Anchorage Daily News: Questions Palin Needs to Answer

Who knows a candidate better than their hometown newspaper where they have lived and worked and in the case of Sarah Palin been mayor of a small neighboring town. With John McSenile's VP designee, Sarah Palin, her hometown newspaper is the Anchorage Daily News (Wasilla with only 7,025 residents doesn't have its own daily newspaper). Rather than being flattering of Ms. Palin, the Anchorage Daily News is hitting Pali with some hard questions and it is increasingly becoming clear that McSenile was either having a senior moment when selecting Palin or he was following the directives of Christianists in the GOP like James "Daddy" Dobson. Here are highlights from the Anchorage Daily News that it believes Ms. Palin should be required to answer:

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There's no polite way to say it: Sarah Palin has been hiding out from hard questions. It took 10 days from when John McCain announced his pick until the McCain campaign agreed to schedule Palin an unscripted interview with a serious journalist.

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Palin has accused Barack Obama of being a me-first celebrity candidate for president. At least he has been facing media questions for the past 18 months. Here are some of the questions Palin should be answering, for Alaskans and the rest of the country:

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• You present yourself as a Republican maverick who took on your own party's corrupt political establishment. In November's election, your party is running an indicted U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, who is awaiting trial on charges he accepted more than $250,000 of unreported gifts from the state's most powerful lobbyist. Will you vote for his opponent? Will you urge Alaskans to help you change Washington and vote him out of office? If not, why not?

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• Sen. Ted Stevens' trial is still pending; he has declined to say whether he would accept a pardon from President Bush before Bush leaves office in January. Do Alaska voters deserve an answer to that question before they cast their vote for or against Stevens in November? What is your position on a president pardoning a public official before a jury has ruled on guilt or innocence?

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• Alaska Congressman Don Young appears to have won his Republican primary, even though you endorsed his opponent. Will you vote for your fellow Republican Don Young, who has spent over $1 million on legal fees without telling his constituents what sort of legal trouble he is in?

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• Why have you reneged on your earlier pledge to cooperate with the Alaska Legislature's investigation into Troopergate?

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• In spring of 2004, the Daily News reported that you cited family considerations in deciding not to try for the U.S. Senate: "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?" What was different this time as you decided to run for vice president?

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• As governor of Alaska, you have not pushed for laws or regulations that put your personal views on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism into public policy. As vice president, will you push to outlaw abortion, restrict same-sex marriage and require the teaching of creationism?

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• If you were a fully qualified vice-presidential candidate from the get-go, why did you wait more than 10 days to face reporters?

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• McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough "deference." How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?

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• You have said victory is in sight in Iraq. In July 2007, when you visited Kuwait, you said, "I'm not going to judge the surge." In the March 2007 issue of Alaska Business Monthly, you were asked about the surge and quoted saying: "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. . . . While I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place." Define "victory" in Iraq? What is the exit plan?

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BOTTOM LINE: The nation deserves to hear Palin's unfiltered answers to serious questions.