On the heels of this report that Sarah Palin gave more to charity then Joe Biden comes this AP report in which they try to describe Sarah as elitist.
In a state where she has a 80% popularity the reporters dug long and hard to find those that despise her:
Palin and her husband, Todd, a champion snowmobiler racer, have all the trappings of that life: a coveted permit to fish salmon-rich Bristol Bay, a vast gun collection, a vintage float-plane and a fleet of gas-powered vehicles to roar through the wilderness.
~~~“Sarah’s got all the toys to be marketed as the Alaska wilderness woman, but the reality is that she’s been in that uppercrust for a while,” said John Gourley, who with his wife, Jennifer, raised three children in a generator-powered cabin near Wasilla. “Plus, she’s a trophy hunter, and I tend to respect people who shoot a moose because they need the meat.”
~~~“First Dude” Todd Palin is also a local celebrity, having won four medals in the Iron Dog, a grueling 55-hour snowmobile race that follows the 2,000-mile Iditarod Trail from Wasilla to Fairbanks.
“They’re competitive people, and you can judge their level of sport by how hard they go at it all,” said his longtime racing partner, Scott Davis. “You’re trying to raise a family and run a company and race and be in politics? That takes a lot of dedication.”
The family’s seasonal working arrangement — common to many rural Alaskans — has earned them a relatively affluent life in the sprawling Matanuska-Sisutna region 40 miles north of Anchorage, where many roads are still dirt and some houses lack indoor plumbing.
“A huge part of Sarah Palin’s appeal is that people see her as an ordinary person,” said Dianne Woodruff, the lone nonpartisan member of Wasilla’s Republican-dominated city council. “Truthfully, though, she’s been a very fortunate ordinary person.”
Considering estimates of the value of their property and investments, the Palins appear to be worth at least $1.2 million.
As governor, Palin draws a $125,000 annual salary. Todd Palin’s self-employment in 2007 brought him $66,893 in gross receipts from fishing and snowmachine racing, though tax returns released Friday show an overall net income of only $5,874 after deductions. He also earned $43,519 working part-time on the North Slope for BP Exploration.
In the past two decades, the Palins have owned 43 vehicles, including at least 17 snowmobiles. In 2000, the most recent year for which information is available, there were 33,576 registered snowmobiles for a total of 221,600 Alaskan households, which means the average household did not have even one snowmobile, according to the Division of Motor Vehicles and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Their large lakeside home — worth $526,800, according to the most recent assessment — sits on more than two acres and looks onto the jutting Chugiak Mountains and groves of white birch.
Of course the reporters overlook how big of a house Joe Biden has and even how he got the house.
Lets just say he benefited by being a Senator.
They also overlook how Obama got his house…..from a crook.
None of these shenanigans are apparent in the way Sarah and Todd brought their home and their toys. In fact it appears they brought the items the way most of us do. By working hard and EARNING it.
Instead of befriending crooks.
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