Or, Copied, rather, from the Anchorage Daily News: It's a lot of prose about a woman who seems to generate strong feelings in everyone who knows her, and among those who don't know her, as well. My evaluation (based on almost no knowledge): She's a very average politician who will get much better as she improves her ability to obfuscate. Ex: "I don't know squat about Russia (my addition), but I know which direction it is from Anchorage." Quite the non sequitur, don't you think?
My thanks to all the "contributors"
***
What's an Alaska accent anyway? The Chicago Tribune politics blog, The Swamp, examined Sarah Palin's accent and talked to experts about it.
Fans and foes alike describe it with colorful phrases, such as "a little Minnesota, a little Valley Girl," "an interesting mix of Minnesota, and Mississippi" and "bush-like," as in Native American accents heard in Alaska's bush or remote areas. Many commentators wonder if Palin's voice reflects a true "Alaskan accent."
"She's a good example of the Northern speech with a Western influence," said William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor, pointing to several examples, such as Palin's dropping of "g's" from word endings and pronunciation of "terrorist" as two syllables instead of three.
***
Here are local bloggers and their reactions to Troopergate andn the Palin phenomena:
> Sen. Lyda Green speaks out on KUDO (Celtic Diva)
I'm paraphrasing here, but these are the main ideas I remember:
The McCain-Palin campaign's takeover, speaking for Alaska's government, is a states' rights issue.
The McCain-Palin campaign's stonewalling of a bipartisan legislative investigation is creating a constitutional crisis within our state.
Sen. Green is very, very grieved.
> Burning bridges in Alaska (Shannyn Moore)
They were visible and in full force at the McCain-Palin press conference yesterday. Alaskans don't roll that way. People get cranky, even nasty at times, over politics and what they think is best for the state. Alaska lawmakers are sitting in federal prison for selling their votes, and it wasn't this nasty. The McCain-Palin ticket has become a poster child for partisan politics on steroids. On No. 5, the day after this election, the shrapnel of this campaign will be strewn across Alaska. It's going to take Dr. Phil and a few Barry White albums to get the healing started.
> Palin running scared: Flip-flops on Troopergate (Kodiak Konfidential)
> Palin throws Alaskans under the bus (Mudflats)
This is not going over well in Alaska. I'll use my usual caveat that there are lots of Alaskans who happily subscribe to the "Sarah right or wrong" mentality and will continue to do so. However, the progressive take on this whole latest mess is only slightly short of taking torches and pitchforks and surrounding the attorney general's office, demanding an end to the stonewalling. I've watched Alaskan progressives that I personally know go from saying, "Wow! I can't believe I voted for a Republican!" to, "She's doing OK. I don't agree with everything, but I don't regret my vote" to being so furiously seething angry they just can't say anything.
This means that there's a shift, and shifts tend to bring along all people to a certain degree. If there's one way to tick off Alaskans it's by bringing in "outsiders" to try to control state affairs. Imagine if you will how a small independent nation would feel being invaded by the superpower next door. It's like that.
> Rep. Les Gara on Troopergate (Huffington Post)
Over the next few days McCain's folks will try to get local legislators to step in line, out of party loyalty, and reverse their vote to investigate Troopergate. But many local Republicans, like Senate president Lyda Green, have so far refused to play those politics. Stay for more from McCain's campaign for "Change." They've tried to change the truth. They've succeeded at changing Gov. Palin's promise to comply with this investigation. Let's see what they'll change next.
> Sarah, stop the slander (Alaska Real)
I honestly am just so frustrated with what Gov. Palin has been doing and saying, I cannot write what I was going to write. What she is attempting to do with Walt Monegan - shift the blame and public disgust to him rather than be "open" and "welcome the investigation" as she has repeatedly promised in the past - is just beyond disgust to me.
> Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Palin (Wall Street Journal Opinion)
"We were trying to make headlines for 50 years in Alaska, since we became a state," she joked. "What it took was Sarah Palin. . . . I've called her the Sarah phenomenon." Ms. Murkowski, however, does grant the governor her reputation as an agent of change: "She didn't care who she ticked off. I've told my colleagues, 'Don't underestimate this woman.' . . . She's not afraid to challenge. It may be bold. It may be crazy."
Ms. Murkowski says nonetheless a certain amount of hype has tinged press accounts of Mrs. Palin's rise. "There was a need to clean things up" in Alaska, she says. But Gov. Palin came into office when a federal criminal investigation of local lawmakers was already under way. "She rode that wave."
> Ivan Moore: Is what you see what you get? (Anchorage Press)
Was the prior reality the real reality? Or is this one? Or are they both? Is the act of observation - the very, very intense observation on the national stage-a fundamental reason for the changes we're seeing? Bottom line, has the level of observation that is par for the course now, the mainstream media, the tabloids, the Internet press, the blogs and the public all acting in concert, gotten us to the point where we can't observe reality in our presidential and vice presidential candidates? Are we eternally doomed to being unable to truly know who these people are?
> Wasilla residents speak out on Palin (Alaska Journal of Commerce)
As mayor of Wasilla from October 1996 to October 2002, Palin presided over a budget that rose from $7.6 million to $13.6 million. Wasilla City Council member Dianne Woodworth, an accountant in private practice, said Palin was not conservative with the city budget.
"The true test of a leader is when there is not a lot of money and you have to work across the aisle," Woodworth said. "Likewise, when she was mayor of Wasilla, we were in a time of prosperity. I've never seen her pushed when a lot of resources weren't there."
> Halcro on Talis Colberg (Halcro.com)
From conducting a pre-investigation investigation, to recusing himself due to a conflict to reinserting himself right back into the middle to getting on a plane for a vacation in the middle of one of the biggest legal controversies the attornery general's office has handled in recent history, Colberg more and more appears out of his league.
My thanks to all the "contributors"
***
What's an Alaska accent anyway? The Chicago Tribune politics blog, The Swamp, examined Sarah Palin's accent and talked to experts about it.
Fans and foes alike describe it with colorful phrases, such as "a little Minnesota, a little Valley Girl," "an interesting mix of Minnesota, and Mississippi" and "bush-like," as in Native American accents heard in Alaska's bush or remote areas. Many commentators wonder if Palin's voice reflects a true "Alaskan accent."
"She's a good example of the Northern speech with a Western influence," said William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor, pointing to several examples, such as Palin's dropping of "g's" from word endings and pronunciation of "terrorist" as two syllables instead of three.
***
Here are local bloggers and their reactions to Troopergate andn the Palin phenomena:
> Sen. Lyda Green speaks out on KUDO (Celtic Diva)
I'm paraphrasing here, but these are the main ideas I remember:
The McCain-Palin campaign's takeover, speaking for Alaska's government, is a states' rights issue.
The McCain-Palin campaign's stonewalling of a bipartisan legislative investigation is creating a constitutional crisis within our state.
Sen. Green is very, very grieved.
> Burning bridges in Alaska (Shannyn Moore)
They were visible and in full force at the McCain-Palin press conference yesterday. Alaskans don't roll that way. People get cranky, even nasty at times, over politics and what they think is best for the state. Alaska lawmakers are sitting in federal prison for selling their votes, and it wasn't this nasty. The McCain-Palin ticket has become a poster child for partisan politics on steroids. On No. 5, the day after this election, the shrapnel of this campaign will be strewn across Alaska. It's going to take Dr. Phil and a few Barry White albums to get the healing started.
> Palin running scared: Flip-flops on Troopergate (Kodiak Konfidential)
> Palin throws Alaskans under the bus (Mudflats)
This is not going over well in Alaska. I'll use my usual caveat that there are lots of Alaskans who happily subscribe to the "Sarah right or wrong" mentality and will continue to do so. However, the progressive take on this whole latest mess is only slightly short of taking torches and pitchforks and surrounding the attorney general's office, demanding an end to the stonewalling. I've watched Alaskan progressives that I personally know go from saying, "Wow! I can't believe I voted for a Republican!" to, "She's doing OK. I don't agree with everything, but I don't regret my vote" to being so furiously seething angry they just can't say anything.
This means that there's a shift, and shifts tend to bring along all people to a certain degree. If there's one way to tick off Alaskans it's by bringing in "outsiders" to try to control state affairs. Imagine if you will how a small independent nation would feel being invaded by the superpower next door. It's like that.
> Rep. Les Gara on Troopergate (Huffington Post)
Over the next few days McCain's folks will try to get local legislators to step in line, out of party loyalty, and reverse their vote to investigate Troopergate. But many local Republicans, like Senate president Lyda Green, have so far refused to play those politics. Stay for more from McCain's campaign for "Change." They've tried to change the truth. They've succeeded at changing Gov. Palin's promise to comply with this investigation. Let's see what they'll change next.
> Sarah, stop the slander (Alaska Real)
I honestly am just so frustrated with what Gov. Palin has been doing and saying, I cannot write what I was going to write. What she is attempting to do with Walt Monegan - shift the blame and public disgust to him rather than be "open" and "welcome the investigation" as she has repeatedly promised in the past - is just beyond disgust to me.
> Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Palin (Wall Street Journal Opinion)
"We were trying to make headlines for 50 years in Alaska, since we became a state," she joked. "What it took was Sarah Palin. . . . I've called her the Sarah phenomenon." Ms. Murkowski, however, does grant the governor her reputation as an agent of change: "She didn't care who she ticked off. I've told my colleagues, 'Don't underestimate this woman.' . . . She's not afraid to challenge. It may be bold. It may be crazy."
Ms. Murkowski says nonetheless a certain amount of hype has tinged press accounts of Mrs. Palin's rise. "There was a need to clean things up" in Alaska, she says. But Gov. Palin came into office when a federal criminal investigation of local lawmakers was already under way. "She rode that wave."
> Ivan Moore: Is what you see what you get? (Anchorage Press)
Was the prior reality the real reality? Or is this one? Or are they both? Is the act of observation - the very, very intense observation on the national stage-a fundamental reason for the changes we're seeing? Bottom line, has the level of observation that is par for the course now, the mainstream media, the tabloids, the Internet press, the blogs and the public all acting in concert, gotten us to the point where we can't observe reality in our presidential and vice presidential candidates? Are we eternally doomed to being unable to truly know who these people are?
> Wasilla residents speak out on Palin (Alaska Journal of Commerce)
As mayor of Wasilla from October 1996 to October 2002, Palin presided over a budget that rose from $7.6 million to $13.6 million. Wasilla City Council member Dianne Woodworth, an accountant in private practice, said Palin was not conservative with the city budget.
"The true test of a leader is when there is not a lot of money and you have to work across the aisle," Woodworth said. "Likewise, when she was mayor of Wasilla, we were in a time of prosperity. I've never seen her pushed when a lot of resources weren't there."
> Halcro on Talis Colberg (Halcro.com)
From conducting a pre-investigation investigation, to recusing himself due to a conflict to reinserting himself right back into the middle to getting on a plane for a vacation in the middle of one of the biggest legal controversies the attornery general's office has handled in recent history, Colberg more and more appears out of his league.
Plucked from the relative obscurity of drawing up wills in Palmer to managing one of the biggest legal staffs in the state, Colberg's latest actions show he is certainly not ready for prime time.
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