Laura McGann from the Washington Independent watched Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech to the Republican National Convention from a bar in the governor’s home state:

The crowd — on TV and in the bar — was on her side. Then, 10 minutes in, Palin swung hard with her right. “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer,” Palin said, “except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Bar-goers seemed to gasp in unison.

This Palin lunging at Sen. Barack Obama on national TV was not the irresistibly likable, maverick governor they had come to know.

Read the rest of McGann’s story, which illuminates both Palin’s career and the political climate in Alaska, here.