Emails reveal her to be an effective hands-on leader
Emails from Sarah Palin's time as Alaska governor "show a double-fisted Blackberry user fully comfortable with handling nearly every aspect of state government," wrote the McClatchy Newspapers.
The emails paint "a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics," said Toby Harnden of the London Telegraph.
"She comes across as practical and not doctrinaire," wrote Molly Ball in Politico. "She was hands-on and adverse to partisan politics."
This was not what some journalists expected to write. "If critics were hoping to see Palin revealed as a hypocrite, they're out of luck," said Ms. Ball. "Her private statements are in line with her public ones."
Many strained to say something critical. "She may have attended four universities, but Sarah Palin still writes like an 8th-grader," wrote Christine Roberts in the New York Daily News.
Her emails were given to two writing experts to analyze. "Both agree that the tea party favorite writes as if she is in middle school," Ms. Roberts said.
You couldn't tell from Ms. Roberts' lede that both experts concluded Ms. Palin writes better than do most corporate executives.
John Katzman, CEO of 2tor, is a Democrat who said he "would have loved to support my hunch that Ms. Palin is illiterate." But she scored better on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test than his emails do, Mr. Katzman acknowledged.
"She's very concise. She gives clear orders. Her sentences and punctuations are logical," said Paul Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. "She has much more of a disciplined mind than she is given credit for."
The Sarah Palin who emerges from the email dump isn't the partisan snowbilly of media caricature. She's a tough-minded reformer who took on Big Oil and corrupt members of her own party and beat them.
Ms. Ball described her as "the long-lost Palin." But the real Sarah Palin wasn't "lost." The news media hid her. Journalists were too busy scouring her personal life for hints of scandal to report on Ms. Palin's accomplishments in public office.
"When my co-host, Mika Brzezinski and I arrived at the Republican National Convention (in 2008), we were met by excited network chiefs and newspaper reporters who were chasing down a sleazy Internet rumor that Trig Palin was not Palin's child," said MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough. "Mika received a number of calls from her friends at the major networks gleefully passing along the Internet lie before cheering for Palin's demise."
Many journalists were out to get Sarah Palin from the get go, and still are. Why?
"Democrats and the media will always tell you who they are afraid of by virtue of who they spend their time trying to destroy," said radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
After Ms. Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention, Jay Newton-Small of Time magazine wrote:
"The dilemma the [Obama] campaign has about the emergence of this political superstar comes down to this: It can't possibly ignore her, but going after her directly could easily backfire."
A public relations firm with ties to David Axelrod, Barack Obama's chief media strategist, was responsible for Internet smears of Ms. Palin, the Weekly Standard reported.
They needn't have bothered with the Astroturfing (an Axelrod specialty). Plenty of journalists did the Obama campaign's dirty work for it.
Some pundits declare Ms. Palin won't run for president and couldn't win if she did. Is this what they really think? Or is it what they hope Republicans will believe if they say it often enough?
Nonstop criticism has hurt Sarah Palin in the polls. It would be difficult to overcome the false picture painted of her. But the emails, and a forthcoming documentary, are steps in that direction. Furthermore, their now naked -- and increasingly comical -- partisanship has hurt the credibility of her adversaries in journalism.
Back when the reputation of the "mainstream" media was better and its monopoly near total, another conservative derided as stupid and extreme prevailed when he emerged on center stage and dispelled the media caricature of him. Republicans already think Sarah Palin is more like Ronald Reagan than is any other presidential aspirant. If she chooses to run, she may resemble the Gipper in yet another way.
Jack Kelly is a columnist for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412 263-1476). More articles by this author
