By GottaLaff

These excerpts are from a long, but enlightening piece about Sarah Louise Palin's rise from small town mayor to vice presidential candidate. I left out a lot of the details, but you should get the gist of it: When Palin ran for mayor in the fall of 1996, she was 32 years old and a four-year veteran of the City Council. Her opponent, John Stein, had been mayor for nine years. [...]

In Alaska, municipal elections are officially nonpartisan. State law tries to distance local government from the machinations of political parties.

A Palin campaign ad displayed the slogan, “Positively Sarah.” “Endorsed by the NRA,” it said. The ad encouraged people to vote for “Conservative, More Efficient Government,” and called Palin “ENERGETIC ... DETERMINED ... POSITIVE.”

The ad pictured Palin with four state lawmakers — all Republicans, pledging their support. More than 100 other supporters were also listed, including the owners of the Mug Shot Saloon and the Wasilla Bar, two taverns that stayed open until 4 or 5 a.m.

To Stein, the three-term mayor, this campaign had unusual overtones, raising issues that had no bearing on local government. He would marvel at how abortion became an issue — he was labeled pro-abortion — and how some people noted that his wife’s last name differed from his. He later noted how Palin’s backers included what he called the “Liquor Cabinet” and Wasilla’s religious conservatives.

In October 1996, about a third of Wasilla’s registered voters went to the polls. Palin collected 616 votes — 58 percent of the total. “It’s a new direction,” she told the Frontiersman, the local newspaper.

Afterward, a TV station called her Wasilla’s “first Christian mayor.” This prompted a letter from Stein, saying: “Really?” He listed eight previous mayors, all Christian, and added: “With a name like ‘ Stein’ some suspected that I must be a non-Christian, have non-Christian blood or at least have sympathized with a non-Christian sometime in my career. I’m proud of such a reputation but I, my family and forbearers are of the Christian persuasion, too.” [...]

For Palin, the firing of Stambaugh was only part of the drama that unfolded in her first months as mayor. The Frontiersman and Anchorage Daily News wrote one story after another about the turmoil. [...]

After notifying the librarian that she was fired, Palin backtracked and decided to keep her on. Palin had twice asked this librarian what she thought about banning books, to which the librarian responded it was a lousy idea, one she wouldn’t go along with. Later, Palin told the local paper that any questions she’d raised about censorship were only “rhetorical.”

Sorryyyyy... just kidding! You don't really have to ban books. Ya big silly.

Palin put in place what the local paper called a gag order, prohibiting top city employees from talking to reporters unless she cleared it first.

Sarah Cheney? Oh. Sorry. I must have heard wrong. The following is part of a longer story, so please follow the link, but, again, you'll get the point:

After Stambaugh and the museum director were fired, two of the four remaining department heads quit. One, the public-works director, accused Palin of undermining him by meeting secretly with contractors and employees.

When three women who worked at the city’s museum were asked to decide among themselves which one should be let go, all three quit.

Palin tried to fill two vacancies on the City Council herself, even though an ordinance said that wasn’t her prerogative. It was the council’s. After the city attorney stopped Palin, the mayor said she’d merely engaged in a ploy. “It was brilliant maneuvering I had to do to deal with the impasse,” she told the Frontiersman.

Sorryyyyy... just kidding again! It was just a ploy. Ya big silly.

The Frontiersman ran blistering editorials, condemning Palin’s philosophy “that either we are with her or against her.” The newspaper accused Palin of mistaking the 616 votes she received as a “coronation.”

Sarah Bush? Oh. Sorry. I must have heard wrong again.

“Wasilla residents have been subjected to attempts to unlawfully appoint council members, statements that have been shown to be patently untrue, unrepentant backpedaling, and incessant whining that her only enemies are the press and a few disgruntled supporters of Mayor Stein. ... Palin promised to change the status quo, but at every turn we find hints of cronyism and political maneuvering. We see a woman who has long since surrendered her ideals to a political machine.”Sarah McCain? Oh. Sorry. I must have heard wrong... yet again.

The newspaper’s readers chimed in. “Mayor Sarah Palin behaves like a petulant, spoiled teenager,” wrote a woman who ran a flower shop. A tool-and-die maker defended Palin, writing, “We didn’t want ‘ business as usual.’ ”

Some residents talked recall.

I can't imagine why.