Review: Sarah Palin’s ‘Going Rogue’

by John P. Hanlon

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On the “Tonight Show” recently, William Shatner dramatically read from the former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s new book. The scene made national news not because of Shatner’s comedic timing but because after he read from her book, Ms. Palin herself walked onstage and read dramatically from one of Mr. Shatner’s books to audience applause. Instead of standing on the sidelines in silence, Palin had decided to go on the show and respond in a humorous way to the comedic skit. After having innumerable criticisms leveled at her since she was chosen as the GOP running mate last year, Ms. Palin recently responded to her critics in her new bestselling book “Going Rogue” but the book is about much more than that response.

Since Palin was selected as the vice presidential candidate by Senator John McCain, many people have told us about Sarah Palin. Many liberals and some conservatives have attacked who Palin is and her experience. Many members of the media have joined in and they have tried to tell viewers what Sarah Palin stands for. Instead of listening to and believing such people, I decided to read Palin’s book myself to find out who she really is and if the media hype about the book was true.

The media hype suggested that Palin’s book focused on her campaign to be vice president. Some analysts seemed to believe that Palin wrote the book to justify her “going rogue” last year and to attack people from the campaign she felt had not served the campaign well. However, after finishing the book recently, I realized that the book is not a vengeful account of what transpired but Palin’s own accounting of her public life, including her bid to become the first female vice president of the United States.

Unfortunately, a lot of the coverage of Palin’s book focused on the few pages that were about Katie Couric or details about her discomfort with some of the aspects of the McCain campaign last year. However, the book focuses on a much broader history than what took place between her selection as VP and election night. A lot of the book takes place before Palin is even selected as vice president. (The media reports on the book did not focus on that aspect of the book as much though.)

The book thoroughly details Palin’s work as a city council member, a mayor, and as Governor of Alaska. In regards to her campaign to get the latter position, Palin writes about her campaign as an outsider to unseat a Republican incumbent. She was forced to run as an outsider with grassroots support and earn the support of voters. Palin writes that “We built a network of nonpolitical hardworking Alaskans who were tired of politicians bending with the wind …Every part of our campaign shouted ‘Change!’ ” She noted that the campaign had some similarities to Mr. Obama’s successful campaign for the presidency last year. Few critics, in writing about the book, mentioned that aspect of Palin’s story.

Palin also noted her take on the controversies last year and the campaign’s tepid response to them. In regards for the controversy about the budget for the clothes that Palin sometimes wore in the campaign, Palin writes that “the campaign folks, especially those who had vetted and chosen me, also knew the truth [about the clothes]. But as the story grew legs, they didn’t lift a finger to correct the record…the wardrobe fairy tale had become convenient” for those who thought that the campaign was about to lose. In the book, Palin presents a highly bureaucratic campaign where she was often told that she should not do some of the things that could have improved her image, including talking to the local media in Alaska.

She also writes respectfully about people on the other side of the aisle. She writes fondly about the 1984 Democratic vice presidential choice noting that Geraldine “Ferraro’s vision and efforts helped a lot of women reach higher than they’d reached before.” Palin also wrote about her efforts to attract Joe Biden’s attention before the VP debate. She writes that “I tried to catch his eye, to give him, I don’t know, a friendly nod, a thumbs-up, something to acknowledge that, hey, ultimately we’re all on the same team. Go U.S.A.!”

Many people have and will continue to see Palin’s book as a partisan piece of propoganda. Some liberals will dislike it and say that it is just Palin getting back against people from the campaign last year. Unfortunately, some of these critics did not bother to read the entire book before commenting on it so openly.

As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed Palin’s entry into the literary world. Although I do not agree with everything the former Governor of Alaska stands for, I appreciated reading about her views and the work she did as a public official before she gained the national spotlight as a vice presidential candidate. In recent weeks, Palin has made some major mistakes, such as wading into the “Obama birth certificate controversy” but instead of focusing on such stories, people should not just follow the media accounts about Ms. Palin. They should read the book itself and find out why, for better or for worse, Palin has earned a reputation as a woman who is not afraid to go rogue.


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Posted Dec 24th 2009 at 9:48 am in Culture, Media Criticism, Politics | 288 Comments