It just just so happens that the Alaska delegation to the Democratic National Convention is staying in the same hotel as the entourage from Minnesota. In fact, yesterday former Gov. Tony Knowles, whose re-election plans were thwarted by Sarah Palin in 2006, was roaming the lobby. So I went downstairs to see if I could get some insight into John McCain’s surprise VP pick. I only found two takers — and they had profoundly different opinions of her two-year tenure as governor.

“She’s an amazing woman, and she’s done a very good job for Alaska,” says Charles Degnan (pictured), of Unalakleet, Alaska, citing an overhaul of oil-taxation laws as an important achievement during her tenure. “She’s a woman, she’s capable, she’s young and she’s a dynamic person, so I think it will help him out.”

Harriet Drummond, however, has a profoundly different view of Palin. “It doesn’t show much commitment on her part to the people of Alaska,” says Drummond, an assemblywoman from Anchorage. “Her administration is already under investigation for abuse of power. And she’s got no experience. I would love to see what a debate between her and Joe Biden is going to look like. He will squish her — like a bug.”

Drummond believes Obama can carry Alaska. “We have way more than a fighting chance,” she says, noting that there is now a Democratic majority on the Anchorage Assembly. “Things are changing in Alaska.”

But does Palin on the ticket put it out of reach? “Absolutely not,” she says. “Obama has an enormous number of paid staffers and a great volunteer corps in Alaska. They’ve been working hard for several months now. It’s an uphill slog, but they can do it.”