Anchorage Daily News editorial: Hey, you know who’s been a pretty darned effective governor?
Very interesting all should read!
HOTAIR-One of the more effusive back-handed compliments I’ve ever read, from a paper that’s well aware of her political faults. They’re not calling her a lightweight exactly, but it’s clear they think her interest in the nuts and bolts of policy is, let us say, insufficiently nuanced.
Which makes their conclusion that she’d be a dynamite VP all the more surprising.
Gov. Palin is not the kind of leader who gets bogged down in minutia and works 100-hours a week. Instead, she uses her charisma and a simple, clear vision to mobilize mass support for her agenda, then leaves the details and heavy lifting to others…As governor, she has focused almost exclusively on a handful of high-priority issues — ethics, oil tax reform and state incentives for building a natural gas pipeline. And she has had dramatic success. With Gov. Palin leading the way, the Legislature passed strong legislation on all three fronts. On two of those issues, she had to take on Alaska’s previously all-powerful oil industry. Twice she easily defeated them…
One big surprise about Palin’s term as governor: She has been thoroughly bipartisan. Her most reliable supporters on her big three accomplishments have been Democrats. The partisan side that Palin showed in her acceptance speech Thursday is something Alaskans haven’t seen in her time as governor.
Earlier this year, Palin told a cable news interviewer that somebody is going to have to tell her “what it is exactly that the VP does.” In some ways, the vice president’s job is a perfect fit for her. She wouldn’t have to run the country. She could focus on a handful of high-profile issues, inspire people with her passion and star power, and try to accomplish a few great things.
She sounds like the George Dubious Bush of Alaska !
She’s a politician like all the rest.
The latest news is that she billed the state “per diem” charges for 312 nights that she spent at her home in Wasilla (during the first 19 months of her term). Because she is technically stationed in Juneau (the capitol), her overnights in Wasilla count as “travel”. Nevermind that she physically spends a lot of time working in Anchorage. She made roughly $16,000 on per diem. And nevermind that her car was a state-owned car, and the fuel was put on a state credit card.
I live in Wasilla and commute to Anchorage every day, just like she was doing… where’s my per diem?
She’ll make a buck where she can, even at a cost to the taxpayer, just like every other politician in office.