Mayor Palin - Trail of bad blood

One of the throng of journalists who are camping out in Alaska and interviewing everyone in sight to cover Sarah Palin, Alec McGillis writes in yesterday's Washington Post on her time as Mayor of Wasilla.

As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties,
Left Trail of Bad Blood

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 14, 2008; A01

WASILLA, Alaska -- On Sept. 24, 2001, Mayor Sarah Palin and the City Council held their first meeting after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The council condemned the attacks and approved a $5,000 gift to a disaster relief fund. Palin said she would try to obtain materials from both attack sites to include in the town's "Honor Garden."

And then the council and mayor returned to their normal business: approving funds to upgrade the public well, issuing a restaurant permit and taking up a measure forbidding residents from operating bed-and-breakfasts in their homes. After a lively debate, the bed-and-breakfast measure lost, 4 to 1.

Since joining the Republican ticket, Palin has faced questions about whether she is qualified to be vice president or, if necessary, president. In response, the first-term Alaska governor and Sen. John McCain point to the executive qualifications she acquired as Wasilla mayor, a six-year stint from 1996 to 2002 that represents the bulk of her political experience.

Palin says her time as mayor taught her how to be a leader and grounded her in the real needs of voters, and her tenure revealed some of the qualities she would later display as governor: a striving ambition, a willingness to cut loose those perceived as disloyal and a populist brand of social and pro-growth conservatism.

But a visit to this former mining supply post 40 miles north of Anchorage shows the extent to which Palin's mayoralty was also defined by what it did not include. The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns, which limited Palin's exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.

Firefighting and schools, two of the main elements of local governance, are handled by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the regional government for a huge swath of central Alaska. The state has jurisdiction over social services and environmental regulations such as stormwater management for building projects.

With so many government services in the state subsidized by oil revenue, and with no need to provide for local schools, Wasilla has also made do with a very low property tax rate -- cut altogether by Palin's successor -- sparing it from the tax battles that localities elsewhere must deal with. Instead, the city collects a 2 percent sales tax, the bulk of which is paid by people who live outside town and shop at its big-box stores.

The mayor oversees a police department created three years before Palin took office; the public works department; the parks and recreation department; a planning office; a library; and a small history museum. Council meetings are in the low-ceilinged basement of the town hall, a former school, and often the only residents who show up to testify are two gadflies. When Palin was mayor, the population was just 5,500.

Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Arriving in office, Palin herself played down the demands of the job in response to residents who worried that her move to oust veteran officials would leave the town in the lurch. "It's not rocket science," Palin said, according to the town newspaper, the Frontiersman. "It's $6 million and 53 employees."

Further constraining City Hall's role is the frontier philosophy that has prevailed in Wasilla, a town that was founded in 1917 as a stop along the new railroad from Anchorage to the gold mines further north. The light hand of government is evident in the town's commercial core, essentially a haphazard succession of big-box stores, fast-food restaurants and shopping plazas.

The only semblance of an original downtown is a small collection of historic cabins that have been gathered for display in a grassy area beside a shopping center. Most residents live in ranch houses scattered through the woods. Churches, offices, stores and most other buildings are made of corrugated metal or composite materials. Standing in contrast to the utilitarian architecture are the lakes and majestic peaks.

Many of those in town were astonished to learn that Palin had been named McCain's running mate six years after leaving City Hall.

"I was happy in a way, because it is a new beginning for the country, but also I am very worried due to her lack of experience," said Darlene Langill, a self-described arch-conservative who served on the City Council during Palin's first year in office.

Duane Dvorak, the city planner when Palin took office, said the mayor's ambition had been plain to see, but added: "My sense is that this opportunity maybe came along before she was ready for it or thought it would come along."

The McCain campaign declined to respond to questions about Palin's tenure as mayor, but the current mayor, Dianne Keller, said Palin's tenure has prepared her to be vice president.

"Executive experience is executive experience. Whether you are a mayor or a governor or an executive at a company, the duties and responsibilities are the same," said Keller, who served on the City Council under Palin.

* * *

As constrained as Palin's duties as mayor were, her rise to power in Wasilla allowed her to hone the sharp political instinct that has guided her since. When she ran for City Council in 1992, it was as a young PTA mother and daughter of a well-liked local family.

But in her four years on the council, she picked up on sentiment that was building against the three-term incumbent, John Stein, who pushed for the 2 percent sales tax to pay for road, sewer and water upgrades. These investments laid the way for the city's growth, but they also unnerved some residents.

"People said, 'What are you doing to my city? I liked it better when we didn't have government,' '' said Richard Deuser, the city attorney at the time. "And Sarah really pandered to that resentment, that resistance to change. Sarah became their person."

Running against Stein, Palin called for an end to his "tax-and-spend mentality" -- and introduced Wasilla to the kind of socially conservative campaigning that was taking hold across the nation. A national antiabortion-rights group sent cards to voters praising Palin, and her brochures said she was "endorsed by the NRA." After she won with 616 votes -- 58 percent of the total -- a local TV station referred to her as Wasilla's "first Christian mayor," even though Stein and his predecessors were also Christian.

Palin took office as mayor in October 1996 with a show of force. She fired the museum director and demanded that the other department heads submit resignation letters, saying she would decide whether to accept them based on their loyalty, according to news reports at the time. She clashed with Police Chief Irl Stambaugh over his push for moving bar closing time from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. and for his opposition to state legislation to allow people to carry guns in banks and bars.

In notes that he took during a meeting in Palin's first week on the job, Stambaugh wrote that the new mayor told him "that the NRA didn't like me and that they wanted change," according to the Seattle Times, which reviewed the notes at a federal archive in Seattle. Stambaugh was fired on Jan. 30, 1997, partly, the mayor said, because he had not taken seriously her request for a weekly progress report "on at least two positive examples of work that was started, how we helped the public, how we saved the City money, how we helped the state, how we helped Uncle Sam." Stambaugh filed a wrongful-termination suit, which he lost.

Palin also differed with the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons. The Frontiersman reported at the time that Palin asked Emmons three times in her first weeks in office whether she would agree to remove controversial books. The librarian said she would not. The McCain campaign has confirmed Palin's questions but said that she never demanded removal of any specific books. Palin also fired Emmons on Jan. 30 but reinstated her after an uproar.

Although the town had a $4 million surplus, Palin cut the museum budget by $32,000, and the three older women who worked there quit instead of deciding which would have to go. But Palin dipped into the budget to create the deputy administrator slot, which some council members complained was at odds with her small-government stance. She told city officials not to talk to reporters.

A recall effort in early 1997 fizzled out, but hard feelings lingered. "Working in small towns, I had never seen someone come in and clean house like that in such a precipitous manner. It was pretty scary and emotional," said Dvorak, the city planner, who left after eight months.

Deuser, the former city attorney, said it was upsetting to hear the McCain campaign refer to Palin's takeover as a matter of getting rid of the "good ol' boy network."

"They were just good public servants who did a really admirable job and deserved better," said Deuser, who was replaced in 1997.

Jeff Carney, another local attorney, said Palin was just trying to assert herself against skeptics. Members of the town's old guard "thought they could run over her and were bothered that she could think for herself and make up her own mind up and not do what someone older and wiser told her to do," he said.

In 2006, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News she learned from it all. "At the time, it seemed perplexing that people would object. I was very bold about what needed to be done," she said. "It was rough with a staff who didn't want to be there working with a new boss. I learned you've got to be very discerning early on and decide if you can win them over or not. If you can't, you replace them early on."

Palin's replacements included a public works director who lacked engineering experience but was married to a top aide to a former Republican governor, and she made a former state GOP lawyer city attorney, according to the Daily News. Langill, the former councilwoman, said the new hires fit Palin's management style.

"Sarah always did and still does surround herself with people she gets along well with," she said. "They protect her, and that's what she needs. She has surrounded herself with people who would not allow others to disagree with Sarah. Either you were in favor of everything Sarah was doing or had a black mark by your name."

But things did run more smoothly from then on, and department directors whom Palin hired said she was good at delegating authority and letting them do their job. "She's a quick study," said Don Shiesl, who took over public works in 1998. "She's a heck of a public speaker and she works her magic on people. Give her four years, with some training, and she'll be up to snuff. She's not dumb, she'll be able to catch on to stuff real quick."

* * *

The town's coffers swelled as more stores moved in, letting Palin reap the political benefits of Stein's sales tax and infrastructure upgrades. With her natural charisma putting voters at ease after the initial turbulence, she was reelected in 1999 to the $68,000-a-year job. The budget expanded by nearly half during Palin's tenure as she increased spending on police and public works but kept a lid on city planning and the library, and further reduced the property tax.

Further buttressing the budget were the earmarks Palin sought for the town after hiring a Washington lobbyist for $38,000 a year. The town secured $27 million in all, including $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs and $15 million for a rail project.

Despite the city's flush accounts, the police department under the chief Palin hired to replace Stambaugh required women who said they had been raped to pay for examination kits themselves, a policy Palin now says she rejects. State legislation passed a year later required the town to pay for the kits.

The social-issues platform of Palin's first campaign found little outlet in town, beyond some symbolic moves such as declaring Wasilla a "City of Good Character" and a resolution opposing the legalization of marijuana. Instead, she focused on continuing the city's growth and development. Her second city planner, Tim Krug, said last week that the city would sometimes "lighten" regulations, to "make things more welcoming."

Some in town had for years pressed the city for a new space for the cramped library. Palin, who calls herself a "typical hockey mom," instead focused on building a sports complex with an NHL-size rink. In 2002, by a 20-vote margin, voters approved a $14.7 million bond to be financed by a half-cent sales tax hike.

Palin had forged ahead with the project despite a lingering legal dispute over whether the city had ownership of the land. A judge had initially ruled in the city's favor, but it later lost on appeal and had to pay $1.3 million more for the land.

"The only accomplishment of note was the building of the sports complex . . . and it was bungled," said Deuser, the former city attorney. Keller, the new mayor, defended Palin, saying she had relied on legal advice in proceeding with the project.

Bound by term limits, Palin ran for lieutenant governor in 2002, came in a strong second and was later rewarded with a high-paying spot on the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

In September 2002, she presided over her last City Council meeting. The council took up an ordinance to ban sex shops. The police chief announced that Raymond Chiemlowski was promoted to sergeant. Keller "reported that traffic lights on Knik-Goosebay Road will be turned on soon and encouraged everyone to use caution while adjusting to the new traffic pattern."

And with that, at 9:48 p.m., Sarah Palin's final meeting as mayor of Wasilla was adjourned.

Read the original HERE.

Carla Katz: Palin and good-old-boy rules

Writing in the Sunday Star-Ledger, Carla Katz, ex girl-friend of New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, has a go at analyzing Sarah Palin and concludes she has mastered understanding the 'old boy network'.

Sarah Palin, good ol' boy

Sunday, September 14, 2008

BY CARLA KATZ

She is reported to be smart, tough and a politically savvy working mother.

She has become the subject of celebrity-style media interest and of an astonishing barrage of stories and photos about her and her family -- some real and some fabricated -- winging across the internet.

Her arrival on the scene has triggered endless kitchen table discussions about parenting, work, teenage pregnancy and feminism. Her name has outpaced Google hits for "Paris Hilton" and "Michael Phelps."

Her speech to the Republican convention met with such breath less excitement from the mostly male delegates that I wondered if she had appeared, as depicted in that now-famously faked photo, in a flag bikini with a rifle rakishly held aloft.

The McCain team has worked tirelessly to project its vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin, as a "reformer" and a tough, whistle- blowing politician who took on the "old boys" in Alaska and won. But the reality is that Palin is herself completely entrenched in the "old boys network" it claims she fought.

Worse, Palin's policies, which are far to the right of the majority in this country, would not help women but would roll feminism backward and the "old boys" for ward.

Facing Barack Obama's popularity with women and blue-collar voters, the demographic that could likely decide this election, the McCain team needed a way to lift its campaign from its narcoleptic stupor. The surprising and risky choice of a nearly unknown Alaskan governor as McCain's running mate seemed like an ill-advised, ob vious attempt to capitalize on and lure discontented Hillary Clinton supporters who had fervently hoped to see a woman on the presidential ticket.

The notion that women who might have voted for Clinton would now vote for Palin (and McCain) simply because they share a gender seems preposterous. Yet one re cent ABC News-Washington Post poll suggests that on the heels of the Palin pick, white women have moved from backing Obama by eight points to supporting McCain by 12 points.

It's still unknown whether those poll numbers reflect a shift among women voters or whether they are a wild swing. What is becoming clearer, as Palin's past slowly surfaces, is that she is perfectly comfortable exchanging favors and playing by the "old boys club" rules -- seemingly with their playbook.

Palin has not been shy about accepting or giving political plums. In 2002, shortly after an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, she was appointed by former Gov. Frank Murkowski to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and given a six-figure salary despite the fact that she had no background in such issues.

After Palin unseated Murkowski as governor, she handed out the plums herself. One plum -- a paid position as director of the $35 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, which rebates oil royalties to residents -- went to Palin's close friend Debbie Richter, who also served as treasurer of Palin's gubernatorial campaign committee. Another went to Aryne Randall, branch manager of the Wells Fargo bank that gave the Palins and Richters loans for their properties. Palin's tendencies toward cronyism and a heavy-handed management style have pockmarked her political as cent, and she has left a string of questionable firings and resignations in her wake.

Once elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996, Palin fired the police chief, demanded the resignations of all other department heads, including the city planner and finance direc tor, and attempted to fire the city's librarian -- who refused to remove books from the town library -- re lenting only when the town op posed her action.

Local critics charge that Palin replaced the "old boys club" with a "new set of old boys," hiring inexperienced staff and a town administrator to do the work of running the small town while she still ac cepted her mayoral salary.

While governor, she fired the state's public safety commissioner, allegedly because he refused to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper engaged in a custody battle with Palin's sister. An investiga tion into "troopergate" continues. Last year, Palin abruptly fired her longtime aide and legislative direc tor, John Bitney, just weeks after her friend Scott Richter told her that Bitney was having an affair with Richter's now ex-wife, Debbie.

While there is still little known about Palin, we do know that McCain has selected a running mate who, as a potential leader of the Free World, holds positions on women's issues that are out of touch with the majority of voters. That's especially true of her pro-life stance, which would deny women abortions even in cases of rape and incest.

We know that the swirling accusations of abuse of power, cronyism and a legacy of firings have infected her political life. We also know that the "old boys' network" lets women play if they play by the rules, and Palin seems to have mastered them.

Carla Katz is a labor leader who also writes and lectures on politics, power and issues affecting women and working families.

Read the original HERE.

Gov. Palin: Billed state for nights spent at home

Gov. Palin billed the state for sleeping at home -- and other eyebrow-raising expenses -- according to a report in today's Washington Post.

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home
Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, September 9, 2008; A01

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny.

During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as a crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause.

Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for her family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said.

"As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community events."

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it."

The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said.

Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughters' expenses and $19,000 for her husband's.

Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that."

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation.

One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo.

Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem [for] the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5."

The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won.

Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for a flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife.

Gov. Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

"She flies coach and encourages her cabinet to fly coach as well," said Garnero, whose job is equivalent to state controller. "Some do, some don't."

Leighow said that the governor's staff has tallied the travel expenses charged by Murkowski's wife: $35,675 in 2006, $43,659 in 2005, $13,607 in 2004 and $29,608 in 2003. Associates of Murkowski said the former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment.

In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies.

"It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said.

Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of times his children accompanied him.

"And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel.

Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge.

But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel.

Research editor Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.

Read the original story HERE.

Convention Speech: Are families off limits?

Washington Post OpEd writer Michael Kingsley notes an irony in Palin's GOP Convention speech.

Memo to Palin

“Our son Track is 19. And one week from tomorrow…he’ll deploy to Iraq…. My nephew Kasey also enslisted…. My family is proud of both of them…. In our family, it’s two boys and three girls…. From the inside, no family seems typical. That’s how it is with us. Our family has the same ups and downs as any other…. Todd is a story all by himself…. We met in high school and two decades and five children later he’s still my guy…. My parents are here tonight, and I am so proud to be the daughter of….”

Did someone forget to tell Sarah Palin that families are off-limits?

Posted September 3, 2008. 11:56 PM.

Read the original post HERE.

Convention Speech: Takes swipes at Obama

The Washington Post's Ben Pershing on Sarah Palin's Convention speech.

Palin Takes Swipes at Obama;
McCain Claims GOP Nomination

By Ben Pershing
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took repeated swipes at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and the news media Wednesday night after accepting the vice presidential nomination before an enraptured audience at the Republican National Convention.

Shortly after her speech, convention officials ordered a roll call of the states, and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was officially handed the Republican presidential nomination.

Facing enormous pressure to deliver a credible performance under intense media scrutiny, McCain's vice presidential pick defined herself in a lively speech as a change-oriented political outsider committed to reform and uninterested in the finer trappings of higher office. To thunderous applause from assembled delegates, Palin trepeatedly mocked Obama's record and rhetoric.

"We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco," she said, referencing Obama's infamous quote about bitter small-town residents clinging to guns and religion.

"This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign," Palin said. "But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot, what exactly is our opponent's plan?"

She also delivered an ode to McCain, saying "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

"I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment," Palin declared. "And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

McCain joined Palin and her family on stage immediately after she completed her speech, shortly after 11 p.m. eastern time.

Palin defined herself as "just your average hockey mom" who got into local politics, and detailed her rise up the ladder to bolster her case for the vice presidency, "since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience." And Palin took a swipe at a line on Democratic nominee Barack Obama's resume by contrasting it with her service as mayor of Wasilla: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Palin's speech was nearly marred by a pair of activists from the antiwar group CodePink, who got to the very edge of the stage and were a moment away from apparently running onto it, next to a host of McCain's most senior staff, until the Secret Service grabbed them at the last minute and dragged them out.

Palin's speech came as the McCain campaign sought to put an end to media scrutiny of the process by which the Arizonan picked his running mate, including a Washington Post report today that Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of McCain's vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and that she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting.

Calling the media's storyline "nonsense," senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt said in a statement: "The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process."

But even as the campaign sought to put the vetting questions behind them, it elected to make a public statement about another potential controversy - an anonymously sourced report in the National Enquirer alleging Palin had an affair with an associate of her husband. "The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Governor Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false," Schmidt said in the statement. "It is a vicious lie."

The diverse roster of speakers tonight included three former opponents of McCain in the GOP presidential race: ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who made the case that McCain can "enlarge our party," and is "the candidate who can credibly reach out for the votes of Independents and Democrats."

Even more so than the other speakers, Giuliani took the lead tonight in deriding Obama's record.

"He's never had to lead people in crisis," Giuliani said. "This is not a personal attack, it's a statement of fact -- Barack Obama has never led anything. Nothing. Nada."

"The choice in this election comes down to substance over style. John has been tested. Barack Obama has not."

Romney, whom many conservatives preferred to McCain during the primaries and was reported a finalist for the vice presidential slot, argued that McCain is the man to return the country to the "course of Ronald Reagan."

"We need change all right -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington," Romney said. "We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington -- throw out the big government liberals and elect John McCain."

As Palin did, Romney also lashed out at the media and the political establishment. "For decades, the Washington sun has been rising in the east," Romney said at his speech's start. "Washington has been looking to the eastern elites, to the editorial pages of the Times and the Post, and to the broadcasters from the coast."

Huckabee, a conservative favorite, lamented that he wasn't accepting the nomination himself this week and called McCain his "second choice for the Republican nomination." Like Romney, he took an anti-media tack.

"I'd like to thank the elite media for doing something that I didn't think could be done - unify the Republican Party," he said, in a departure from his prepared remarks, to raucous applause. "The reporting of the last few days has proven tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert

Tonight's schedule also included an emphasis on diversity within the Republican party. Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams, both African-American, appeared, as did Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuno.

Prominent women on the speaking roster included former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, both key McCain campaign advisers, as well as Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle.

Lingle, whose speech was flipped with Giuliani's so the New Yorker would precede Palin, made a specific reference to a controversy surrounding Alaska governor's disclosure that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, is pregnant.

Lingle said that Palin has "a grandchild on the way" and said of the Palin family: "They face the same challenges that moms and dads do, every single day in our country. Difficult things happen to families, and just like yours, families pull together and get through it."

Fiorina and Whitman both devoted much of their remarks to domestic policy, and to making the case again for McCain as a leader. "Many people talk about changing Washington," Fiorina said. "John McCain has the knowledge, the guts, and now in Sarah Palin, the partner he needs to actually get it done."

But the first speaker of the night to spark real energy from the crowd was Steele, who now serves as chairman of the fundraising group GOPAC. Calling for the country to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, Steele said: "In other words, drill baby drill! And drill now!"

September 4, 2008; 12:23 AM ET

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Analysis: Speech may be easiest part

Covering Sarah Palin's Convention speech, the New Yorks Times' Adam Nagourney lays out the challenges ahead for the vice presidential candidate, who won't always find herself among adoring throngs.

New York Times, September 4, 2008

News Analysis
Easiest Task for Palin May Have Been Speech

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

ST. PAUL — Gov. Sarah Palin could not have asked for a better setting for her solo debut on the national stage: an audience enthralled with her selection as Senator John McCain’s running mate even before she walked on stage to a roar of approval, after three days in seclusion with some of the country’s most skilled political counselors to write, hone and practice her speech.

She drew warm applause as she described her life in Alaska and introduced her family. She heard cheers as she promised an aggressive energy policy that included more drilling. And Ms. Palin ignited a loud round of approving boos as she denounced the news media and “Washington elite” that she suggested had ganged up against her since Mr. McCain announced Friday that she would be the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

But her speech at the Republican National Convention, if delivered with confidence and ecstatically embraced in the hall, may prove to have been the easy part.

From here, Ms. Palin moves into a national campaign where she will have to appeal to audiences that are not necessarily primed to adore her. She will have to navigate far less controlled campaign settings that will test not only her political skills but also her knowledge of foreign and domestic policy. And she must convince the country she is prepared to be vice president at a time when the definition of that job has been elevated to the status of governing partner — something voters might have been reminded of Wednesday by images of Vice President Dick Cheney embarking on a mission to war-torn Georgia.

“The people who are in the hall — they’ve already been sold, they are the choir,” said John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri. “Now the question for her and for McCain and for everybody who is inside the hall is how to clarify their message to the American people.”

But what is that message? Her speech left no doubt that she would take on the traditional role of a ticket’s No. 2, attacking the top of the other ticket, which she did repeatedly and with gusto.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” Ms. Palin said, a slash of the sword at Senator Barack Obama’s job as a young man working on antipoverty programs in Chicago.

The remark capped three days in which Republicans have sought to say it is Mr. Obama, and not this first-term governor from a small-population state, who does not have the experience to be president.

The question is whether someone who is so little known and has what even Republicans describe as a scant résumé has the authority to make those attacks credible — unlike, say, her counterpart on the Democratic side, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a veteran of foreign and domestic policy who attacked Mr. McCain last week. It is also unclear if the sharp and often mocking tone of her attacks — combined with her general avoidance of such key issues as the economy — might turn off swing voters across the country.

“It’s more difficult with someone of her background to go on the attack than it would be for Joe Biden,” said Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire. “Before she attacks someone, she has to get out there and define herself.”

Clearly, her big task on Wednesday and in the days ahead was to drive home the image the McCain campaign has sought to attach to this unexpected pick: the corruption-fighting governor from outside Washington, a socially conservative mother of five who can easily connect with working-class Americans in a way that Mr. Obama has so far had trouble doing. She scorned the trappings of elitism — she talked about driving herself to work, and how she put the Alaska governor’s plane up for sale on eBay — as she signaled that she would serve as Mr. McCain’s ambassador to Americans who think the government has lost touch with their values and needs. She went as far to compare herself to a haberdasher from Missouri who became vice president and later president, Harry S. Truman.

The problem for Ms. Palin is that that story has been tripped up by disclosures about her professional and personal life, enough so that at least until Wednesday, she had become a bigger figure at this convention than Mr. McCain.

In her speech, she tried to address that by belittling what she disparaged as the Washington elite and the news media — a sure-fire applause line at these kinds of events — and invoking her own experience as a reformer. Yet she made no effort to say what she might do as a vice president, no small question when her lack of a national or international portfolio suggests she would not slide easily into the kind of full partner role enjoyed by Mr. Cheney and Al Gore.

“The Gore-Cheney series of vice presidencies have changed the nature of the job,” said Gary Hart, a former Democratic senator from Colorado and a friend of Mr. McCain. “What McCain has done is to try to revert to the 19th-century model, early-20th-century model of vice president — the ‘job isn’t worth a warm pitcher of spit’ model, which means you don’t do anything.”

“But we don’t live in that kind of world anymore,” Mr. Hart said. And, he said, that is a particularly relevant question given Mr. McCain’s age — 72 — and health problems. “I’m sure John thinks he can live forever, or at least for eight years,” Mr. Hart said.

In an interview a month ago on CNBC, Ms. Palin went so far as to disparage the job of vice president, saying, “What is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?”

The one role she is going to play — and one that Mr. Cheney played — is helping to motivate the right wing of her party. The uproarious applause that capped her speech left little doubt that she had already moved easily into the job — a big lift for Mr. McCain, who has always had difficulty persuading social conservatives to trust him.

The question for the governor of Alaska, as she heads out across the country on her first national campaign, is whether she can do for Mr. McCain in a general election what she did last night with this audience of delegates at the Xcel Energy Center.

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