Especially the part about getting caught up in the excitement of a charismatic personality. That’s the way Obama got elected, and we must keep that in mind with Palin. But Obama had nothing to say on the campaign trail, except “hope”,” change” and “yes we can”, and had never run anything but his mouth. Palin is not an empty suit. She has specific points to make, especially about her primary area of expertise, oil production, and as she said I think to Chris Wallace, when she was brought onto McCain’s ticket, national and international concerns were not on her radar. She was focused on governing Alaska and bringing oil and gas to market. She is now broadening her focus to national and international issues, and so far I like what I hear. I’m hearing more of an outline than a policy paper, but interviews are finite things, and one only has so much time to cover the topics at hand.

But as to windfall profits taxes on oil companies, she did take “excess” profits and return them to the citizens of Alaska. But the Alaska constitution gives the riches of Alaska to its citizens, so she was following the rules. We used to get a check every year from the Permanent Fund, which was set up to make profits from oil and give it in cash to Alaska citizens. However, she also insulated oil companies against loss when the markets fall, a totally new idea. This encourages exploration and production, a mind-bogglingly expensive and risky endeavor. So it was not a populist take-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor situation.

I was there last month. My best friend, who has lived there all her life, since before Statehood, showed me the dramatic improvements Palin made to Wasilla. When we lived in Alaska I spent a lot of time looking for a house out there. I could barely recognize it now. So, if you want to see a track record, get photographs of Wasilla in the late 80s, and compare them to now. It is an impressive change.

My friend told me about the single blogger who filed so many ethics complaints, who had to spend no money to file these complaints, but could bring government to a stop because of the requirement that the complaints be answered. She lost every single suit. Still, she was ready to file more, and continue to drain the treasury and continue to bring the business of government to a halt to soil Palin’s reputation and attempt to bankrupt the Palin family. That’s some nasty sh*t. So, Palin removed the target from her back by her resignation. I support that part of her explanation for her resignation, but when she added the part about being a lame duck blah blah, that caused my BS meter to twitch. Gotta say, the ethics suits have stopped, because she’s no longer governor.

With respect to the “retard” issue, she said the other day, I believe to Chris Wallace, that several groups had asked since August for an apology from Rahm Emanuel and the White House, but were ignored. So they approached her and asked for her help. She helped them. This says something about her effectiveness, and though I think people should be able to say what they want, and should be raised by parents who teach them to be polite and not say nasty things, she gets results.

She is studying, because she knows she has gaps in her knowledge. She was not expecting to be catapulted to the national spotlight when she was, but now that she’s there she needs to polish her game. My friend in Alaska, who served on boards with Palin, says she made some lame mistakes early in her term, but is a quick study, and is the Real Deal. We’ll see.