An Analysis of Sarah Palin from a Long Time Observer

By now you may have seen the e-mail circulating on the Internet regarding the qualifications of Sarah Palin from a longtime resident of Wasilla, Alaska. Anne Kilkenny's correspondence provides a detailed review of Governor Palin's performance in the various positions she has held leading up to her run for Vice-President.

Many have questioned the authenticity of the letter. It certainly reads like something that might have been fabricated by an Obama supporter. I came to believe that it was genuine when I listened to an NPR interview of the author. By "genuine", I mean that the author is who she says she is. I have not verified the accuracy of her observations. However, most of the observations are fairly subjective and capable of independent verification.

This evening I was catching up on David Emery's Urban Legend Guide, a good source for investigating the accuracy of matters popping up on the Internet or in e-mails (stay away from Nigerian government officials who offer you millions from that country's oil revenues in exchange for a little off shore banking assistance). The Guide raised the issue of Kilkenny's correspondence and verified that it was a legitimate document, not an Internet hoax. The Guide posts the Kilkenny letter in its entirety and, at the end, offers a bibliography with which to independently investigate the claims made therein.

It's worth reading if you haven't already done so. Kilkenny's letter addresses Governor Palin's modus operandi as a mayor and as a governor. If true, you'll cringe every time you hear the governor or her benefactor, Senator McCain, brag about her administrative experience.

To read the Kilkenny letter, click here. When you're done, have some fun and explore the Urban Legend Guide to see David Emery debunk some commonly held perceptions about our world today that have assumed a mantle of respectability merely because they have been repeated often enough. I suppose that under that definition, the Bush Administration is the master at creating Urban Legends, starting with the whopper that W was elected president in 2000.