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Readerreader, you have got to be seriously infatuated with Ms. Palin to be calling her the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Was just reading about him this past week, and I know for a fact she doesn't have one bit of his graciousness or love of language. His letters are quite marvelous and moving and the people who worked for him speak highly of him. Palin can barely speak a coherent sentence and cannot write well. The people she works with have nothing good to say about her prima donna behavior and work habits. I have to thank her, though, for the best Thanksgiving I've had in two decades in Alaska. My in-laws, ranging from 88-8, have roots here going back five generations and are absolutely typical Alaskans (high school educations mostly, but a few with college degrees, hardworking, community minded, newspaper readers, church goers with several different faiths) with no particular agenda. I generally say they are more "conservative than dirt" and avoid talking politics because my "yellow dog democrat" world view (thanks Mom!) is generally very different from theirs. This year, however, not a one of the fourteen had anything good to say about Palin. It was remarkable. They are all outraged that she is flying around the nation still campaigning...it's Georgia this weekend...when our state is facing education, health care and energy challenges like it has never seen. The price of gas and fuel oil here is still pushing $4 a gallon, it's worse in the bush, and people are fleeing the small towns for work in Anchorage, putting our school funding in a crisis. We lost 100 students this first semester alone. That's a lot of families who won't be shopping locally, paying rent, etc. It's just not Alaskan to put glitz and glamour ahead of hard work and everyone here knows it. When push comes to shove, this state is about people who roll up their sleeves and get to work. Palin wants the titles, she wants the press attention, but she does not want to put in a day at the office. This, you admire???
