On Palin's family, the hockey rink, and will she do interviews?

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: September 7, 2008 - 7:58 am

Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday. (AP/Stephan Savoia)

From David Hulen in Anchorage --

Another day, another huge batch of Palin-related material out there. Is anyone getting Palin fatigue? Some of what I've come across:

> Palin's Family Has Always Held a Place in Her Politics (Washington Post)

Long before she burst onto the national scene last month, Palin made politics a family affair in Alaska. Her role as a wife and mother shaped her entry into politics, proved central to her appeal to supporters and generated the greatest controversies in her abrupt ascension to the GOP ticket. From her children's names to her husband's public celebrity and role as unofficial adviser, Palin has created a reputation among Alaskans less as a rugged individual than as a maverick with a large and colorful family in tow.

Husband Todd, a celebrity in his own right as a champion snowmobile racer before becoming known as "First Dude," confers with Cabinet officials and is copied on the governor's e-mails. Her teenage daughter's pregnancy became a touchstone for a national debate on unwed mothers. And her sister's bitter divorce from a state trooper generated the first scandal in an administration built on vows of openness and rectitude amid a massive corruption investigation then rocking the Republican establishment.

> Palin Won't Give Interviews Until Campaign Is Ready, Davis Says (Bloomberg)

"She's not scared to answer questions, but you know what?'' McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told Fox News. "We run our campaign, not the news media.''

> Palin Watch Day 9: Still No Interviews (Salon.com)

Don't expect to see her next Sunday, either. Friday on Morning Joe, campaign manager Rick Davis said the campaign wouldn't promise she'd ever sit for a major interview. Marc Ambinder likewise quoted McCain sources shrugging off interview demands. "She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she's ready -- and until she's comfortable -- which might not be for a long while -- the media will have to wait," Ambinder reports.

> Palin's Hockey Rink Leads to Legal Trouble in Town She Once Led (Wall Street Journal)

The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.

> The media's attacks on Sarah Palin backfire (William Kristol column in Weekly Standard)

The astounding (even to me, after all these years!) smugness and mean-spiritedness of so many in the media engendered not just interest in but sympathy for Palin. It allowed Palin to speak not just to conservatives but to the many Americans who are repulsed by the media's prurient interest in and adolescent snickering about her family. It allowed the McCain-Palin ticket to become the populist standard-bearer against an Obama-Media ticket that has disdain for Middle America.

> Clash of the Titans (Maureen Dowd column, New York Times)

If Barack Obama had chosen Hillary Clinton as his running mate, we would now be looking forward to the greatest night in the history of American politics: the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate between Ma Barker and Sarah Barracuda.

Now, alas, we’ll have to wait until 2012 when the two fiercest competitors on the trail will no doubt face off in the presidential debate, with Palin still riding high from her 2008 field-dressing of Obama (who’s now back in the Senate convening his subcommittee on Afghanistan).

> Palin appears to disagree with McCain on sex education (Los Angeles Times)

In a widely quoted 2006 survey she answered during her gubernatorial campaign, Palin said she supported abstinence-until-marriage programs. But weeks later, she proclaimed herself "pro-contraception" and said condoms ought to be discussed in schools alongside abstinence.

"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues," she said during a debate in Juneau.

Such statements could raise concerns among social conservatives who have been some of Palin's most enthusiastic supporters since she was tapped for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket last week.

> Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage (Frank Rich column, New York Times)

We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women. Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction.

> Sarah Palin's appeal to working-class women may be limited (Los Angeles Times)

Polls show that working-class women have emerged as one of the most critical categories of swing voters at a time when McCain and Barack Obama have galvanized their party bases but still need more votes to win.

Palin, a little-known 44-year-old mother of five, burst onto the scene just days ago, presenting herself as the woman to finally shatter the glass ceiling cracked by the Democratic New York senator's historic candidacy.

But now, after a chaotic introductory week that sparked national debates on McCain's judgment, Palin's experience and even her teenage daughter's pregnancy, the initial signs are not entirely positive for the reinvigorated Republican ticket.

> Palin, `Average' Student at 5 Schools, Prayed, Planned for TV (Bloomberg)

> Media loves to hate Sarah Palin (Boston Herald column)

> McCain, Palin avoid hot-button issues at Colorado rally (CBS News)

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