Sarah, Alaska, and growing up free

Many are writing about the MSM's irrational obsession with tearing down Sarah Palin. Irrational ... obsession. Are they afraid of a self-confident, strong woman who gets things done?

Donald Douglas at American Power blogs about Gov. Palin's background as described in her new book, Going Rogue: An American Life":

With Palin we have our modern-day political scribe of the frontier existence, the rugged pioneer of traditionalism who rejoices in the Alaskan harvest of the great remaining bounty of the nation's of magnificent destiny.

This is what is so blindingly difficult for radical leftists to accept. For in Sarah Palin, we have the personification of the culture of expansion and power at the core of America's mission. We see it in Going Rogue's regaling of family hunting trips, and Sarah Palin's ethos of sustenence in faith in God. This strength is further congealed in the primacy of family at the center of all life's meaning. Palin's book is just simply an essential testament to the realism of contemporary conservatism, and to the enduring appeal of the classic American ideal.

He then talks about his own youth growing up in California:

I'll have more on this, but I rest in my own supreme satisfaction that Palin's story is my story as well. It reminds me of my own experiences surfing the beach of South Orange County, four-wheeling and shooting in the Southern California outback, and spending summers hiking the raw Sierra Nevadas with my frontiersman uncle, Doug Walton, a man who at 76 years old remains a rugged entrepreneurial explorer and tour guide, and one of my all-time great role-models.

I, too, enjoyed growing up in the outdoors ... camping in Shenandoah National Park, swimming at Virginia Beach and North Carolina's Outer Banks, hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains, exploring the Northern Neck at my aunt's place on the rivah, and learning to shoot a rifle on the sprawling peanut farm of friends in eastern Virginia.

Shooting a gun? Camping with bears? Hiking the wilderness? Those are so foreign to many folks ... but for me it was a freedom-loving childhood just as Donald describes growing up in California, and Sarah Palin describes growing up as part of the Alaskan experience.

The people of Alaska are uninhibited and free and think outside the box. They are not caught up in the same traps and cares of the Lower 48 ... they have a more honest and blunt way of looking at life and disregarding the manure. My sister lived in Alaska as a journalist and I had the pleasure of spending time in that beautiful, wild part of the United States. It is what made Sarah Palin who she is and that, folks, is why so many respect and admire her.