Alaska Dispatch

By Tony Hopfinger

Gov. Sarah Palin is enmeshed in media interviews this week, presumably trying to repair her bruised image from the brutal presidential race and the malicious reporters who dogged her every step of the way. Palin says she’s doing these interviews for the sake of Alaska and to educate the rest of the nation about the many valuable resources the Last Frontier has to offer America.

But her remarks on the state’s lifeblood industry are baffling, perhaps misleading, even flat wrong.

The oil-driven economy is less flush, and Palin's harsh rhetoric while on the national stump has eroded her support at home.

By Yereth Rosen | The Christian Science Monitor

When she left Alaska in August to run as the Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin was a much-loved governor with approval ratings near 90 percent; a record for pursuing centrist, bipartisan policies; and a reputation as a corruption-fighter.

Her home state was awash in money, thanks to record oil prices, and residents were set to get big checks in the form of dividends from the Alaska Permanent Fund and a state tax rebate. The economic future seemed secure, with Governor Palin advancing the case for a big, new, natural-gas pipeline.

What a difference a couple of months make.

High prices led to a $3,269 payout for each resident. But rural areas slumped on high pump prices.

By Yereth Rosen | The Christian Science Monitor

The oil price spike has brought the best of times and worst of times in Alaska. In the state’s urban metropolis, a retail frenzy is under way as merchants compete for the extra $3,269 that landed on Sept. 12 in residents’ bank accounts. The money is from the normal annual dividend paid by the Alaska Permanent Fund – a record $2,069 payout this year to nearly every Alaska man, woman, and child – plus an extra one-time $1,200 payment, made possible from huge state budget surpluses, that was championed by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

By David Benton

Apocalyptic predictions have not been entirely relegated to Wall Street these days. We've become quite used to them when it comes to our seas. In 2006, a major report warned that the world's fisheries would completely collapse by 2048 if current fishing (and polluting) practices continue. Like the panic on Wall Street, such predictions cause great anxiety about the state of our world's oceans.

I've frankly been skeptical of alarmist predictions of a worldwide fishery collapse, mainly because here in Alaska, where more than half of America's fish are caught, we've applied a rigorous science-based system that balances the interests of both industry and conservation. As a result, we have no overfished stocks, and we've protected the marine habitat. If we can do it, surely others can as well.

By Scott Woodham

After Sara Palin won a tag in the lottery to bag her first network news anchor, Charlie Gibson, it occurred to me that many in the Lower 48 might not understand the full import of her statement, “I’m ready,” or her firm conviction that “you can’t blink.” As an Alaskan watching that interview far from home, I felt a spike of homesickness then paralyzing fear when she said that. Given the extreme stakes here, I thought I’d do my best to help everyone understand the specific nostalgia I felt.

From where I sit, Governor Palin wasn’t being especially firm, decisive, committed, or even hubristic when she said those things. She was simply following her script—and not her God’s or handlers’ script. No, no, she was following much deeper prompting:  The elemental forces created by an Alaskan upbringing.