Palin's Dad: 'We Sleep with Guns'
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and her family spoke to BBC Newsnight about dealing with the public scrutiny:
Palin was catapulted from political obscurity to global celebrity almost overnight. ...
"Our family is pretty thick-skinned," she said.
"For the last 20 years in political office our family has put up with a lot of flak. We're still standing and we're doing well, so we're not worried too much about the pressure."
Critics said Palin's on-going battle with what she has labelled the "lame-stream media" was just an attempt to deflect criticism.
But it has not been harsh press coverage that concerned her elderly parents, Chuck and Sally Heath.
In the kitchen of their Wasilla home, among an extraordinary collection of animal skins, skulls and bones, the spoils of a lifetime spent hunting and fishing, they told me that their whole family has faced death threats.
"As a mother I do have concerns about her safety and that of the kids... she knows how I feel, that it's risky," Sally said.
Palin's father Chuck said a man recently had sent the family photocopies of a receipt for a gun he had bought, together with a photocopy of a one-way ticket to Alaska.
The family had laughed it off, but the man subsequently turned up in the state and was arrested by the FBI, Chuck said.
"We sleep with the guns," Palin's father admitted.
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