In a local Alaskan paper today the heading is Back at work, Palin vents a bit over campaign criticism. In the post-campaign analyses, there is little doubt that Sarah Palin will command attention for some time. This will add to her personal stress.

Before the decision was made by the electorate about who would be Pres and VP elect, I wrote about the stress that Sarah might confront as vice president. The research of Cary Cooper tells us a lot about stress and politicians. It takes only a few months before politicians report serious stress levels.

Stress symptoms included loss of confidence, sleeping problems, drinking and eating too much, feeling constantly under strain and showing increasing lack of motivation.

As we all know, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are president elect and VP elect. So Sarah doesn’t have to cope with national level stress. However she does have to deal with her gubernatorial pressures returning as governor of Alaska. It must be a difficult task to adapt to the small state issues after such a heady campaign.

America was impressed with Sarah as a vigorous debater and an attractive politician. As vice president on the Republican ticket, she had to assume the role of Democrat attack dog. This has alienated her within the state because she formerly promoted the notion that she is bipartisan.

In today’s paper it was reported that she was asked how she could rebuild bipartisan relationships now that she is back in Alaska. The front page also highlights two different legal views of her role in Troopergate. There is no doubt that the opposition in government will be questioning her husband role in government, travel expenses for her children and ethics issues.

It was inevitable that Sarah Palin would attract significant post-campaign criticism. She has had to defend the comments of unknown staffers that she didn’t know Africa was a continent. She rejected the notion that she went on a crazy spending spree on Republican money. She’ll have to defend many such criticisms in the weeks ahead.

I have confidence that Sarah Palin will handle the stress well. She has a strong sense of purpose of purpose and strong values. There will certainly be many media vultures and other opportunistic people who will try to scapegoat her. In the end, her sense of purpose and her willingness to protect her own health and the safety and health of her family will provide her with a stress-resistant shield against the future criticisms and the invasions of privacy.