Timothy Egan, contributor to the NYT , native Northwesterner, and author of The Worst Hard Time, has an online opinion piece today entitled "Moo", about Palin and crony capitalism. "What these critics [of Palin] don’t understand is that crony capitalism is how things are done in Alaska. They reward failure in the Last Frontier state. In that sense, it’s not unlike like Wall Street’s treatment of C.E.O.’s who run companies into the ground." Be sure to read the comments at the end of the article.