More Info on Palin from Alaskan journalists and Alaskan State Senator (D)

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From MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour:

Writers who have followed Palin's career discuss her rise to national politics.

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MICHAEL CAREY: I think that if I was to say something that would be useful to the viewers, it would be this. Her opponents and critics have constantly underestimated her. When she ran for governor, she was disparaged as the beauty queen -- she is a former beauty queen -- somebody who really didn't know the issues, who doesn't understand the issues.

When she became governor, she still is criticized as somebody who's not a good administrator, who's not particularly hands-on, who doesn't know the ins and outs of the government.

But she is tremendous with people. She connects with people. You've seen some of what she can do. And I don't think people who are critics out there, the Democrats, should underestimate her.

On the other hand, I don't think the Republicans should overestimate her, either. She's been quite fortunate in her opponents through her career. She ran against an unpopular governor; she ran against a former governor, a Democrat, Tony Knowles, and beat him.

She campaigned for ethics against people who are obviously crooked. She's always had opponents who she shined against. And she's up against Joe Biden now, and this is going to be the biggest challenge of her career. And it's going to be really quite interesting to see how she handles it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Representative Holmes, you're a Democrat, serving in the state legislature, working with her. What's it like to work with her?

LINDSEY HOLMES (D), Alaska State Representative: Well, you know, she and I actually came in at the same time. We've both been in office for about a year-and-a-half. And it's a big transition, honestly, to go from a small town mayor to the governor of the largest state in the union. And so there's been a steep learning curve for her.

I think I would characterize it as sort of two steps forward, one step back. We've been working hard to sort of improve communication between the executive and legislative branches. And sometimes that's been successful, and other times it's broken down.

And so, obviously, Alaskans are harder hit than other places at times with energy costs. So she's sensitive to where people are at. And I think that she's aware of what the average American has to do to make ends meet and has to do to get by.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, how does she get along with state legislators?

LINDSEY HOLMES: Well, I think it depends on the state legislator. There's been a bit of a hands-off approach, I would have to say. It's not...

JUDY WOODRUFF: A hands-off approach on whose...

LINDSEY HOLMES: To the legislature, from the governor's office to the legislature. There are definitely people in the legislature she just doesn't get along with at all.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Are they all Democrats?

LINDSEY HOLMES: No, actually, they're mostly Republicans, a lot of Republicans, some Democrats. It kind of depends on the issue. There have been some arguments over handling of things like budget vetoes without communicating them ahead of time to the legislature, just a lack of communication, I think, on a lot of things that we've been working on.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You were telling me -- excuse me, you were telling me, too, there had been some turnover in her office with the legislature?

LINDSEY HOLMES: There has been. There's been some turnover of commissioners. And I think it was mentioned earlier in the lead-in segment that there's currently a legislative investigation into one of those, just to see whether or not there was any professional or ethical issues.

It's really too soon in the investigation to tell where that's going to lead.

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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec08/palintalk_08-29.html