The Review: Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

From the start, I was impressed by the structure of the book. The subtitle “An American Life”, wasn’t a cliché. The book literally goes through her life.

While the first chapter was interesting, it really read like a cutesy, stories from one’s childhood kind of memoir. No offense to Palin, I was just waiting for the meat.

Things began to pick up the subsequent chapters. It began to read like a political drama turned real, which I enjoyed. I got the sense that she was, from the beginning, taking a common sense approach to politics. She didn’t care about the intangibles or the spin. She was attacked and dumped on routinely by everyone all the time. Yet, when her name was on the ballot, the people were always her vindication.

Once I got to the campaign chapter, my first impression, which stayed with me throughout the chapter, was this: if the McCain Campaign was this disorganized, backstabbing, petty, and all around horrendous… how would a McCain Administration fair? At every turn, the campaign treated her like a novelty that they could wind up, feed with talking points and let her go. They obviously knew facts and dirt on her, but they never figured out how dynamic she was and what an asset they had. The picture that was painted by the media of this low-life, Alaska bimbo wasn’t all the media’s fault. It seemed the McCain people believed that very notion from the beginning and they treated her as such. The people most exposed as negatives in the campaign were Steve Schmidt, and the elusive “headquarters” that Palin spoke of. The positives in her eyes were the people close to her (aka, the people that KNEW her), and Senator McCain himself. By all accounts, McCain was a fantastic person who simply put his campaign’s trust in the wrong people, mainly Schmidt.

As I waded into the fifth chapter I was skeptical of Rush Limbaugh’s assertion that Palin’s book was a great policy read. No offence, but that’s one thing I didn’t see as of yet. However, chapter five provided not only the justification for her resignation, but some great personal stories that dovetailed into broad economic policy points of less government and individual freedom. I also finally understood her resignation. I rationalized like this- no matter what Sarah Palin did the media would dump on her. A normal person would want to take their ball and go sit in a hole. But I’m sure if Palin did that, the media would criticize the location and depth of the hole. She couldn’t win. So she eluded the Alinsky tactics and is making a bigger impact outside the Governor’s mansion. Not to mention her name isn’t holding the state’s agenda back anymore. When you read into it, the resignation was a win-win.

The policy portions of the 5^th chapter became a symphony in the 6^th. Palin’s “way forward” included what she officially dubbed “Commonsense Conservatism”. Personally, I much prefer that to being a Bush “Compassionate Conservative”. She artfully and swiftly tore into President Obama’s policies and explained core planks of Commonsense Conservatism. This chapter was the shortest of them all, but it packed a lot in.

Overall, I saw this book as Palin’s re-coming out and reintroduction to the American people. She needed to do this because her first intro was bungled by a bunch of elite campaign buffoons. Now, if she wants to make a run at the White House, she’s got to write another book that’s all policy. She’s laid out a philosophy, but now she must apply Commonsense Conservatism to common problems.

Finally, let me say that I am not now, or ever was, a Palin lover (or “Palinista”). I liked her choice as John McCain’s VP. I also liked Mitt Romney in the 2008 primaries and might go for him again in 2012. But the more I hear and read about Sarah Palin, minus the McCain campaign, the more I like her. If she becomes viable by 2011, she will be high on my list of possible endorsements.

(BTW--- I noticed in her acknowledgments she thanks "2012 Draft Sarah Committee"...HMMMM!!!)