IT was foreseen as the moment that could derail Sarah Palin's bid for the White House, as reporters and critics scoured for scandal 24,199 pages of her personal emails published for the first time this weekend.
But rather than offer any great political insight, the correspondence from Ms Palin's time as governor appears to show a woman more concerned about the pigment of her skin than about the nuances of office.
From trying to secretly install a tanning bed in the governor's mansion to complaining that her hair looked like a mullet, the emails offer an intimate portrait of a politician constantly concerned about image.
The huge dossier of emails from her inauguration as the first female governor in 2006 through to 2008, when she was plucked from obscurity to become the Republican vice-presidential candidate, charts the rise of the self-proclaimed "Mama Grizzly".
The emails reveal:
MS PALIN praised Barack Obama for a "great speech" just weeks before she joined John McCain on the Republican ticket.
SHE referred to George W. Bush as "prez" and didn't see the need to travel to Washington D.C. just to hear him speak.
SHE was paranoid about her media image and not being able to monitor every piece of coverage.
SHE received death threats and considered quitting when a blogger accused her of an affair.
HER emails were littered with colourful phrases such as "holy moly", "shindig", "right on", "I'm game" and "holy flippin' crap".
SHE got lost on the way to a Christmas party and had to email aides for help.
The emails confirm Ms Palin had a tanning bed installed in the Alaska Governor's Mansion and tried to cover up the purchase, with aides told not to tell anyone what they were doing in case the information became public.
In one email, one of her staffers asked: "Did Gail at the AK club say that she'd be discreet about your purchase?"
To an aide, Ms Palin wrote: "The press from the ADN (Anchorage Daily News) just called about the sun bed. Any idea where this would have come from?"
Ms Palin's concern about her image runs throughout the emails and in one exchange she displays anger at how the press presented her husband, snowmachine racing champion Todd Palin.
"Todd asked the picture to be changed a couple of months ago. They're still using an old snowmachine picture of his," she wrote, adding that at a national meeting of state governors "the other spouses have professional photos and updated bios".
The emails were released by the Alaskan Governor's office under Freedom of Information laws after years of campaigning.
The correspondence includes congratulations Ms Palin received on being named as Mr McCain's running mate. The death threats she received were forwarded to aides without comment.
A low point was when a blogger in July 2008 wrote that she had had an affair. "Guys, I may be pretty wimpy about this family stuff, but I feel like I'm at the breaking point with the hurtful gossip. I hate this part of the job and many days I feel like it's not worth it," she wrote.
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