Sarah Palin's proud dad gets into the partisan thing at Reno rally
The crowd gathered at the Reno Sparks Livestock Events Center to see and hear Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tonight got a little extra for their free tickets.
The parents of the Alaska governor -- Chuck and Sally Heath -- were there, as were Todd Palin's parents -- Faye and Jim Palin.
It was all part of a nonstop day for Palin that began in Cleveland, moved on to Missouri and Iowa, before Colorado Springs and then two stops in Nevada and a long, long flight back home to Anchorage for the Palins to vote Tuesday.
And then a long flight back down to Arizona Tuesday to rejoin the McCains for election night, as The Times' Seema Mehta reported in The Ticket earlier this evening.
Palin gave her shortened stump speech version, as she had all day in the pell-mell last day rush across the country. But first her proud papa stepped to the mircophone.
Heath was Sarah's coach in high school track and the general outdoors life in Alaska. He's said he's not been paying close attention to the news, as many family members of those in public life do to save themselves from the published derision of their loved one. So he probably hasn't seen the polls.
But anyway, according to Mehta, he told the partisan crowd of thousands, "I'm just so proud to be Sarah's father." He reminded the crowd of his family's rural roots.
Then, he added, "Years ago I taught Sarah how to field dress a moose. But tomorrow, tomorrow, I want you to see her field dress a donkey."
--Andrew Malcolm
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Photo credit: KTUU-TV
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Some people may say Ms.Palin today will show how to field dress an elephant instead of donkey. She ruined McCain's chances.
Posted by: beevee | November 04, 2008 at 07:29 AM