As a former Alaskan who has already voted for Palin twice and will do so again in November, I think the McCain handlers are smart to keep her largely wrapped and hidden. She is not a deep thinker nor is she well read. Luckily, neither are most people in the news media. In order to lead, a strong backbone is often more valuable than a strong mind. Alaskan politicians are as dumb or perhaps dumber than most and when Palin washed out as a sportscaster, she recognized that politics is the easiest way to become “somebody” with few qualifications or a modest education. She is much smarter politically than people give her credit. As a women with little political value in the good old boy network of Alaskan politics, she charmed her way to political endorsements from some of the people she would later turn against. This is the only thing I find troubling about Palin. I’m friends with several of her staff members back in Alaska and Palin uses the unspoken threat of sometimes random firings as a way to control people. A couple of staffers have told me that she is very thin-skinned, perhaps her single biggest liability as a politician. Having said all this, I still respect her strong backbone and allegiance to conservative values.
