PJ: No earth shattering surprises as the emails from and to Sarah Palin in her early days as the governor of Alaska show someone who had risen to the highest office in her world (at the time); someone engaged in the office that the citizens of her state had granted her. Most are mundane references to the state's business.
However, her preoccupation with her image was a dominant factor even in those early days, any criticism in the media, for instance was met with accusations by her that the media was incorrect or had lied in their reporting. Even then, she exhibited a tendency to play the victim and never admitted any mistakes she might have made, in her mind she was never at fault. Emails also identify her vindictive streak and penchant for revenge on anyone who she assumed had wronged her.
The emails also outline how she encouraged her staff and supporters to participate in manipulation of public opinion. Early on, at her instruction, she and her staff would actively court supporters who would help them manipulate political polls to falsely record support for her administration and her policies as well as to sign letters to news agencies in praise of her and her positions--letters often penned by the governor herself. In only her second year as governor, rumor of her being considered a VP pick began to consume her interest. During the VP campaign she was even more consumed with her image and even though she did not relinquish control of the state's business to her lieutenant governor, she was more engaged with the national spotlight than her responsibilities in Alaska, except as it related to her image. After her failed VP campaign, she returned to the State more interested in her national profile than governing her sparsely populated, rural domain.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Email dump reveals Palin praised Obama
June 11, 2011 - 6:55PM
Sarah Palin calls local media "biased and unfair" and praises an energy speech by then-candidate Barack Obama in some of the thousands of emails sent during her first two years as governor of Alaska.
More than 24,000 emails from Palin's term have been made public by the state, offering a glimpse into her administration up to September 2008, shortly after Republican Senator John McCain picked her as his running mate in his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
"Can you flippinbelieveit?!" she wrote to her state Department of Revenue commissioner on August 30, 2008, the day after McCain of Arizona named her as his running mate.
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The six boxes of documents, weighing about 130 kilograms, include emails about bears, the budget, oil and gas issues, as well as the firing of her public safety commissioner, which led to a scandal called "Troopergate".
On August 15, 2008, she wrote that the media were reporting the issue "incorrectly".
In one email, she called reports on her budget and potential trooper layoffs "biased and unfair".
"It is appalling to see and hear the untruths being spewed about the DPS budget and contract results," she wrote to members of her staff on August 19, 2008, referring to the state Department of Public Safety.
The bulk of the correspondence shows Palin and her staff busy attending to routine events and official business, such as speeches, schedules, travel, board appointments and job applicants.
In one February 2007 exchange, a Palin adviser recommends that, when she is in Washington, she meet Pete Rouse, who was Obama's chief of staff when he was in the Senate and served briefly in the same job at the White House.
"He's now chief-of-staff for a guy named Barack Obama," the aide wrote.
The aide relayed information that Rouse "wants to help Alaska however he can", and also had predicted Palin would win election to governor.
Palin responded: "I'm game to meet him."
Several weeks before she was selected as McCain's running mate, Palin in an email to her aides praised a speech that Obama, then a candidate for president, gave in Michigan on energy.
"He gave a great speech this morn in Michigan -- mentioned Alaska," she wrote. "Stole our Energy Rebate $1,000 check idea, stole our TC-Alaska gasoline talking points, etc."
Palin tells her staff to write a statement "saying he's right on", and asks an aide to help "crank this quick statement out as our 'reaction' to some of Obama's good points this morning."
Palin later writes: "He did say 'yay' to our gasline. Pretty cool. Wrong candidate."
Palin, 47, who was elected in 2006 and resigned the governorship in July 2009, has been coy about whether she will seek the Republican presidential nomination for 2012. She made a mult-iday tour of the US east coast tour in a red, white and blue bus this month that ended in the early primary state of New Hampshire, diverting attention from Republicans already in the race.
In an email on August 19, 2008, Palin asked her staff whether someone went into her bedroom in the governor's mansion in Juneau to get emails from her computer.
"Who, when, etc conducted this search of my bedroom's computer and the other house computer?" she wrote. "And what were the reasons given and responses given to whomever must have officially entered the residence on whatever day it was that this occurred."
A legislative commission was investigating Troopergate in August 2008. Erika Fagerstrom, Palin's residence manager, wrote back to Palin on August 19, 2008, saying the Department of Law wanted access to her emails before the legislative "investigators have access to it".
On that same day, Palin wrote: "It's unacceptable that whomever is in charge of this 'investigation' did not inform me nor grant me approval before proceeding. I'm dumbfounded by the way this is developing."
Palin also received advice from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now a Republican candidate for president, about who to defend against criticism related to per diem allowances for her family. He said Palin didn't charge taxpayers for all that she could have under the law.
Private E-Mail
Palin used private email accounts to conduct state business, and messages sent to state employees at their state email addresses were also included in the correspondence that was made public.
The release of the records follows more than two years of pursuit and legal challenges by media outlets and members of the public under a state freedom of information law that began when Palin became the vice-presidential nominee.
The state also provided a list of thousands of emails that were withheld for privacy reasons. Many dealt with potential appointments and personnel issues, while some related to "children, dinner and prayer" and "talking points on petroleum tax proposal", according to the list.
During her governorship, Palin pushed an ethics overhaul and a tax increase on oil companies. She also supported up to $500 million in state subsidies for Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. to pursue a multimillion-dollar natural gas pipeline project.
Palin faced tension in her administration in mid-2008 when she became the subject of Troopergate, an abuse-of-power inquiry over firing Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
The police chief said he was dismissed for refusing to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who was involved in a divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.
In October 2008, a state legislative investigator found Palin abused her authority and violated state ethics rules by letting her husband use her office to press for firing Monegan. A separate investigation by the state Personnel Board in November 2008 found the governor didn't violate ethics rules.
Palin told Fox News this week she wasn't worried that some of the emails might be damaging.
"Every rock in the Palin household that could ever be kicked over and uncovered anything, it's already been kicked over," she said. She also said the emails "weren't meant for public consumption".
Bloomberg
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/email-dump-reveals-palin-praised-obama-20110611-1fxye.html
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