Reading Boss' post, who I assume is also Scottish, or of Scottish descent, it seems that opinion is very divided on this subject. Whatever you want to call him, Salmond is the "face" of the independence bid, therefore public perception of him is very important. If he is perceived to be trustworthy. Whether the Scottish public has faith in his vision of the future, etc. These things will all be in the mind of Mr. Scottish Joe Public when he comes to make a decision.
He is the first minister he received an overwhelming mandate from the Scottish people. The focus on him is the usual tactics employed by the media to try and discredit him. Bear in mind that the whole of the media is pro - union. You'd expect bias from papers like the Mail but perhaps you might not from the Guardian or the BBC it's there. BBC Scotland is dominated by Westminster Labour there is a campaign to not pay licences because of this blatant bias.
The University of the West of Scotland has produced a report on this bias which has hardly seen the light of day. The Financial Times produced a report showing how all Scots would be better off from day 1 of independence. There is an oil field in the Scotland's Atlantic waters at least as big as the North Sea one, I bet you have not heard about it.
All the details of policies with an independent Scotland are irrelevant because these will be decided when an independent Scotland chooses its government.
Make no mistake most people in the South and many in Scotland itself have not heard the true picture yet. When they do, the case for staying in the Union is non existant. For the good of all the countries of the UK we must hope that this message does get out.
Fair enough