Palin still a polarizing figure

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A political action group that formed to try to defeat the presidential bid of Barack Obama began running ads Tuesday praising Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Leaders of the Our Country Deserves Better Committee plans to spend $50,000 in Alaska and more when it takes the commercials to national media, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

"We thought a good thing to start with was your governor was being maligned by too many media elites and political pundits," Sal Russo, the group's chief strategist, told the newspaper.

While polls suggested Palin became a drag on the ticket as John McCain's running mate, she became a heroine to many conservative Republicans.

On the other side, Alaskans For Truth, a group led by bloggers, said Monday the state legislature should censure Palin. During the campaign, an investigator working for a bi-partisan committee found Palin allowed her husband and members of her staff to pressure the head of the state police into firing her former brother-in-law. In the end, the brother-in-law kept his job, but Palin fired her public safety chief, a dismissal she said was for other reasons.