Delay in releasing emails fed suspicion about Palin

When Sarah Palin burst onto the national political scene in 2008 as Republican John McCain’s vice presidential running mate, few people outside Alaska knew much about her. Indeed, there are now credible reports that the vetting of the candidate conducted by the McCain campaign was cursory at best. In other words, the then-governor of Alaska was a political unknown, which is why reporters sought to find out everything they could about the woman who was an election away from perhaps being the vice president of the United States.

In September 2008, after her selection to be McCain’s running mate, citizens and news organizations requested copies of emails relating to her first two years as Alaska’s governor. But officials in Juneau weren’t forthcoming, contending that the sheer volume made immediate compliance impossible.

The result was that every little tidbit of information about the former mayor of Wasilla became a major story. That set up a classic us-against-them scenario with the press.

It now turns out that the secrecy surrounding the emails between Palin and members of her staff was a miscue of major proportions.

The release last Friday of 24,000 pages of the electronic communications revealed no bombshells and no “gotcha” moments, as the Associated Press put it in a report from Juneau.

Indeed, they paint a picture of woman less extreme on major issues than she portrayed on the campaign trail, and an individual dedicated to her job as governor and to her family.

“They show a woman striving to balance work and home, fiercely protective of her family and highly sensitive to media coverage,” the Associated Press reported. “She expressed a sometimes mothering side with aides but was quick to demand answers or accountability.”

There’s a lesson that government officials at all levels can learn from this: Secrecy feeds suspicion and contempt — especially when it involves the conduct of your official duties.

We have noted many times in this space that transparency is the hallmark of democratic government.

As the Palin emails show, withholding information pertaining to the people’s business turns innocuous discussions into conspiracy theories.

Perhaps the then-governor of Alaska, who had angled for a vice presidential nomination long before McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, had picked her, was concerned that her moderate views might disqualify her in the eyes of the Republican conservative wing.

This is how the wire service summed up some of the emails:

“They seem to depict a more moderate Palin who worked to find a state response to global warming — she has since dismissed studies supporting climate change — and gave props to then-Sen. Barack Obama for his support of a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.”

The rest

Given the jaundiced eye with which many in the press view Palin, it may be to her advantage — she is contemplating running for the GOP nomination for president in 2012 — to release the 2,275 pages of emails that were withheld by Alaskan officials. The reasons given: attorney-client privilege; work product, and executive privilege. An additional 140 pages were deemed to be “non-records,” or unrelated to state business.

While her supporters are quick to criticize the press for conducting what they see as a witch-hunt, Sarah Palin’s record as a public official is the public’s business — if she wants to seek the highest office in the land.