(Politico) If critics were hoping to see Palin revealed as a hypocrite, they’re out of luck. Her private statements are in line with her public ones when it comes to issues like Troopergate, the ethics scandal in which she was accused of abusing her authority to punish her sister’s ex-husband. Her emails on the matter fulminate against what she insists are false accusations, maintaining the same consistent defense — that Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired for performance, not personal, reasons.

Palin comes across as neither an airhead nor a prima donna. She is warm and supportive with her staff, who are loyal to her in turn. She frequently misspells in haste or phonetically (“nonsensicle” for “nonsensical”), but her writing is fluent and grammatical.

Nor is she a figurehead. She is active in guiding policy, a self-assured politician who knows where she stands. When she feels she’s been left out of the loop on responding to a disaster, she’s adamant — “someone from Homeland Security/Emergency Management needs to call me and inform me on things like this … I insist on being informed during any situation where the public would feel any person could be in danger.” […]

But the email archive, which ends in September 2008, shows Palin before she became so polarizing. It reflects a period before she gave up governing to become a freelance sharp-tongued partisan, before she accused her critics of “blood libel.”

The Palin in the emails is the grass-roots pol whose home-state approval rating was in the high 80s, whose email filled with emotional tributes from the parents of children with Down syndrome, who was glad to provide a reference for a staffer’s apartment lease.

“My darling friend and employee, Ivy Frye, will be a great tenant!” she wrote in a direct email to Frye’s potential landlord. “What kind of information can I supply you re: her responsible nature and employment? I’d love to see her be able to rent from you, please let me know if you need any information.”

The landlord writes back that as long as the governor’s asking, “there are a couple of things I need from you! Could you do something about getting the Kensington open, get the road to Juneau finished up and keep the Capital where it is?”

He adds, “p.s. I voted for you!”

Palin writes the man back in less than a day: “We’ll try harder!” (read full article)