From the moment Sarah Palin, with family in tow, was plucked from the wilds of Alaska to become the Republican Party’s 2008 vice presidential running mate to presidential-nominee John McCain, she has been a firestorm, a media phenomena, and in the words of a former John McCain aide, a rogue—ergo, the book’s title Going Rogue—An American Life (HarperCollins). Palin’s memoir aims to set the record straight (growing up in a small frontier town, becoming a wife, mother, and elected official), to getting even (her victimization at the hands of the McCain campaign, the blogosphere and liberal media), to moving on (resigning as Governor of Alaska).
Hardly a political manifesto, or an in-depth self-analysis, the book (written with the assistance of ghostwriter Lynn Vincent) does offer a solid portrait of Palin’s devotion to faith, family, and patriotism and how being at the right place at the right time led to one of the fastest meteoric rises of a political figure in recent times. Similar in many ways to the Democratic Party’s presidential-nominee Barack Obama, Palin too was considered charismatic, fresh, and a stark departure from the usual white male political running mate, qualities not lost on a maverick like John McCain. Coupled with her ability to draw huge, adoring crowds, she offered a perfect counter-balance to old guard McCain and the decaying image of an out-dated, battered Republication Party after eight years of George W. Bush.
The first half of the book is pre-campaign life, while the second half is a retelling of the presidential campaign from Palin’s perspective. With its overtones of “I am a victim,” this section falls into a vituperous litany of complaints against the McCain campaign, how she was mishandled, how inept, disorganized, and misguided the campaign’s strategy was especially in shifting its focus from the war in Iraq to a collapsing economy, and its lack of toughness on Obama’s relationship to Reverend Jeremiah Wright proved frustrating. The primary target of her criticism is Steve Schmidt, McCain’s chief strategist who Palin claims mishandled her, ignored her advice and blocked her attempts to speak freely to air her political views.
The campaign in turn was irked by Palin’s inability to stay on message and for publicly disagreeing with their decision to pull out of Michigan, a fact she read about in a newspaper. Palin created a maelstrom within the campaign for commenting publicly on reports that the Republican Party spent $150,000 for the family’s over-the-top new wardrobe, a decision Palin contends was made by communication aide Nicolle Wallace for a complete family makeover. Palin quickly absolves herself from what she considers is an unethical decision and later innocently asks “Do we really look that bad?” (See Robin Weaver’s Profile of Nicolle Wallace on our front page).
Several overheated pages are devoted to the infamous interviews with CBS anchor Katie Couric where Palin felt “badgered,” thought Couric was “kidding” around and claims that hours of videotape were edited to capture those “gotcha” moments. And, then there was her appearance on SNL, an idea she initially suggested, and the accusations of nasty bloggerheads regarding her infant son Trig’s birth and her stance as a pro-choice advocate.
Palin is far more at home in the first half of the book where she talks about growing up in a remote part of the country, her marriage, the births of her children and embarking on a political career starting with her appointment to the Wasilla City Council and then on to her successful bid to become Mayor of Wasilla. In a later run for Lt. Governor (a race she lost) an opponent questioned her lack of legislative experience. Palin’s response to a reporter “government experience doesn’t necessarily count for much,” is a rather telling remark reflecting on her naivety, her faith in herself (and God to lead the way) and accounts for her bold move as an unformed and ill-informed political neophyte in accepting McCain’s offer to place her on the presidential ticket as VP.
In dealing with the vicissitudes of life by balancing home, children, husband, career, making a difficult pro-life choice to give birth to a child with Down syndrome and coping with an unwed teenage daughter’s pregnancy, Palin becomes everywoman, someone who faces daily struggles who makes tough decisions and who feels compelled to put on a happy face. Palin readily acknowledges that her popularity stems from her family’s similarity to Joe Six-Pack, a middle class American in middle America striving to achieve a good life and adhering to traditional values.
The lure of an astounding $5 million advance for this book would go a long way to paying off mounting legal bills estimated at $500,000 to answer state ethics charges as well as cover an unexpected bill of $50,000 from the McCain campaign for vetting her background (who said Palin wasn’t vetted?) Taking this into account drew her closer to finally resigning as Governor of Alaska after a short two-year stint leaving a fast and loose record of debatable accomplishments. Fact checkers, such as the eleven the Associated Press assigned to vet this book, had a field day.
Palin talks briefly about her political beliefs calling herself a Commonsense Conservative, but glides over issues and provides no substantive policy ideas. She admires Ronald Reagan and offers the usual conservative rants to lower taxes, reduce deficit spending and a return to smaller government.
According to HarperCollins Going Rogue has overall sales totaling 700,000 copies in its first week. Palin’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show garnered an 8.7 household Nielsen rating or a 13 percent audience share, the largest audience for the show in two years. The media’s obsessive coverage during the book’s first week publicity launch had every anchor, every pundit, every media outlet carry a review or an analysis of Palin’s viability as 2012 presidential candidate.
Palin continues to be the darling of the religious right, the conservative wing, and the curious. Whether all this adoration will carry her forward to seek the brass ring in 2012 is questionable, but Going Rogue is an obvious attempt to getting her positioned for that effort.
