As governor of Alaska she has undoubtedly had to deal with many free trade, licensing, tariff and general international trade issues. The U.S. is not the only nation that is active in Alaska’s oil industry.

To put Sarah Palin into the ‘housewife’ mold is a serious underestimation of her abilities. She’s smart, articulate, down-to-earth and has clearly shown herself to be a warm human being. But that’s not all she is.

The lefty blogosphere is already attacking her, mostly with either the kind of thing you just mentioned (CA) and with the usual baseless corruption allegations that the left throws at people that they can’t destroy any other way. The one that’s thrown around the most is that she fired a police commissioner (state police maybe?) because he wouldn’t fire her estranged ex-brother-in-law. In a televised interview she welcomed the investigation because she has nothing to hide. It’s typical leftist tactics (Delay, Libby, GWB). There’s nothing there but they’ll make as much out of it that they can for publicity purposes and on the off-chance they’ll find a liberal judge or jury who will convict.

I’m not surprised that the attacks are both leftist and sexist. Democrats don’t want any women (or any other minority member) to excel and break the ‘glass ceiling’ unless they’re liberal. As an example there was barely a peep about Condi Rice being the first woman NSA or Sec. of State but when San Fran Nan became speaker (the worst one in history with a congressional approval rating in the single digits) it was heralded as a triumph for women. As always, hypocrisy abounds in leftists’ rhetoric.