An Apostle of Alaska

She appointed Cora Crome as her fisheries-policy adviser—a very powerful post in a state where fishing is a major industry. Crome formerly worked for the United Fishermen of Alaska, an industry lobbying group, and was married to a commercial fisherman who made more than $600,000 in 2006. (They are divorced; a McCain aide, who didn't want to be identified discussing personal matters, says the divorce occurred before she joined the Palin administration.) In a brief conversation, Crome said she was in a meeting and didn't have time to comment; the McCain campaign declined to comment.

Other friends and allies have gotten good jobs. Palin appointed close friend and political fund-raiser Deborah Richter as director of the Permanent Fund Dividend Division—the state agency that hands out yearly oil-dividend checks to Alaskans. As her attorney general, Palin chose Talis Colberg, a friend who specializes in insurance law. Some legal experts warned that Palin would do better to select someone with more experience in the oil and gas field—a big part of the Alaska attorney general's caseload—but "she chose someone she trusted," says Dave Dittman, her pollster.

As a governor, Palin wasn't focused on the issues of the wider world. Her first trip ever out of North America was to the desert of Kuwait. It was the summer of 2007, and the Alaskan governor was visiting the Alaska Army National Guard's Third Battalion, 297th Infantry. In blast-furnace heat of 127 degrees, Palin gamely met with soldiers and participated in target practice with an M4 machine gun. It was like taking a daylong steam bath, she told reporters on a conference call, particularly for Alaskans "used to zero degrees or 10 and 20 below zero." The insurgency next door in Iraq still raged, and politicians in Washington were wrangling over what to do. But Palin had no opinion. "I'm not here to judge the idea of withdrawing, or the timeline," she said. "I'm not going to judge even the surge. I'm here to find out what Alaskans need of me as their governor."

That was as it should have been. A governor of a state of 670,000 people probably should not be making pronouncements about a complicated war 6,000 miles away. Instead, Palin was listening to her constituents, and trying to determine how best to help them. One matter that came up was the hunting season. Soldiers, many of whom hunted to feed their families, were concerned that they were missing their opportunity, and wondered if she could help. Shortly after her return to Alaska, Governor Palin announced new measures. "While I can't grant our troops the chance to hunt in [restricted] areas … I do want to recognize them and help them hunt this late fall or winter when they get home."

That all-politics-is-local approach has made Palin the most popular governor in the country for the nearly two years she's been in the job. (Her support has dropped in recent months, but still stands at an enviable 76 percent.) She took the qualities she had as the mayor of the small town of Wasilla and applied them to state politics. Those attributes include a focus on ordinary people and a willingness to stand up to political fat cats and incumbents (unless she happens to be the incumbent). She doesn't put on airs, or pretend she knows more than she does. She seems authentic, and gives many voters a sense that she's one of them. "Palin grew up embracing the Alaskan ideal," says historian Stephen Haycox. "Self-reliance, individualism, outdoorsmanship and conservative economic and social values."

She has shown that she can keep a secret, even from her loyal inner circle. Close aides had no idea she was pregnant earlier this year, and Palin didn't announce her pregnancy until she was nearly seven months along. Even then, she never commented on why she kept it confidential. Some close to Palin speculate that she chose not to reveal the pregnancy until the last moment because she was wary of being seen as vulnerable or delicate during her second legislative season.

The story of the birth is either heroic or irresponsible, depending on your views. Palin was in Dallas, about to give a speech to an oil and gas convention, when she noticed that her amniotic fluid was leaking. She gave a 30-minute speech, much of it improvised, then headed for the airport with her husband. (She hates official entourages, finding them wasteful, and didn't have anyone else with her.) With the approval of her doctor in Alaska, the couple flew eight hours to Anchorage, then drove 45 minutes to a regional hospital in Wasilla. She gave birth to Trig, a baby with Down syndrome, nearly eight hours later. "I am not a glutton for pain and punishment … After four kids I knew what labor felt like, and I wasn't in labor [when she boarded the plane]," she later explained.

Palin has developed a thick skin about the scrutiny surrounding her parenting. While running for governor in 2006, she told NEWSWEEK LAST year, "They'd say, 'How in the world are you going to be governor when you have four kids?' and I said, 'How in the world did any other governor do it with four kids … or six kids or however many kids they had?' " Palin relies on her large, extended family for child care. Todd works a one-week-on, one-week-off schedule on the North Slope. When he is home, he manages the household. When he's away, the governor's parents and sisters help out. In Juneau, where Palin brings her kids for the three-month legislative session, she walks out of her office to pick up 7-year-old Piper at the schoolbus stop. Aides have grown accustomed to playdates in the governor's office suite or the nearby mansion.

Bringing family into the office suits Palin's populist style. She's no-nonsense, and doesn't twitch in the face of adversity. When she took over the governor's mansion, she quickly got rid of the perks. She put the governor's airplane up for sale on eBay, and when it didn't sell there, she unloaded it to a wealthy Alaskan for $2.1 million. She also released the cook. Those gestures won wide support—reinforcing the idea that she was bringing change to the ole boys' network in Juneau—and have helped keep her popularity ratings high.