Who Is The Real Sarah Palin?

If you listen to the media, the left, and the GOP establishment, you’ll hear that Sarah Palin is “unqualified.” Even those who grudgingly admit that she helped the McCain ticket in 2008 by energizing the base will still dismiss her gently by saying that she was not “prepared.”
Translation: “Sure, sure, she drew a crowd. She’s Caribou Barbie. The rubes like her, but that doesn’t mean she’s competent.”

Is she “unqualified” or “unprepared”? What is her actual record? The media demanded and got unprecedented access to the emails she wrote as governor. No other national or state politician has been more open and transparent. We can know this woman if we just take the time to investigate.

I did, and I discovered a record of relentless reform and fiscal leadership that goes beyond “drill, baby, drill” and is more complex than selling an expensive state jet.

Today everyone likes to call himself a deficit hawk, but it’s easy to be a budget cutter when you’re broke. Palin was a serious deficit hawk at a time when her state was flush with a massive oil revenue surplus. It takes discipline and strong conservative principles to rein in spending at a time like that. Palin cut spending by nearly 10% during her tenure while reforming government, attracting more energy companies to do business in her state and adding jobs.

In the days of credit downgrades in states across the country and for the country as a whole, Alaska has seen its credit upgraded twice since 2006 due to Palin’s reform of the state employee pensions and Alaska’s oil valuation tax.

More