Karzai has been a player in Afghan and Pashtun politics for a very, very, long time.  Hereditary member of the local Kandahar area elites who was deeply involved in anti-Soviet mujaheddin movement, then was very close to the Taliban in their intitial rise to power, and then broke with them to start playing footsie with the Northern Alliance, and got to power by being the least unacceptable of possible choices to all the various factions. The guy is a corrupt, slippery SOB, but unless you're going to argue that no member of the traditional Afghan elites is a local, he's as much of an insider as it gets.