More about Sarah Palin

In a lengthy article of the Newsweek, McCain's running mate Sarah Palin is exposed in more details. Here is the summary:  

1. She's not a sophisticated intellectual type like Barack Obama. 

2. Her governing philosophy is largely shaped by her political mentor, former Alaska governor Wally Hickel, who advocates an 'economy of the commons', which would place the state's vast energy and mineral wealth in the hands of the state government and its citizens. Palin has ordered a one-time $1,200 energy refund distributed to each Alaska resident.  (The revenues came from recalculating the tax on oil producers.)

3. She's religious.  Friends say the Ten Commandments imbued her with a strong sense of right and wrong. Even now, when she talks about complex political matters, she sometimes speaks in religious terms. She favours teaching creationism alongside evolution in schools. 

4. She has reputation of being ruthless senior city officials and has a tendency to interfere with public discussion. 

5. Wooten affair is under investigation, and probably will be a October surprise.

6. She markets herself as a reformer who fights against cronyism, when in fact her record shows her to be, in many ways, a typical politician who rewards her friends and punishes her enemies. 

7. Her all-politics-is-local approach has made her the most popular governor in the country for the nearly two years she's been in the job. 

8. As a mother of five children, she seems very capable of balancing family and work. 

In the battle with Obama and Joe Biden, the McCain campaign will emphasize Palin's executive responsibilities, her judgment, her instincts, her reformist credentials and her fighting spirit. Aides might encourage her to take the lead on energy issues, emphasizing one policy area she's very familiar with. They'll also play up her small-town roots, trying to draw comparisons to Harry Truman. 

Note: It seems to me that this newsweek's lengthy report about Sarah Palin is part of the media frenzy in US now to vet this public unknown vice presidential nominee.  For the better or the worse, NYT's public editor is certainly quite sure about such a close scrutiny of Palin. Complementary reading to the coverage of Palin.