I guess we can't blame Palin to much, she comes from a party that expects free things...
Again, while Ted Stevens convinction couldn't have come at a better time for Democrats, and it is directly comparable to Palin's image problem with this $150k of brouhaha, I think the larger point is that whatever claim to fame Republicans had that they are fiscally conservatives and keep a tight purse string and small government ..., that myth is well and truly blown away to smithrens in the last 8 years under George W Bush. The whole trickle-down economy may actually trickle down slowly, but the big government spending and the trillions of dollars of debt that Bush is saddling future American generations will be a hard act to follow.