alaska the small plane is the equivalent of a minivan in the Lower 48. They’re how Alaskans get around. I’d like to talk briefly about an essential air service program which is vital to my constituents.

~Friend from Arizona

My friend from Arizona has introduced an amendment which would repeal the essential air services program, and I truly have grave concerns for what this would mean, not only for rural Alaskans, but for rural Americans as a whole. The essential air service program originated at the same time as airline deregulation in 1978.

When airline deregulation passed, it gave airlines almost total freedom to determine which markets to serve domestically and what fares to charge for that service. This is not a bad thing. Some good things came out of airline deregulation. It fostered competition among airlines. It brought down ticket prices for many air routes between large urban centers. But when congress passed airline deregulation, it also recognized that something needed to be done to protect rural communities. They weren’t the most profitable routes for air carriers so the idea was to maintain a minimum level of service. That is where the Essential Air Service program came from. The program provided modest subsidies to air carriers to provide service to communities that would otherwise have lost all air service through deregulation.

Since 1978, the Essential Air Service Program has successfully guaranteed small communities that were served by certified air carriers before deregulation would maintain a minimum level of scheduled air service. The program has been a vital link for rural America. There are very real consequences to eliminating this program to my constituents, especially in the 44 communities served by the EAS program.

Let me show you this poster. This poster shows Alaska’s limited road infrastructure. 82% of Alaska communities are not on the road system and rely on aviation as a primary means of transportation for goods, people, mail… it all has to come by aircraft. And let me not confuse those who are watching. We did not oversize the state of Alaska. Alaska doesn’t sit down here by California, or in a little box somewhere. This is actually the size of Alaska in comparison to the Lower 48. The red lines show the road network. Now you can imagine the road network that would be shown in the Lower 48, but this is the only road network we have. So, for the rest of the state it is by air or by boat. People in these communities face some of the highest cost of living in the country.

Rural Alaskans can’t drive to a Safeway when they need something. There are no roads, and there are no Safeways. If you eliminate the EAS program it is going to drive these prices even higher in rural Alaska.

~The Village of Kake. No it’s not something from the Nutcracker, it’s a rural community that has a lot to lose.

Gary Williams from the village of Kake sent me a letter about what the McCain amendment would mean for his community. By the way, the EAS assures that Kake receives at least three weekly flights from a small Cessna 208 aircraft during the winter. Again, this is not a jetliner. Maybe in Alaska we think a Cessna 208 is a jetliner… but that’s a very small plane. Gary Williams in Kake says, “I frankly can’t imagine being without service. It would isolate and cripple us on many levels.”

In addition to eliminating the only source of transportation for many communities, Senator McCain’s amendment would actually put people out of work. It would hurt small businesses in Alaska and across this country. It is truly a job killing amendment.

Mr. President, I’d like to read a letter my office received from the owner of Pen Air. Pen Air is a family owned business, started in 1955 by a young nineteen-year old named Orin Seybert. When Orin started his business in 1955, he had a two-seat Taylorcraft and a four-seat Piper tri-pacer. Orin is a great example of the pioneering spirit that embodies Alaska. Over the years, Orin grew the business into a successful regional air carrier, serving communities throughout rural Alaska. Pen Air is now run by Orin’s son Danny. This is a letter from Danny Seybert, the President of Pen Air.

“For many of these communities Pen Air is the only scheduled passenger air service link to the rest of the world.” He goes on to say if the McCain amendment is passed, “It would have a devastating effect on many remote communities in Alaska, on many air carriers that provide those communities with the air transportation services, and on Alaska’s economy.”

~The Grand Caravan accommodates up to nine passengers or 2,500 pounds of cargo

Here’s an email my office received from the Copper Valley Air Service. Copper Valley flies two EAS routes serving the communities of McCarthy and May Creek. The email reads  “If this amendment is approved it will put Copper Valley Air Service out of business. It will cost eight jobs. This cannot pass.”

This is an email from Bruce Phillips, the chief pilot of Wings of Alaska. Repealing EAS would “not only diminish jobs and raise costs, but also potentially abolish air service to some communities entirely. Villages in Southeast Alaska have no roads, and limited if any ferry service making air service a lifeline. This is how they receive everything from medication to mail, to groceries, as well as how they travel for medical, personal and business.”

I’ve got a stack of these letters that my office has received in the past few days from communities that would lose air service if the McCain amendment is adopted. From individuals in the communities who are terrified about what this would mean for the price of goods in their community. From those worried about the cost of air travel if they should get sick and need to seek medical attention at a hospital; and from small air carriers worried that they will either have to lay off employees, or go under altogether.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all these letters would be entered in to the record.

It’s easy to call this wasteful if you don’t understand the needs of rural communities. They don’t have any other means of transportation. When he introduced the amendment, my friend from Arizona suggested that folks are bypassing Essential Air Service flights to drive to a hub, and a hub airport where they can get cheaper fares to more destinations. Consider how that applies in my state. For the community of Adak in the Aleutian Islands, the connection to the nearest medium hub is Anchorage.  I laughed a little bit, because I want to put this truly in perspective.  It’s almost 1200 miles… so if you want to (as Senator McCain says) “drive to the hub” you can’t do that because you’re here. (points to Adak).

In order to get to here (points to Anchorage) you have to go by air, or catch a boat – assuming the weather’s good.  So his analysis that people are just driving off to these hubs, and catching flights that are cheaper is inaccurate, and he’s unfamiliar obviously with what’s going on in Alaska.

To put the number in perspective it’s about the same distance from Los Angeles to Houston, except unlike Los Angeles and Houston, there are no roads between these two places. I agree with Senator McCain that we need to do something to address this nation’s budget deficit, (snip) but I don’t believe you should balance the budget on the backs of communities and people facing some of the highest costs of living, in the toughest conditions in this country, and that is exactly what the McCain amendment would do.

When Senator McCain introduced this amendment, he cited a July 2009 GAO Report, suggesting that the EAS has outlived its usefulness. I’ve got that very same report, and (snip) I’m just going to go to page 2 of this report. This is from the GAO. This is what they said:

“Our review focused on communities in the continental United States (what we like to refer to as the Lower 48) that have received EAS subsidized service. We focused our review on these communities because the requirements for communities in Alaska are different than communities in other states, and the airports outside the contiguous states are not representative of the programs in the rest of the country.”

I can’t speak for Senator McCain’s constituents or communities in Arizona that receive Essential Air Service. Maybe the folks of Kingman and Page, and Prescott and Show Low, that receive EAS don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not sure if Senator McCain has checked with them but maybe that’s how they feel. But, I can speak for the rural Alaskans who have contacted my office – who are terrified about this amendment and what it would mean for their community, for their way of life, for their very health and well-being, and for their families.

We are in the midst of a recovery from an economic collapse. Mr. President, it makes no sense to eliminate a valuable program that helps rural America, and puts small business to work. This amendment would take us in the wrong direction. I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

***************************

Alaskans will be alert to the Senate vote that is supposed to happen today to see if McCain will get his way and eradicate the program entirely, even in Alaska where 44 communities may be about to lose their air service.

Meghan McCain’s new book Dirty Sexy Politics has a few interesting nuggets about her father’s former running mate that really don’t come as much of a surprise, including her assessment that Sarah Palin brought “drama, stress, complications, panic and loads of uncertainty” to the losing campaign.

Really?  She kind of brought that to Alaska, too.

Just saying.

“Katie Couric’s interview with her before the vice presidential debate had been disastrous. Unhappy with her performance, Palin seemed to blame the interview on the campaign. And she continued to blame other poor interviews and snafus on the campaign too,” McCain writes. “Sarah Palin. She was turning out to be somebody who leaves a wake of confusion and chaos — to the point of dizziness — wherever she went.”

We go on to learn that in addition to blaming everyone else for her own incompetence, Palin snubbed Cindy McCain, wasn’t a team player, and caused general upheaval wherever she went.  And yet, somehow McCain still feels conflicted about her feelings for Palin, rehashing the “she brought such energy to the campaign” meme.  McCain apparently feels that the Republican Party has room for both social liberals, and the new brand of socially rigid fringy right wing whack jobs to join hands and sing Kumbaya.

I don’t want to be the one to break it to McCain, but will someone please tell her that she’s a Democrat and that the “new Republican Party” doesn’t want her, or her mavericky broad mindedness?  Intolerance is their mantra.  The only question is how intolerant Americans will allow themselves to become before the pendulum begins to swing the other way.