Residents of Governer Sarah Palin’s hometown, Wasilla, Alaska, are “ecstatic” about her choice as McCain’s VP. I was rather surprised to find nothing negative in this AP article.
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) — Residents in Sarah Palin’s hometown were surprised by her selection as John McCain’s running mate, but they say the straight-talking Alaskan could give Washington a dose of what it needs.
Besides growing up here, she served as mayor to the growing suburban community — now with about 7,000 residents, large by Alaska standards — about 40 miles north of Anchorage.
What the residents say offers much insight into what kind of politician Palin is - and it’s not your typical Washington insider…
Lee Sherriff, 83, said that when Palin was mayor, he walked into her office 50 times or more with a question or just to talk. She always got back to him if she didn’t have an answer.
“I felt that we were good friends. I could go in there and chat 15, 20 minutes, no problem.”
Sherriff said Palin is not afraid to shake things up, such as firing the police chief of Wasilla when she became mayor. He said Palin knew the police chief and the councilmen were going to give her a hard time.
“She upset the apple cart,” he said. “She straightened things out here. … She’s not afraid a bit. What she thinks is right, she is going to do.”
Melanie Packer, 32, a lifelong resident of Wasilla and mother of five, said this was the most important event ever for Wasilla, if not for all of Alaska.
“I think it is going to make Wasilla the place where Palin came from,” she said.
…
Trout House Cafe waitress Lisa Cameron, 28, who started here at the age of 14 busing tables, said she hears a lot of political talk in her job.
“We’re ecstatic,” she said of the news. “The state, like, loves Sarah Palin.”
Cameron said too much is being made of Palin’s good looks. What’s important to her is the $1,200 that Palin got for each Alaskan to help them pay fuel and heating costs this winter — the checks start going out Sept. 12.
The money is coming from the state’s oil-rich state treasury. Palin said Alaskans should share the bounty of the state’s resources, especially when they pay some of the highest heating costs in the nation.
“Actually, she has that presence of greatness about her,” Cameron said. “She has that aura. I think she will be McCain’s ace in the hole.”
Dan Sanderlin, a 56-year-old builder of log homes who has lived in Wasilla since 1978, said he had concerns about Palin’s qualifications for the job, even though he admires her and loves her family, knowing both her husband, Todd, and her father, Chuck Heath.
Her rise from small-town mayor to the vice presidential pick was “awful quick and fast,” said Sanderlin, who coached football in the late 1980s where Palin’s father was the track coach.
“She seems to speak her mind, which could get a person in trouble in that position,” he said.
I can’t think of any local politicians from the small towns I’ve lived in in Kansas that i could say any of that about.
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