Alaskans Notice Palin Sticking to Her Script

September 11, 2008, 9:51 pm
Alaskans Notice Palin Sticking to Her Script
Wall Street Journal Blog

Elizabeth Williamson reports from Fairbanks, Alaska, on the presidential race.

Alaskans hang on every word Gov. Sarah Palin has been saying on the campaign trail — and they’re noticing a lot of those words are the same.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner today had a big above the fold piece on Gov. Palin’s homecoming Wednesday that called her out with the headline: “Palin sticks close to same speech.” The lede of the story noted that the state’s governor “offered many of the same lines Wednesday at her welcome home rally that are fast becoming her standard.”

That’s what stump speeches are all about, but Alaskans clearly expected straight talk from their favorite daughter: the story notes virtually every made-for-Alaska deviation in the speech. Even Gov. Palin seemed to pick up on the “duh” moment she was providing for people in this oil-rich state, as she served up her canned plea for oil drilling. After the briefest pause, she added: “I feel like I’m preaching to the choir.”

The McCain campaign is tightly controlling Gov. Palin’s media availability. Other than the ABC interviews running now, they have shielded her completely, and she has made no casual forays into the press section of the plane on her Alaska trip.

The media are none too happy about this — but it may be her friends in Alaska who miss the unscripted Sarah the most.

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Alaskans Notice Palin Sticking to Her Script