Alaska Welcomes Palin Back Home

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Many Alaskans view Palin as a reformer. That reputation helped land her a spot on John McCain's presidential ticket, and it was no accident. From Fairbanks, NPR's Martin Kaste takes a closer look at how Palin cultivated her image.

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MARTIN KASTE: Governor Palin was welcomed to Fairbanks with the theme from "Top Gun," as her campaign jet taxied to a stop in front of a hanger jammed with cheering supporters.

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KASTE: Never before have Alaskans seen one of their own dominate the national political scene like this.

SARAH PALIN: I just want to thank you so much for this warm welcome. It's going to be awesome to get to spend a couple of days here.

KASTE: Palin delivered a short version of her standard stump speech, reminding her audience of her efforts to clean up the state of Alaska.

PALIN: The ethical standard that has led to closed doors and closed-door dealings of self interests, it's gone.

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PALIN: Even the state's luxury jet is sold.

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PALIN: But I say that, hopefully not sounding hypocritical, as you watch me walk off that.

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KASTE: Unidentified Group: Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin.

KASTE: Palin's drive has certainly been meteoric, but how'd she do it? There's been a lot of attention paid to her time as mayor and her 21 months as governor. But it might be more instructive to look at the years between those two offices, a period starting in 2002 after a failed bid for lieutenant governor. Using her Republican connections, she got a job, a plum of a job: chairwoman of the state's oil and gas watchdog commission. But she didn't keep it.

ERIC CROFT: She quit probably one of the higher paying jobs she's ever had because she saw stuff she didn't like.

KASTE: Eric Croft was a Democratic legislator at the time. He recalls how Palin quit over the ethics violations of another commissioner, a man who also happened to be the chair of the state Republican Party. Croft was impressed, and he asked her to join him in another ethics fight - this time, a conflict of interest complaint against the state's Republican attorney general. He says Palin jumped at the chance.

CROFT: It's kind of funny now. I was a little bit protective of her. I'm a lawyer. I wanted her to understand the legal consequences. It seems a little odd now, because clearly, she can take care of herself.

KASTE: At this point, Palin was just a private citizen. Still, filing the ethic complaint seemed like a crazy move for someone still hoping for a future in Republican politics.

WEB SHAYE: You know, she just had all the Republicans in the state mad at her.

KASTE: Web Shaye is a former U.S. Attorney and also a reform-minded Republican. He says Palin's ethics stance was just what his party needed.

SHAYE: She knows what's right and she knows what's wrong, and she's willing to take a stand.

KASTE: But there are some in Alaska who say Palin sometimes takes her morality too far. Howard Bess is a retired Baptist pastor who's known Palin for years.

HOWARD BESS: She will shake hands with the devil, but won't do business with him.

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KASTE: By the devil, Bess means himself. He says Palin will shake his hand but treats him as a political enemy because of his liberal views on gay rights and abortion. He says this uncompromising morality is a trait common to fundamentalist Christians.

BESS: They see life as a struggle between good and evil, and evil must be defeated at all costs.

KASTE: He says it's a trait that serves he well when it comes to filing ethics complaints.

BESS: But the idea of her being the person that is involved with the world in foreign relations, you draw lines like this and you blow up the world.

KASTE: Others in Alaska say Palin's morality is not so single-minded, nor is it lacking in strategy, according to Eric Croft.

CROFT: She actually used that pit bull with lipstick joke line in an opinion piece back then.

KASTE: Even in 2004, Croft says, Palin was already styling herself as the ethics crusader.

CROFT: You need to understand her as a combination of ethics and ambition. You know, I saw it was I using this woman for political purposes. But I think it was at least as much the other way around. You know, she understood how this would advance where she wanted to go.

KASTE: Martin Kaste, NPR News, Fairbanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.