Palin to RNC: It’s Drill or “Do Nothing at All”

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve allof America's energy problems -- as if we all didn't know that already.But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to donothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going tolay more pipelines and build more nuclear plants and create jobs withclean coal and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and otheralternative sources."

I had written a Frommer's travel guidebook about Alaska (I live in Anchorageand was on the Municipal Assembly here at the time). In the book, I franklydescribed Wasilla as a place to skip, "the worst kind of suburban sprawl ofhighway-fronting shopping malls and gravel lots."

Wasilla boosters were furious and a local media debate erupted.A good many people came in on my side: Wasilla, with a complete lack of communityplanning, is truly Alaska'sleast attractive town.

Frommer's description of Wasilla is accurate. Its residents (includingsome of my family) live there to get away from all the big-cityproblems of multicultural Anchorage. No, seriously. And then they tryto figure out how shorten driving times around the gigantic naturalfeature (Cook Inlet) they have decided to put between themselves andtheir jobs (if any).