'What I know about Sarah Palin'
Wasilla housewife's letter goes viral
Dear friends,
So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last two days that I decided to write something up . .
Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only two things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)
Today in my email inbox I received from a friend my own copy of Wasilla, Alaska, housewife Anne Kilkenny's calm but scorching look at Sarah Palin, a fascinating tome that has literally gone viral in the last few days.
Despite her plea to friends not to post her insider's look at the Republican vice presidential nominee on the Internet ("as there are too many kooks out there"), Kilkenny's engaging letter about "the real Sarah Palin" could not be contained, chock-full as it is of information ranging from husband Todd's job ("by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income") to the library book controversy to the scoop on Palin's "plum" post as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
"There are a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it," Kilkenny writes.
Kilkenny's been verified as authentic (and "a Democrat") by Urban Legends and contacted by dozens of journalists, including the New York Times, which quoted her in a story about Palin.
Responding to the thousands of emails and attention she's recieved since posting the letter, Kilkenny has posted an update with some clarifications in the San Francisco Chronicle, which should be read after or in tandem with the original letter, which follows in full. It's long, but a fascinating read: (Note: NMI has not independently verified the statements in this letter.)
Dear friends,
So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last two days that I decided to write something up . .
Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only two things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)
You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .
Thanks,
Anne
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 taxed even 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 enough to fund everything on her wish list, though, so 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, and 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 to 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/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 because 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 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/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) had 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 of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that 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 Dept. 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 she.
However, there are 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 offshore 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, 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 (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.
Second, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent." Few people know as much 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-90's.
Anne Kilkenny
Comments:
Posted 09/11/2008 14:00 with
Hmmmmm. This feels somewhat late on the draw, considering that a number of the points in her letter have been knocked down (or confirmed, with differing details) for a few days by factcheck.org (and other org’s like it), the Time cover story, the AP profile (sorry Arthur!) in the NY Times a few days ago reporting from Alaska, etc. etc. It’s fascinating that she feels no journalists have questioned anything else in her original post.
It may be, in fact, that they are not referring to her directly in their pieces, but the reporting results…depending on the issue…have been vastly different.
That said, her personal opinion on what is/was appropriate on Palin’s spending decisions etc. in Wasilla seems perfectly fine to me since she lives there and has to live with the results.
I guess my biggest issue on her letter is the oil and gas dust-up. Like all political battles, boiling them down to white hat – black hat bullet points misses the nuance. An opposite example is the story in the Wall Street Journal, “How Palin Beat Alaska’s Establishment.” It’s an extraordinary tale, full of twists and turns vs. the one paragraph on it from Ms. Kilkenny, which leaves a rather different impression.
http://online.wsj.com/article/potomac_watch.html
Posted 09/11/2008 14:51 with
She’s got a lot more charisma, but Palin is as qualified to be President as Martin Chavez is.
Think about that for a while.
Meanwhile, the Evangelicals are treating her like she’s Our New Lady of Guadalupe.
Posted 09/11/2008 15:09 with
And both Palin and Chavez are more qualified than Obama.
Think about that for awhile.
Posted 09/11/2008 16:03 with
Comparing Palin to Obama in terms of qualifications is a bit over the top.
They’re both relative newcomers when compared to their running mates, with different kinds of qualifications, but here’s the distinction in my mind:
The Democratic party spent over a year aggressively debating and voting on who would be their candidate for office. Obama’s qualifications were picked over completely, he had to defend them over and over again while up against people who had been in politics a lot longer than himself. This gave all of the United States ample opportunity to mull over this aspect of his candidacy, to hear from him and his supporters for months on end as to why he himself is fully qualified. And ultimately, he was found to be qualified by a huge number of people at the ballot box.
Palin was selected by a very small handful of people to be vice president to a president who, if he wins, will be approaching 80 years of age. Most people have no clue who she is. Frankly, I don’t think its good enough that the response to the question of qualifications is that she is “more or as qualified as Obama.” What a free pass that is. She should have to just as rigorously answer that question, as Obama has had to do. And we only have about 8 weeks to hear it…so let’s hope the Republicans stop hiding her from the press.
Posted 09/12/2008 04:22 with
While not a smoking gun to prove Palin unworthy of holding the VP’s office, this e-mail does eat into much of the myth of Palin having a decent resume to hold the office.
I followed Ms. Tessier suggestion and read the update on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web site, SFGate.com, the address is: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/10/ED7R12QR4F.DTL&hw=anne+kilkenny&sn=002&sc=962. She changed the story to be that the librarian was fired “after” rather than “because” she refused to ban books and that she didn’t know any titles were named, that she shouldn’t have said Palin “hated” her, that she was wrong, Palin never was in the PTA and that she should have capitalized “native” when she spoke of Native Americans.
I also checked w/ factcheck.org about the letter as suggested in a comment. While it had rejected the list of books that Palin is credited w/ wanting to ban, it did validate Kilkenny’s revised statement that the librarian was fired after she refused to ban books. Now why the librarian was fired, factcheck.org could not ascertain, but certainly didn’t rule out it was because she wouldn’t agree with Mayor’s Palin’s request if she would ban books in hypothetical situations.
I am wondering what genegrant was writing about when he says “This feels somewhat late on the draw…”; was the reference to the story or the e-mail? The e-mail was originally sent on Aug. 31, 2 days after Palin was named as the Repub VP candidate. As far as factcheck.org knocking down any of Klikenny’s info, other than noted above and revised by Klikenny, factcheck.org didn’t have any other comments on the information in her letter. Factcheck.org says they are working on the checking out the information in the letter and will have an article on it latter.
As noted in Kilkenny’s 2nd e-mail in the SF Chronicle, 30 journalists have checked her info and none have found errors other than the changes noted above. I will hazard a guess that when factcheck.org issues its article on Kilkenny’s e-mail there won’t be much repudiation of it as much as other possible perspective offered,
Posted 09/12/2008 17:32 with
Note that I listed other sources besides factcheck.org after it, as well as mentioning they (press) also, “have confirmed, with different details.” It certainly wasn’t about factcheck.org as a complete source disputing her point by point. They haven’t, reading their release quite carefully. I made pains to try and make that clear.
And “late to the draw,” was obviously a reference to the story, How could it possibly be about Kilkenny?