A friend sent me this article from The Washington Independent by Laura McGann about Sarah Palin titled The Reform Candidate. It reinforces some of the things I have read in other sources about her running rough shod over everyone who gets in her way. It not only reflects what appears to be popularity in the state, but also the singleminded ruthlessness. Maybe the popularity results from fear, but maybe not. (See Fact Check below.)

The New Yorker's article titled Naysayer further supports this image of Gov Palin, but fills in some other aspects of her political career in Alaska. One legislator opined that, "'She’s not prepared to be governor,' she said, in comments soon posted on the paper’s Web site (Anchorage Daily News). 'How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?'”

Time Magazine's report on her term as mayor further supports this view. It notes that she was interested in injecting her own conservative Christian belief's into the every aspect of her home town's government. It appears that Bush may be a piker when it comes to blending church and state.

I discounted Maureen Dowd's Clash of Titans editorial on Saturday because I thought it was too shrill. Who would think a vice president would try to fire the president before a re-election campaign? Isn't it always the other way around?

Well both as mayor and as governor, Palin has fired subordinates for strictly personal reasons or to gain power in some way. Dowd's fictional dialog, "'How would you like this pit bull grandma to clean your grandfather clock?' she’ll tell President McCain in her flat 'Fargo' accent. He’ll confide in his pal Joe that being a P.O.W. was nothing compared with being trapped in the White House with 'that woman.'" Dowd is on to something.

Fact Check reports that some of this is not supported by other sources. In some cases, there are nuanced views that paint Palin in a less critical light. In other cases, the information was clearly wrong. Apparently, Palin was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, but her husband was. Nevertheless, she has had some association with the party in various roles she has played in Alaska. I think we are going to have to watch carefully to understand what did happen in the land of fire and ice.

The Detroit Free Press reports Obama has shown new aggressiveness by pushing hard against McCain and Palin noting that they are avoiding issues and most especially the state of the economy. Michigan, which is a battleground state, has suffered economically in recent years. In a report on the same campaign stops, The Washington Independent writes that John Ashcroft introduced Obama and is now supporting him because he wants to help the middle-class. I continue to be surprised.

David Brooks has an interesting column in the NY Times today entitled Surprise Me Most. He notes that Obama did best when he was running a weird campaign about how "he was going to cleanse the country of the baby-boom culture war mentality." He thinks he did less well when he began to talk specifics and failed to take McCain up on a series of joint town hall meetings. (I think in retrospect that was a mistake too. Obama can win head to head.)

He goes on to say that McCain does not have issues on his side, but he does have weirdness now. He notes that "It will still be hard for McCain to win in this environment, but his emphasis on broad systemic change may appeal to swing voters. ... Obama can hint at his values when he describes his tax cuts and health care plans, but he is indirect. Most voters, especially ones who decide late, vote on character over policies." Maybe he is right and this is why we make the wrong choice at times.

I have great respect for Bob Herbert. He is invariably a man of sober reason who hits the mark. Today's column, Hold Your Heads Up, He posits that liberals have lost their will to fight. It is liberals who over time have brought about the most profound changes in our country. Civil rights, women's rights, social security, unemployment insurance, medicare and medicaid are all programs created by liberal democrats over the staunch objections of the right. It perplexes me that each of these capture Christian values while the Democrats often resist such labels and the Republicans, who opposed each of these programs successfully have presented themselves as the party most in tune with them.

Herbert notes that "(h)umiliation imposed by custom and enforced by government had been the order of the day for blacks and women before men and women of good will and liberal persuasion stepped up their long (and not yet ended) campaign to change things. Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp program. They fought for cleaner air (there was a time when you could barely see Los Angeles) and cleaner water (there were rivers in America that actually caught fire). ... Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier."

The closing words of the the editorial in the New Zealand Sentinel that I noted on 9/7 haunts me still. "... the American electorate invariably seems to opt for the worst possible choice." Can the Republicans pull it off again and get Americans to vote against their own self-interests? I hope not.

I am dumbfounded by how Palin has managed to get by with things nobody else could without a hoard of auditors, prosecutors, and the public taking her to task. It appears that she actually had the hutzpah to bill Alaska for per diem for 312 nights spent in her own home. She has also billed the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-state missions and so has her husband. Not just a little either. These charges seem at odds with her self image of a paragon of fiscal restraint. Well, the Government Accountability Office would have a ball with expenses like these if she actually gets in office.

I know this has gotten longer than I wanted it to be, but there is one last editorial I would like to point out. Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post points out that McCain is running the most egocentric campaigns in memory. I agree. How do you manage to run against your own party's record of mismanagement and, as it appears he is, convince so many people that you are the best one to clean it up? McCain has even more hutzpah than Palin, and that is saying something. Also in the Washington Post today, E. J Dionne, Jr, points out the interesting fact that Palin is the only one of the four national candidates that did not appear on a national TV interview this last Sunday. Mostly likely she is not prepared to do that. Unless they manage to cower (and fool) everybody, she is going to play with the big boys soon and she better be ready.

Fact Check addresses the question, Does McCain want to ban "all" abortions? This is in response to an Obama radio ad on the topic. It would appear that he does except with exceptions for rape, incest and a threat to the mother's life.