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About Sarah Palin
I think that one of the great things America and western democracies have contributed to the world is the ability to distinguish between disliking someone and disagreeing. We all need to work toward being able to agree to disagree. I like Sarah Palin. I disagree with her.
I wrote this letter to friends and family on August 31. It has since circulated throughout the Web.
About Sarah Palin
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more city council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.
She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe."
It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.
She is pro-life. She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.
She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.
She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just puts things out there and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.
Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her lifestyle ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.
Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.
She's smart.
Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than two years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.
During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings, which had given rise to a recall campaign.
Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative." During her six years as mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which even taxed food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though. Borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? Or a new library? No. $1 million for a park. $15 million-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex, which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the city didn't even have clear title to. That was still in litigation seven years later -- to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5 million for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 years without any borrowing.
While mayor, city hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow and bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.
She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.
While Sarah was mayor of Wasilla, she tried to fire our highly respected city librarian because the librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the city librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day.
Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys." Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the city and as governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal -- loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the state's top cop (see below).
As mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's police chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was that he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a state trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than two dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.
She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The city council person who personally escorted her around town, introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council, became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal city administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.
Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil and gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job, which paid $122,400 per year, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this commission (who was also the state chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move, which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).
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.
As governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together a package of legislation known as AGIA, which forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.
Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the state's lawsuit against the Department of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.
McCain is the oldest person to ever run for president; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being president.
There have to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than her.
However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.
Claim vs. Fact
- "Hockey mom:" true for a few years.
- "PTA mom:" true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since.
- "NRA supporter:" absolutely true.
- Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, but vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships. (Said she did this because it was unconstitutional.)
- Pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, but did nothing as governor to promote it.
- "Pro-life:" mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby, but declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation.
- "Experienced:" Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than city council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
- Political maverick: not at all.
- Gutsy: absolutely!
- Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
- Has a developed philosophy of public policy: no.
- "A greenie:" no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
- Fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
- Pro-infrastructure: no. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
- Pro-tax relief: lowered taxes for businesses, but increased tax burden on residents
- Pro-small government: no. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.
- Pro-labor/pro-union: no. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.
Why Am I Writing This?
First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you Google my name, you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that bad things happen when good people stay silent. Few people know as much about Palin as I do because few have gone to as many city council meetings.
Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future. That's life.
Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the city librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.
Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.
Caveats
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending and taxation two years ago (when Palin was running for governor) from information supplied to me by the finance director of the city of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? For population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of city hall -- they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.
You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000" up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90s.
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Dear Anne,
I want to sincerely thank you on behalf of millions of Americans. We are all struggling with trying to find out the truth about Sarah Palin in a fairly short amount of time. Your personal knowledge and experience is so helpful.
I want to publicly praise you for speaking out. I also recognize the risk you took in doing so. Yes, I am certain you will have to deal (and no doubt already are) with repercussions for stepping forward. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for recounting some specific historical examples that help us to understand Sarah Palin. As with all presidential elections, our decision as voters is one to be taken seriously - basing our selection on as much truth as we can obtain about the candidates. You have helped me and so many others by your actions.
God bless you. Stay strong!
Sincerely, Susan Pribyl
Anne,
As a former Alaskan resident of 32 years and having lived in Wasilla from '82 to 2000, Thank you for writing this. I remember the antic's of Ms.Palin quite well and was constantly appalled and dismayed at the 'cronyism' of her administration. We can only hope that America wakes up and sees that the person with their finger just a heartbeat away from the button is not, in any way, shape for form, qualified to be Commander in Chief.
Hey let's face it, the more people attack Palin the higher she goes in the polls..the liberal loons are doing a good job of winning this election for McCain
Anne,
Thank you, thank you, thank you. As someone who has spent time living in small towns in the North and spent time in Alaska, I know what it's like to take on issues in a place like Wasilla. The question remains, why can't we get a straight answer on the library story. Surely, local news media know all about it and are keeping quiet. Censorship, the last time I checked, opposes the basic American principle of freedom of speech. Thankfully, you believe in it. Hats off to your courage. If only the media had a small piece of it. How hard could it be to get the truth on this story. It's not a tempest in a teapot. It speaks volumes about the sort of person, and politician, Sarah Palin is. Instead of asking how much leadership experience someone has, we should be asking what sort of leader they are. After all, Bush has tons of experience. Is he a great leader? I think the answer is pretty obvious. Palin is a frightening person with a lot of frightening beliefs. Let's just hope we aren't too blinded by the MYTH of Sarah Palin to look at the TRUTH.
Sarah Palin is hot, let's face it...she's worth a vote
Does a nation of people deserve to have the power of democracy in their hands if they support people and issues based on looks?
Anne. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I lived in the Yukon for many years and visited throughout Alaska and I know how hard it can be to speak out in the kind of small-town atmosphere that exists in a place like Wasilla. I think what you have to say, and especially the library censorship, is a lot more than a tempest in a teapot. It speaks volumes about the kind of person Sarah Palin is, the kind of company she keeps, and how she has misused power for her own ends. Fact: We support freedom of speech in the United States. The American Library Association, and librarians in general, are the strongest supporter of this right. I don't blame Mary Emmons for resigning, but too bad we haven't heard more from her since this story surfaced. Question: Does Sarah Palin have integrity? Debatable. I hope we don't have to find out the hard way.
We linked to this in our post "Why Sarah Palin is Bad for American Women" at the CA NOW blog: http://www.canow.org/canoworg/2008/09/why-sarah-palin.html
Thank you for the post Anne, thank goodness somebody has another view of the Gov. Never supported her from the start and certainly will not start just because she is running with MCSAME.
To Wasilla Gal~
small towns,small minds...
Your thugish response seems to be the very example of Palin-type politics--one that bullies rather than debates. You're not doing Sarah Palin any favors here by perpetuating the myth.
(sorry Anne as you are cleary not small minded)
What books did Sarah Pallin try to ban? I've yet to see which books?
Thanks Anne. I read your letter last week when it first emerged on a blog.
Passed it around and a proud to be part of the net community that helped
bring it to a broader audience. Your honesty and your willingness to
stand behind your letter is very much appreciated.
I too have been passing Anne's letter around the world to family & friends alike. Carefully I have avoided some "Right Wingers", all though I did tangle w/a neighbor yesterday.
Gotta quote her (neighbor), too: "I am find with 4,000 American's dying in Iraq..." Could write more, but it was obvious this person would not care if it was anyone but herself or immediate family who dies for OIL.
Enough for now.
You might want to read this FactCheck article.
Wasilla, Alaska Resident
Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, information about Palin's past has been zipping around the Internet. Several claims are not true, and other rumors are misleading.
A few of these claims were included in a chain e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny. We'll be looking into other charges in that e-mail for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html
The www.factcheck.org link is not a bi-partisan website. As an undecided female voter, I'm appalled that I was sent to a "fact checking" site to find it's one-sided, obviously in support of the Republican ticket. So Mara43, if you're a republican trying to add fuel to the fire, shame on you. If you're a democrat, why couldn't you see the one-sided perspective before forwarding the link? No matter what, it was irresponsible to put up a partisan website that calls itself "fact check" as an authority on the subject. I'm being pushed more and more towards the Republicans as I'm starting to see that the PR and lobbying people are really the ones running this election.
The factcheck.org article in that link is not about Anne Kilkenny at all. It has no comments on her letter other than,
"We’re still analyzing Kilkenny’s claims, and we will be posting something on this soon."
so what was the point of posting that link here?
Since you brought it up... I'm stunned that anyone with half a brain believes that Sarah Palin asking the librarian if she would ban books, if asked to, was just to test loyalty. Come on! She was asking the librarian if she would ban books and that's BAD. Very BAD. The only thing that chain letter got wrong was the list of books. She only rehired the librarian the next day because people in the town were furious about it.
I'd vote for Anne Kilkenny if she were running. Talk about responsible citizenship. If only a tenth of the voting citizenry down here in the lower 48 showed that kind of diligence, Palin wouldn't get anywhere near the Oval office.
One question though, just exactly HOW does Anne know that Sarah is Trig's mother. If she has indisputable evidence to this effect, it would be very helpful if she could share this as well.
As evidenced today on the NYT comments regarding a piece on motherhood, people from all over the world are not buying the pregnancy story. And as Palin's policies regarding family planning and choice are the mainstay of her endorsement from the evangelical base, a cover-up on this topic is no longer tabloid fodder but rather, basis for valid discussion and certainly an ethics inquiry.
Caribou Barbie?
I thought caribou were docile.
This Caribou is no Pitbull. She is an opportunist who probably finally has exercised the "Peter Principle on Team McCain".
Anne's article really spells out what Caribou Barbie "Has Not Done". She's a lot of talk and very little action.
Question for everyone: Do you think Caribou Barbie (aka Ms. Palin) could get elected mayor of your city?
Can this letter be mailed to Charlie Gibson before his interview with Palin? Just so he has no excuse for his softball questions.
You're asking for too much. Do you really think Gibson/ABC will hit her with the tough questions everyone is buzzing about...dream on. Network news are sell outs...
HuffPost's Pick
Thank you Anne. Watch your back.
Thank you for a great background on Palin. She sounds like she has an incredible lust for power, one that has made her as ruthless as she is intolerant of dissent. She is the downside of democracy that Plato warned us about.
Amen!!
How come everyone believes she wrote this to her "friends"? As a housewife in a small town in Alaska, it makes me wonder who her friends really are? Are they scattered throughout the United States? In a small town where Palin was Mayor, who would NOT know who Palin is? I don't believe it was written for "friends". If I did the financial analysis with information from the city, I would have kept a copy of my work; her "forgetfulness" doesn't fly with me. As a housewife, how did she get that responsibility? Her "why am I writing this" is fraught with personal inferences including one where "hate" is used. She made mistakes in the email such as "some high schools have more students" -where? Big box stores - is this a term used by housewives? Shenanigans revolving around her being a point guard? I can't believe that people would talk about high school a decade after Kilkenny states she first met Palin! Even mentioning "men think she's a babe" is filled with venom. How does Kilkenny know Palin kept her pregnancy a secret from her own family especially when Palin "hated" Kilkenny years ago? Sounds to me that Kilkenny's ideas were not well received by Palin. This is an email with much personal inference. Experienced media should be able to read through this and find inconsistencies. I am ashamed that the public is fed an inflammatory email without analysis.
Additionally, from FactCheck:
"She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term."
That's just one item. How much more has been embellished?
that's no rebuttal. In fact, the way that situation is explained is so ludicrous as to be insulting. I don't pay much attention to annenberg and now I will pay it even less. To that I say "puhleeze". Palin was just asking rhetorically? Riiiight.
Libraries often have out-of-print books, since they bought them when in print, and kept them on their shelves after they went out of print. Being out-of-print merely means that there are no orders for them from booksellers, so they are not printing new ones. Often printers have copies of out-of-print in warehouses to fill demand. Being out-of-print is not a relevant standard to anything. It renders dubious your claim to be quoting from FactCheck.org, since any intelligent person would know this. Are you sure you aren't just making this up, ecbot?
Most of what Kilkenny wrote is not challenged in the FactCheck article, and a caveat is given at the end of that article that many of the FactCheck claims are still being checked, so it is not at all a final word on the matter and accusing Kilkenny of being in any way misleading is clearly premature.
Okay, I went and checked the FactCheck article. What you meant to say is that some of the books were not yet published. The article does mention that the Harry Potter books were not yet published. However, the truth is that the first Harry Potter was in fact published before the librarian was asked to consider removing books from the shelves, but only in Great Britain, though it was available in the US as an import.
Palin did ask the librarian about whether she would be willing to remove some books; "demand" may be a rhetorical perspective, since Palin claimed the right to fire any number of city employees at will, and made it clear she would use that power when she asked for 4or 5 resignations of top city officials (including the librarian) and then rehired them the next day as part of what she called a "loyalty test" (a pretty bizarre act, no?), so the librarian may have felt it was more than a merely hypothetical question, as she was clearly aware that she was, at the time, an "at will" employee.
It appears that it was over such extremist and bizarre acts that a recall committee was formed that threatened to force a recall election, and the mayor's administrative power was transferred to a city manager-type position to prevent her from further abusing her power.
ecbot, Anne's post doesn't mention anything about that list.
Someone else taking the information about this issue and attaching a false list to it doesn't make the original issue untrue.
Secondly, it would appear at the very least that Palin did ask the librarian what she would do if asked to remove books. This could be viewed as, as Palin claims, a hypothetical question, or it could be viewed as a cautious way of approaching the subject. What would Palin have done had the librarian said "Yes, I'd remove them"? We have no way of knowing, either way.
But regardless, what does concern me is the underlying attitude behind this story. If, as Palin claims, this was a hypothetical question, what does this combined with the "loyalty tests" tell us? How would you feel if your new boss came in and demanded you resign, then turned around and told you it was just a "loyalty test"? I find this bizarre firing/requesting resignation followed by subsequent rehiring (as described at FactCheck) as worrying as the supposed request for censorship.
This is someone who could potentially be President. Would you honestly want your President acting like that?
This is in response to Scoop8699, an d I have to do it in a couple of posts because I exceeded the word limit – The fact that Anne Kilkenny doesn’t recall specifics of her data collection during Palin’s campaign for governor is hardly a smoking gun that proves Kilkenny is lying. The fact that Kilkenny provides a caveat expressing her uncertainty over adjusting for inflation or population is to her credit, and she probably knows that anyone can check her numbers for themselves. Besides, does it really matter which one she adjusted for? The fact is Palin increased government spending while in office.
And instead of just saying your opinion that Kilkenny’s facts are suspicious, Scoop 8699, why not contact the same government office that provided the info to Kilkenny, and then come back to this website and prove Kilkenny wrong by posting FACTS. Here is an example of FACTS: Yes, there are high schools that have populations as big as towns, such as John C. Fremont High with over 5,000 students, and Van Nuys High, that was so big it had to go to a year-round schedule and be divided into tracks, then went back to a regular school year just before a new high school, Panorama, was opened to alleviate the population pressure at Van Nuys. Several schools in California have populations in the 4 digits.
final portion of message to Scoop - Mentioning that men think Palin is a babe is not venomous – it is ALL I hear on the TV right now – how hot she is. On CNBC a guy said, “Sarah Palin is the new feminism – all women want to be her, all men want to mate with her.” Boy, that is a GREAT reason to elect McCain! I guess that’s all he’s got, so he better use it, right? How is Kilkenny’s statement with venom when it apparently is a truth that is being rammed down our throats?
Finally, off course Kilkenny’s writing is going to sound personal – she knows Palin personally and has lived in Palin’s world. In fact, she knows a lot more first hand about Palin than you do Scoop 8699, so why not critique someone else’s writing when you have FACTS to back up what you say.
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