John McCain stated that a major reason for selecting Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate was because she is a "maverick" in the reformist way that he sees himself.

In her acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Palin exclaimed, "I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau when I stood up to the special interests and the lobbyists and the big oil companies and the good old boys."  She further stated that as a new governor she "shook things up, and in short order we put the government of our state back on the side of the people."

While midway through her first term Alaska's governor had signed an ethics reform bill, increased oil profit taxes and stunned major oil interests by awarding a gas pipeline contract to a Canadian company, there is another side of Palin that stands out -- her role as a staunch patronage advocate operating very much in the tradition of the "good old boys" style she claims to abhor.

For one thing there is that symbolic point about displaying herself as a typical "soccer mom" alongside the reality of an astounding $150,000 from a Republican National Committee hard-pressed during a tough election year to assist dollar-needy candidates for the kind of expensive Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue attire traditionally worn by the "elitists" that she scoffs at in her campaign stump speeches.