Anchorage Daily News

Today's Newsreader looks at Sarah Palin's weekend attacks on Obama, that camp's reaction, her personal catapult to "Saturday Night Live's" successful political humor and another look at her accent, plus an examination of her energy experience.

We'll take a quick detour to the Stevens trial and then finish off with Alaska-only stories, including Alaska blogger Mudflats' assessment of the weekend presidential rallies in Anchorage.

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Palin focuses attack on Obama: "...the heels are on, the gloves are off." Coming off her comeback debate Thursday night, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin lowered her gun barrel on Barack and kept it up all weekend. Here's coverage of her speeches and the Obama camp reaction.

> Palin joins attack on Obama character (Seattle Times)

On Saturday, the Republican vice presidential nominee unleashed her inner pit bull, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of being someone who would "pal around with terrorists."

View a video of her weekend speech here.

> Palin rallies Bay Area with Obama attacks (San Jose Mercury News)

Attending a fundraiser at the Burlingame Hyatt Regency, the Alaska governor stuck by her claim that Obama is someone who "would pal around with, and work with, a former domestic terrorist." She was referring to Bill Ayers, founder of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, blamed for bombings and the death of a San Francisco policeman when Obama was still a child. She initially made the charge Saturday at a fundraiser and public Southern California rally.

> Monday in Florida, it was more of the same (AFP)

"And according to The New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the US Capitol.' Wow," Palin said.

She said Obama was "someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country."

> Palin adds Rev. Wright after criticism of Ayers attack (Associated Press)

Criticism of Rev. Wright had been off limits for the McCain campaign after Sen. John McCain himself had asked the Republican Party to end an ad linking the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's rhetoric to Obama. "I'm making it very clear, as I have a couple of times in the past, that there's no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don't want it."

Palin toned down her description of the Obama-Ayers relationship after her weekend remarks were criticized as exaggerated, but at the same time she embarked on a discussion of Obama's relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., which Republican presidential candidate John McCain had signaled he did not want to be a part of his campaign.

In an interview with conservative New York Times columnist William Kristol published Monday, the Alaska governor said there should be more discussion about Wright, Obama's pastor of 20 years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The Democratic candidate denounced Wright and severed ties with the church last spring after videotapes surfaced showing Wright making anti-American and anti-Semitic comments from the pulpit.

> Palin's opinion on Rev. Wright surfaces in Kristol column (Bill Kristol, The New York Times)

I pointed out that Obama surely had a closer connection to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than to Ayers - and so, I asked, if Ayers is a legitimate issue, what about Reverend Wright?

She didn't hesitate: "To tell you the truth, Bill, I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that - with, I don't know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn't get up and leave - to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up."

> Here comes the mud (USA Today)

The Obama camp reacts:

> Obama calls attacks on him ‘out of touch' (The New York Times)

In his remarks Sunday and in his television advertising campaign, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, has sought to pre-empt what he referred to as "Swift boat"-style attacks on his character, like Ms. Palin's in Colorado and California over the weekend. He also referred to Mr. McCain as "erratic" in an advertisement released Sunday.

"They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up," he told several thousand supporters at a rally here Sunday. "That's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time."

> McCain, Obama camps trade barbs on negative ads (Associated Press)

Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs, countered that the new McCain offensive -- including GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's allegation that Obama ''pals around with terrorists'' -- is happening because Republicans want to talk about something other than the struggling economy.

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Is Tina Fey running for vice president? You can be excused if you think it's starting to look that way. For three Saturday nights in a row, the Saturday Night Live crew has opened its show with political humor. There is a persistent rumor, but as yet no verification, that Palin may appear on the show. Here's a look at stories that notice the SNL skyrocketing popularity over its political humor. Palin even addresses them directly in a weekend comment. And SNL has added three prime-time shows beginning this Thursday.

> SNL sends up VP debate with Fey, Queen Latifa (Associated Press)

The SNL take on the week's political events has become a dependable part of the news cycle this fall, offering near-immediate parodies of the presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, and their running mates. The show - particularly the opening sketches - have resonated with higher ratings for the NBC program and increased traffic on its Web site where early-to-bed viewers catch the talked-about sketches in the days after.

Watch the SNL segment here.

> Is Palin plotting her revenge on Tina Fey? (The PopEater)

Will Palin go on the show? Pure speculation here.

> SNL success prompts three prime-time shows, first one Thursday (Chicago Sun Times)

"Saturday Night Live" takes its topical comedy to primetime starting this Thursday at 9:30 PM ET for three weeks of live half-hours. "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" will air Oct. 9, 16 and 23 (in addition to two more Saturday episodes Oct. 18 and 25).

> Palin speaks to SNL in Monday comment (Chicago Sun-Times)

At a Monday rally in the key battleground state of Florida, Palin made her first comment about how Tina Fey portrayed her for the third time on "Saturday Night Live" in a spoof about the vice presidential debate.

"I was just trying to keep Tina Fey in business."

Palin said she was providing "job security for SNL characters."

> Palin in danger of becoming permanent punch line (The New York Times)

"There are certain people who once they become joke topics, they are forever joke topics," said Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University. According to Mr. Lichter, since Mr. McCain picked Ms. Palin to be his running mate on Aug. 29 until the debate, Mr. Leno and Mr. Letterman made her the butt of 180 jokes - or more than the other three principals on the two tickets combined in that period (16 jokes for Mr. Biden; 26 for Mr. Obama; and 106 for Mr. McCain). About a third of the Palin jokes came in the three days preceding the debate as damage grew from the Couric interview.

Noting that Ms. Palin was "getting ready" for the debate in Arizona, Jay Leno said, "I understand she knows all three branches of government now." Being in Arizona "really helped her on foreign policy," David Letterman said the same night, "because from Arizona she can see Mexico."

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Palin's tax filings come under scrutiny. The Friday filing of Sarah Palin's tax returns and her personal financial disclosure have drawn the eyes of tax professors around the country.

> With Palin's returns, tax profs move back to the spotlight (Wall Street Journal)

Tax lawyers are feasting on Sarah Palin's tax returns. On Friday, the Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee released her returns and personal financial disclosure report. According to the WSJ, they showed her to be the lowest earner of the four national candidates. According to tax law profs Jack Bogdanski of Lewis & Clark and Bryan Camp of Texas Tech, they also show that she owes tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes, penalties and interest.

> Financial papers show Palins' assets top $1 million (The New York Times)

One of the most disputed aspects of Ms. Palin's tax returns, which were prepared by H&R Block, is the tax treatment of the per diem payments. The McCain campaign has said that these payments are not taxable income, a position that has been questioned by tax experts.

"What jumps out to me in these tax returns," said Robert S. McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed group, "is that the $17,000 in per diems is not there and it should have been."

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Palin's language still gets comments and explanations. Whether it's Maureen Dowd skewering her syntax or a Midwest professor trying to explain the accent, Palin's words draw lots of attention.

> Sarah's pompom palaver (Maureen Dowd, The New York Times)

She dangles gerunds, mangles prepositions, randomly exiles nouns and verbs and also - "also" is her favorite vamping word - uses verbs better left as nouns, as in, "If Americans so bless us and privilege us with the opportunity of serving them," or how she tried to "progress the agenda."

> Maybe they should flip the ticket (Frank Rich, The New York Times)

As McCain continues to fade into incoherence and irrelevance, the last hope is that he'll come up with some new game-changing stunt to match his initial pick of Palin or his ill-fated campaign "suspension." Until Thursday night, more than a few Republicans were fantasizing that his final Hail Mary pass would be to ditch Palin so she can "spend more time" with her ever-growing family. But the debate reminded Republicans once again that it's Palin, not McCain, who is their last hope for victory.

You have to wonder how long it will be before they plead with him to think of his health, get out of the way and pull the ultimate stunt of flipping the ticket. Palin, we can be certain, wouldn't even blink.

> Alaska blogger takes exception to Rich's column (Amanda Coyne, Alaska Dispatch)

If Palin's greatest sin is that she doesn't understand how unqualified she is, certainly Rich's greatest sin is not understanding how elitist, and dare I say sexist, he sounds.

> MinnesOHtan? Palin just sounds like one (Star Tribune)

The GOP vice presidential candidate's hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, is in the middle of the valley where more than 200 broke families from the Midwest -- many of them from Minnesota -- relocated during the Great Depression. Which means Palin grew up listening to the children and grandchildren of those Minnesotans and being fed a steady diet of "yahs" and "ya knows" and even "you betchas."

"When people settle a new area, there's not a set accent,'' said Joe Salmons, director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "And it takes several generations for a new accent to form. What that means is, she was raised in an environment where there were a lot of people who were new to Alaska, and those Upper Midwestern influences were going to be very strong."

> Palin biography: Who wrote it and why (Alaska blog 48 Writers, One Moose)

Andromeda: The Anchorage Daily News "Ear" reported that you were the original Palin biographer for Epicenter, the company that later brought out "Sarah" by Kaylene Johnson. I've also read one blog that referred to you as "fired." If you stepped down, why? What about the project made you uncomfortable, and do you have any regrets now?

Amanda Coyne: Fired? I might be the only person ever who can claim to have dumped Sarah. That's a joke, kind of. I turned the contract down after some interviews and after being convinced that she was just not as substantial as I thought she was.

> New book on Palin and oil (AlaskaDispatch)

Editors of Petroleum News, an Alaska oil and gas weekly, have hammered out a new book on Sarah Palin, believed to be only the second book written about the governor's political career. Here's the press release:

"Sarah takes on Big Oil" is a book about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her battle with the state's three largest oil producers -- ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips.

A 216-page hardcover, "Sarah takes on Big Oil" is being released October 12, 2008 by PNA Publishing, an affiliate of Petroleum News, an independent news-driven weekly newspaper based in Anchorage, Alaska.

> Palin overstates her energy experience (Washington Independent)

In more than a dozen interviews over the course of a month with Alaska insiders and close observers of state politics, most say Palin does not have a deep understanding of energy policy as she has claimed on the presidential campaign trail. In fact, she's regularly described, even by those who support her policies, as having little expertise in the area....

"I guess I don't see her, personally, as an expert on the [oil] industry." said Oliver Scott Goldsmith, economics professor and director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. "I see her as the person who's taken a hard stance with the [oil] industry - when it's been politically attractive to do that."

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Stevens trial hears Bill Allen and Ted Stevens on tape. Watch the homepage of the Anchorage Daily News for developments. There's a new Alaska blog about the Stevens' trial, being written daily from the courtroom by Cliff Groh. The blog is called Alaska Political Corruption. It's so new you can be the first one to sign up as a follower.

Speaking of new Alaska blogs, political cartoonist Peter Dunlap Shohl has launched a showcase for his cartoons and animations. It's called The Frozen Grin.

***

Stories of interest to Alaskans:

> Stocks tumble, and so does oil price (Bloomberg News)

Stocks tumbled around the world, the euro fell the most against the yen since its debut and oil dropped below $90 a barrel as the yearlong credit market seizure caused bank bailouts to spread through Europe. Government bonds rallied.

``It's like a fire,'' said Emmanuel Soupre, a fund manager at Neuflize OBC Asset Management in Paris, which oversees the equivalent of $33 billion. ``It's easier to extinguish five minutes after the start. Now we're about an hour into it. We have to act quickly to assure the continuity of the financial system to avoid an irreversible contamination of the entire economy.''

> Enstar asking for a 20 percent rate hike (KTUU)

Enstar Natural Gas negotiated a new contract with ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil that could cause bills to jump 20 percent and is waiting for approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska before it increases prices.

But state Sen. Bill Wielechowski isn't buying it, and hopes the RCA agrees."They need to take a real hard look as to whether or not they will approve this contract," the Anchorage Democrat said. "If they do approve this contract, then in Southcentral we'll be paying the highest gas prices in the United States for a gas-producing region."

> Valley potatoes become Alaska's new vodka: Permafrost (Alaska Journal of Commerce)

WC Fields once said "There are only two real ways to get ahead today -- sell liquor or drink it." Alaska entrepreneur Toby Foster hopes Fields wasn't far from the mark with his theory and that vodka connoisseurs from all over will appreciate a new potato vodka blend he has created called "Permafrost - Alaskan Vodka."

Foster spent the last 5 years bringing his vision of Alaskan vodka to a reality last month when his company, Glacier Creek Distillery became Alaska's first and only licensed distillery in the state. And along with business partnes Winston Chelf and Shawn Ansley, have created a very uniquely Alaskan product.

> Palin chief, Mike Nizich, profiled (Alaska Journal of Commerce)

Mike Nizich has achieved something rare in state government: surviving as an exempt political appointee through three decades of sharply different politics and Alaska governors.

Nizich, 56, joined the executive branch in 1976 under moderate Republican Gov. Jay Hammond. Today he earns $143,400 as chief of staff to conservative Republican Gov. Sarah Palin.

> "And the Moose Nugget award goes to...." (Mudflats blog)

Mudflats visits both presidential campaign rallies in Anchorage this weekend.

> Akiachak: the Bush grows too expensive (The New York Times)

The keen national interest in Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president, is not shared in this outpost of the state. At the mention of her name, the elders say nothing but look at one another with half-smiles.

Instead, they cite another Alaska Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who recently held a hearing in the small city of Bethel - a 15-minute flight from here - to discuss how some people can no longer afford to live in the villages of their ancestors and are leaving for Anchorage. The elders say she is on to something.

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