Steve Benen
"Sarah comes in with all this ideological stuff, and I was like, 'Whoa,' " said Mr. Stein, who lost the election. "But that got her elected: abortion, gun rights, term limits and the religious born-again thing. I'm not a churchgoing guy, and that was another issue: 'We will have our first Christian mayor.' ""I thought: 'Holy cow, what's happening here? Does that mean she thinks I'm Jewish or Islamic?' " recalled Mr. Stein, who was raised Lutheran, and later went to work as the administrator for the city of Sitka in southeast Alaska. "The point was that she was a born-again Christian."
The result was a mayor who didn't exactly "bring people together." The New York Times added that Palin's first few months were "so jarring -- and so alienating -- that an effort was made to force a recall." The idea was eventually dropped.
What was it that locals found jarring? Palin reportedly asked the library, for example, about the process for banning books. One local resident said Palin found some texts "morally or socially objectionable." The librarian, who resisted mayoral censorship, was fired shortly after Palin took office, though Palin reversed course after a local outcry, and later said the discussions about banning books were "rhetorical." (No, I don't know what that means, either.)
Post Script: I should add, by the way, that Palin's mayoral tenure wasn't limited to fights over banning books at a public library. She also racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt for the small town, which amounts to about $3,000 per resident. And now she's ready to bring that leadership to the nation. How encouraging.
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