Paranoid Palin having a rough time back in Alaska.

MSNBC had a pretty big piece about Palin, detailing hoe she is being perceived back in her home state of Alaska. I'm not going to post the whole thing, but there some really great tidbits. Mostly, it seems that Palin has become paranoid about media scrutiny. It also goes into how other legislators are reacting to her new-found socially ultra-conservative mantle.

A couple of weeks before the Alaska legislature began this year's session, a bipartisan group of state senators on a retreat a few hours from here invited Gov. Sarah Palin to join them. Accompanied by a retinue of advisers, she took a seat at one end of a conference table and listened passively as Gary Stevens, the president of the Alaska Senate, a former college history professor and a low-key Republican with a reputation for congeniality, expressed delight at her presence.

Would the governor, a smiling Stevens asked, like to share some of her plans and proposals for the coming legislative session?

Palin looked around the room and paused, according to several senators present. "I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot," she said finally, as the room became silent.

Gone was the self-assurance that Alaska had come to know in its young Republican governor, well before her life and career were transformed by Sen. John McCain's selection of her as his vice presidential running mate. "She looked ill at ease, more defensive than we've been accustomed to seeing her," said one legislator who was there and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he might need to work with Palin.

Personally, I see this as a good thing. Palin came across as an obnoxious twit. Her attitude and bravado smacked of high-school elitism, and it didn't help that she obviously didn't really understand the issues that she talked about. It's one thing to be self-confident and to have the knowledge to back that confidence up. It is another to be arrogant and cocky, masking one's complete lack of understanding the fundamentals of an issue.

While her once sky-high job approval ratings in her home state have dropped a little, Palin is still liked by more than 60 percent of the Alaskan electorate, the sort of number that most politicians can only dream about. Still, the anonymous sniping that portrayed her during the campaign as a flighty and demanding running mate continues to resonate with some legislators. Among both Republicans and Democrats, the view persists that she and those closest to her have overstepped their authority on occasion.

Most recently, her appointed state attorney general, Talis Colberg, attempted to block subpoenas issued by the legislature to Palin administration officials during an investigation of "Troopergate" -- an inquiry into a string of events that began with Palin's effort to have her sister's ex-husband dismissed from his job as a state trooper. Colberg's moves culminated with his resignation last week.

[...]

Early in her term, her staunchest allies on state ethics reform and pivotal energy issues included several liberal Democrats. Alaska's current House Democratic leader, Beth Kerttula, joined Palin in successfully arguing for the adoption of a controversial oil tax increase that the industry resisted. "She was . . . completely a pragmatist," Kerttula recalls. "She knew she had to work with Democrats."

Now, two abortion-related bills that Palin had made little effort to promote have been reintroduced, and another Republican legislator has pushed for the state's adoption of a death penalty, something last seen in Alaska during its territorial days. Palin has voiced support for all three bills, but there have been no signs yet of any hard push from the governor's office.

Some Alaska Democrats and Republicans wonder whether Palin, given her new stature among social conservatives who are urging her to run for president, will feel compelled to invest more political capital in the two abortion-related measures.

If Palin does try and play to the ultra-conservative "down with evolution" crowd, then I suggest she get used to losing and being made fun. Her views might be able to fly or be viewed sympathetically in her state, but the rest of the nation regards those ideals and horrendously dense and foreboding of an onset of Dark Ages mentality towards the sciences.

Not everyone is sympathetic. "There are few political performers in her league, in her ability to draw crowds and stand in front of 10,000, 20,000 people and excite them," said one prominent GOP strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "But the campaign also demonstrated that there is a lack of gravity to her that has hurt. She needs to mitigate her weaknesses. She needs to prepare more, know more. She should try to disappear for a while and be an indisputably effective governor."

Palin's greatest problems in Alaska, as in the rest of the country, seem to be with her fellow Republicans. "What did I say about her during the campaign when somebody asked me if she was qualified?" asked state Rep. John Harris, taking a moment to ponder his own question, smiling. "Oh, I said something like 'She's old enough and a registered voter.' " Another smile.

[...]

Asked how Palin deals with the perception that months of ridicule have irreversibly turned her into what one Alaskan GOP legislator calls "Dan Quayle with a ponytail," Balash confidently responds that she displays political skills that no other Republican on the national scene has shown an ability to match. "She walks into a room, and things change," he said. "She just has that 'it' -- whatever that 'it' is."
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