Palin clinched the biggest deal of all

IT is obvious from her deprecating tone that your columnist Terry Prone (July 6) has an aversion to Sarah Palin who is stepping down as governor of Alaska, and generally for her family too.

Ms Prone’s research on Palin is very thin; she has missed out on many positive aspects of this talented woman. Palin is a happy, straight-talking mother of five who has succeeded not through affirmative action programmes or family connections, but through sheer dint of hard work and conviction politics.

I will give just one example of the capabilities of this remarkable woman. Among her many notable successes is the $40bn dollar natural gas pipeline pushed through in Alaska, which puts her out of sight of some the top leaders in the US in terms of achievement. With Russia and Iran setting up an international cartel to control gas production worldwide, it was crucial for the US to secure its self-sufficiency.

According to an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily, “Palin effectively beat back the ambitious petrotyrants 10 years early” with her 1,715-mile pipeline across Canada that will bring 4.5 trillion cubic feet of gas to the 48 lower US states – nearly one-fifth of projected needs – within a decade. Palin mowed down 30 years of legislative squabbling in the Alaska statehouse and then triumphantly signed off on the pipeline in August.”

It is regrettable that Palin is causing so much unintended stress to Terry Prone.

Jim O’Sullivan

Czardas

Newtown

Bantry

Co Cork