Reuters: Bristol Palin's move puzzles pundits, pleases neighbors

"I'm not going to put my politics on Bristol. I'm just glad she's here."
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Bristol Palin's recent purchase of a home in Maricopa, Arizona has set off another round of speculation by the lamestream media, but her neighbors-to-be appear to be ready to welcome her to the neighborhood:

News of the purchase, which only surfaced in the last few days, triggered media speculation over why the Alaska native would relocate to the lower 48 -- including reports she planned to study journalism at Arizona State University in Phoenix.

A Palin family spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Bristol's plans for the home, built in 2005 and featuring a three-car garage and landscaped backyard.

Arizona State, meanwhile, dismissed the college reports.

"Actually its a rumor. She's neither enrolled nor has she applied to ASU at this time," Sharon Keeler, director of media relations at the university, told Reuters.

The ASU rumor was started by gossip columnists who are even more ill-informed and prone to make things up than Palinophobic leftist bloggers. Take their latest rumor, for example, that Gov. Palin has "had enough of Alaska" and will also be moving to Arizona. How pathetically ridiculous. Even if Bristol's parents do eventually purchase a second home in Arizona -- or anywhere else in the lower 48 -- they will never abandon the land of the midnight sun. It is their first home and the place that will always be first in their hearts. Alaska is where the Palins' friends and most of their extended family live. It's amazing that the professional gossipers would concoct such a crazy story. Apparently these clowns haven't been watching "Sarah Palin's Alaska."

While Bristol has bought into the area, some Alaskans think it's unlikely to herald a move to the Grand Canyon state by her mother, Sarah, who ran along side Arizona Republican John McCain in his failed tilt at the presidency in 2008.

"She's got a nice little spot right on Lake Lucille. Why would she sell it?" said Ivan Moore, an Anchorage, Alaska-based pollster and political consultant.

Moore said the elder Palin, who is being watched as a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2012, has money enough to keep her Alaska home and buy another in the Lower 48 should she choose.

Bristol's future neighbors in the Cobblestone Farms subdivision were largely positive about her purchase, including Ronny and Monika Kassees, who live just up the street:

"Their buying a house is a nice surprise, and we're kind of hoping it may turn around the economy of Maricopa and the surrounding areas," Kassees said.

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Meanwhile Richard Brock, 48, a property investor fixing a house up the street from Palin's that he hopes to flip, said Bristol's arrival would be good for the community.

"You may agree or disagree with her mother's politics, but I think she held up pretty well on 'Dancing with the Stars,'" I really do. I think it was tough on her. My wife was watching, and I said 'that girl's handling her business pretty well,'" Brock said.

"I'm a little more centrist, but I'm not going to put my politics on Bristol. I'm just glad she's here," he said.

- JP