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The question is whether her political skills will be enough to withstand the scrutiny she, her family and her past are being subjected to. On a Tuesday night at Tailgaters in Wasilla, everyone is drinking and engaged in a heated debate: Did the governor eat some of Mike Wooten's cow moose? You've probably heard about Wooten--Palin stands accused of sacking the state's top cop because he wouldn't fire Wooten, a state trooper who is in a messy custody battle with Palin's younger sister. Palin's staff and husband assembled a dossier of misbehavior by Wooten, which they tried to feed to his bosses. Among the charges: he shot a moose without a permit a few years back.
Some of the people at the bar are not Palin fans. They are explaining to me that Wooten may have shot that moose but that the Palins knew about it and Chuck Heath divvied up the meat for the family, including Palin. It may sound ridiculous, but this tale is a national issue now--and it goes to the heart of whether local resentments will come back to haunt her. The town that McCain's campaign had hoped would be a manly Mayberry backdrop for its candidate has instead turned into a suq of intrigue and innuendo. I hadn't been here two days before I started getting anonymous tipster e-mails. Someone woke me up with a knock on my hotel-room door, then said little more than, Let's get in my truck. He thought someone was removing documents from city hall, so we went. That rumor turned out to be false, but there will be plenty of other rumors to come.
Palin's got a thousand good friends in this town. But she also has a few enemies and a few problems. Her talent and moxie have taken her rapidly from parish mayor to governor, but at some point burning through the history books will be incompatible with her impulse, as described by friends, to remain a private person. Her daughter's pregnancy is beyond her control, but the fact that she did not inform McCain's team about it until a day before he offered her the job has chagrined even her Republican backers. Her story, while a powerful narrative for some women, may have been rushed into circulation by Team McCain before it had been fully scoured for weak spots.
Palin's rise and overnight renown form one of the great political arcs of the new century. Is she ready for the tests and attacks that come with that? She's already proved she can play tough, but the stakes just got a lot higher. She started out in the Elite Six. She is now a member of the Elite Four. And there is no irony in the name.