jon abad dot com

After hearing some more things on Palin, specifically this letter from Anne Kilkenny, a resident of Wasilla, AK regarding her time there as mayor and governor, I think I’m closer to understanding the seeming contradictions.

She claims to be a government ethics reformer but is happy to take earmarks then complains about them after the check has cleared or one who fires folks under suspicious conditions and then stonewalls the independent investigation trying to determine if there was wrongdoing.

The Anne Kilkenny letter is fairly lengthy and I look forward to it being fact checked as it makes an effort to include both positive and negatives about Palin but the general theme is nicely rounded up in this excerpt:

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects — which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance — but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork."

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

Simply, Palin is a polarizing, high energy choice for the RNC.

Helped by McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis’ comment that this election is not  issues, some journalists are beginning to notice it as the smokescreen that it is and 538 put it in the simplest terms: "Sarah Palin is not a hockey mom; She’s a hockey player."

Watching Sarah Palin this week, and the reaction to her by both sides, and all the talk of hockey mommery, I realized that this is who she is. She skates into the corner, throws up an elbow, and the Democrats cry: “Foul!” Hey! She said Obama has never passed a major bill – this is an objective lie! Hey! She ridiculed community organizing the day after Service was the theme! Technically people should punish her by not voting for her over this infraction!

It’s whining, and whiners hit back second and go to the penalty box on top of it.

Sarah Palin is a person who by her own admission found out about the Iraq surge – the centerpiece of the McCain judgment argument – from television. Apologies to conservatives, but technically, objectively, inarguably, this alone makes her unqualified to be President. But we don’t live in that technical or objective world. Political campaigns – as distinct from policy and governance – are the NHL playoffs. It’s only about who survives the war of attrition to the finish line first. Is Brett Hull’s skate still in Dominik Hasek’s crease and was that same situation disallowed in every previous instance throughout that season? Yes, but so what? Dallas had a parade.

I think most teams have that kind of player who’s a troublemaker and gets their "heart back into it" and as soon as they’re traded, you hate their guts. Food for thought.