Since Friday I have been inundated with IMs, emails, texts, facebook and lj mesages, and such asking me about Sarah Palin. Two things occur to me, 1. I have way too many ways to be contacted and 2. I am the only one people know who lives in Alaska. Thus I have decided to send out a mass email/blog post/message with the "alaskan reaction to Sarah Palin's choice as VP" that I have been asked for. Fortunately, I have recently been authorized to speak for the entire state and thus can answer the questions.

First question I've gotten a lot, what is the Alaskan reaction. The news broke on Friday morning here; most of us either woke up to it, or heard it on the way to work (me). Everyone was completely shocked up here. No one from Alaska has ever gotten very far in National politics (there was a secretary of the Interior under Nixon and that is about it). Up here there is a tendency to feel like less a full fledged member of the Union and more like the red-headed stepchild. So for Alaskans this is huge. Everyone was shocked and excited, but mostly shocked. Mostly there is a "well this won't be boring at least" attitude. I was at the State Fair on Saturday (914 pound pumpkin - very cool!) and there was a tshirt booth already selling McCain/Palin tshirts (they must have started printing them the instant they heard); the shirts sold out by midafternoon. I saw tons of people wearing them. The Republican Women booth was selling bumper stickers and they had people lined up to buy them. For many people, they are so excited about having someone on a national ticket, and someone so Alaskan, they're jumping up and down with joy.

Second question I've been asked, what should we know about her. Her family is very all Alaskan, and most of this is coming out in the media. Her husband is a former Army sniper, injured in Iraq, as well as a commercial fisherman, and an oil worker up on the North Slope, and a pilot. The only common profession/lifestyle he is missing is miner/Alaskan native. Husband also competes in the Iron Dog competition (which is exactly as funny as it sounds - I'd love to see that get national media attention). She also has an oldest son about to deploy to Iraq. And a pregnant teenage daughter. Also both common in Alaska. Three teenagers came into my library in the last two weeks alone either pregnant or with a new baby on their hip, two of the three were Alaskan Native, but that is another rant. I haven't been out with friends and coworkers since the news about her daughter broke, so I can't really give the reaction to that. She's been a pretty good governor. She used her veto to slash the budget, but she left library funding untouched (my priority).

Alaskan politics are rife with tolerated corruption (see Ted Stevens who is actually indicted, and got 67% of his party's vote in the primary, or Don Young who is about to be indicted and is leading by 150 votes for his party's nomination in that same primary, it's enough to make a girl give up entirely). However, Palin has done a lot to bring that to the light, particularly in regards to our last governor. Of course there is the question of if she got that trooper fired to protect her sister who was getting divorced (to be fair, if someone hurt my sister, and I had it in my power to get her husban fired, as much as I'd love him, I'd be sorely tempted because she is my sister). That's still under investigation, but people up here seem to believe it and not care too much (see the tolerated corruption).

Side note: A few weeks ago, she came to my library to film an endorsement ad for Sean Parnell (running against Don Young in the primary for the Republican nomination for Congress, current Lieutenant Governor). All librarians got an email if we'd be working that Saturday. She walked around introducing herself to people. She didn't make it back to Youth Services, but she waved at me. Thoughts: she's really pretty (runner up for Miss Alaska).

So that is what I know about it, and how people are reacting (provided those people are those who live in Anchorage and go to church with me or come to the library). In my personal opinion, it is pretty cool that which ever way this goes, we'll either have a woman or an African American in the executive office. That's pretty nice as far as history goes.