Sarah Palin's Record

Today has been a quietly happy day. I woke up far later than I should, wonderfully well rested, thanks to the warm blanket and the scarf around my throat. (The scarf's purpose, I should add, being more prophylactic than otherwise; there is no cold yet, only the stirrings of it.) Then I nudged everyone to watch the opening sketch of the American TV series Saturday Night Live, which I tend to find tasteless and unfunny, but which hit the nail on the head this week in its portrayal of a press conference with Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.

Through the customary channel of Gawker, I also found a long investigative article on Sarah Palin's political career in the New York Times (I visit the Times site often anyway, but not so much on the weekend, when, to employ the vernacular, the pickings are slim), which is only incomplete insofar as it does not address concerns that are already in the public domain, so to speak, aside from the book banning incident. It is awkward having two Palin-related posts in a row, but it's merely a coincidence, and not because I want to pile on the criticism.

So, for the benefit of those who are interested in current American politics and have a long attention span:

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The article has a splendid opening salvo:

WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Of course the question is whether Sarah Palin's record of appointments is any more doubtful than that of any other senator, governor, and big-city mayor in the country. But, as anecdotes go, this is still a pretty good one.

After this we are taken back to the origins of the Governor, and there is a poetic but disturbing word-painting of her hometown of Wasilla:

In the past three decades, socially conservative Oklahomans and Texans have flocked north to the oil fields of Alaska. They filled evangelical churches around Wasilla and revived the Republican Party. Many of these working-class residents formed the electoral backbone for Ms. Palin, who ran for mayor on a platform of gun rights, opposition to abortion and the ouster of the “complacent” old guard.

Anyway, summarizing what the article says up to and around this point, it appears that, as mayor and governor, Mrs. Palin has vigorously endeavoured to introduce fresh policy measures (e.g. lower taxes) and decrease corruption, and, as governor, she has an 80% approval rating. But she has a cavalier attitude toward firing and employing people, and her decisions are based far more on connections, and on personal likes and dislikes, than on qualifications or just cause.

Then there is the question of the consistency of her anti-corruption measures. On the one hand, when she was chairperson of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,

Ms. Palin discovered that the state Republican leader, Randy Ruedrich, a commission member, was conducting party business on state time and favoring regulated companies. When Mr. Murkowski failed to act on her complaints, she quit and went public.

On the other hand, when she was running for the governorship in 2006,

In the middle of the primary, a conservative columnist in the state, Paul Jenkins, unearthed e-mail messages showing that Ms. Palin had conducted campaign business from the mayor’s office. [. . .]

“I told her it looks like she did the same thing that Randy Ruedrich did,” Mr. Jenkins recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, what I did was wrong.’ ”

Also, she evidently has another trait in common with Bush, in that she has been on holiday for much of her gubernatorial term:

Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.

Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives — and vetoes — from news releases.

So my opinion of her personally is not worsened by the article, but it is clear to me that she has no proper sense of responsibility, or she would be more conscientious about her appointments and her presence in Juneau. Besides, I had the impression that she had been Governor for more than two years, because two years in an office that (as I understand it) can be as ceremonial as you choose to make it, really isn't that much experience.

From "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes," New York Times (Sept. 13, 2008)