Sarah Palin: Season One

by Chris Bodenner

Alaska Dispatch launches a section commemorating the one-year anniversary of Palin's arrival on the national stage. Craig Medred writes the first of five essays:

Now the world knows not only Sarah but Todd and many of the rest of the players in what has become the Palin Family Soap Opera: Bristol, the teenage daughter who has become a national spokeswoman for teen abstinence. Levi Johnston, Bristol's ex-fiance and the daddy of the baby she had because she couldn't abstain. Sherri Johnston, the mother of Levi, and a convicted drug dealer. Meghan Stapleton, the former television talking head who became the bark-at-the-media attack dog for Sarah, who was in turn the attack dog for Republican presidential contender John McCain.

And those are only the main players. Throw in the bit players -- people like Palin's Fox News buddy Greta Van Susteren; Levi's handler, Tank Jones, and flamboyant attorney, Rex Butler; the gaggle of photogenic Palin children; Sarah's plain-spoken father, Chuck Heath; even comedian Kathy Griffin, who dragged Levi along as her date to Nickelodeon's Teen Choice Awards in August -- and the show really gets weird.

(Screen shot by Flickr user Jenn Hsu)