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Going Rogue
- 11/24/09
- 19
I kind of like Sarah Palin. I did, really, from the moment she burst onto the international scene as John McCain’s running mate. Of course I live in Canada so she would never have been my Vice President but still, I found in her qualities that I admired. Mostly I appreciated her common sense approach to politics and her aw shucks, hockey mom persona. It was attractive mostly by virtue of how approachable it made her, how normal she seemed. She compares very favorably in this way to the many career politicians who seem completely out-of-touch with the rest of us—men and women who have lived their whole lives in the upper tier of society and who can’t imagine life on the other side of the Forbe’s lists.
With an initial print run of 2.5 million copies, Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue is a guaranteed bestseller. It is interesting to note that it is selling faster than Hillary Clinton’s memoir did in the days after its release and only moderately slower than Bill Clinton’s. Going Rogue has dominated the Amazon sales charts and remains today at #1. Clearly I am not the only one who likes Palin and neither am I the only one who is interested in learning more about her. Not by a long shot.
This is not a memoir written by a politician in the twilight of her career, one who is reflecting on a long life in the public eye (as, for example, Ted Kennedy did very recently). Instead this is a memoir written by a woman who hopes that the best is yet to come. Because of this, the book often reads as an attempt to drum up support and to put to rest the tired old rumors and innuendo. We all know that she will be a front runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 (though she obviously never says anything about it in the book) and it is clear that the book is part of a carefully-crafted advance campaign. She has the difficult task of attempting to win over the American people. She needs to tread carefully, drawing in the all-important evangelical vote but without alienating herself from others. She needs to be the all-American mom but without leaving the impression that all she can be is a mom.
Palin positions herself as the anti-Obama, the anti-Democrat. Yet she also distances herself from much of the Republican party. She writes about her fiercely independent Alaskan spirit and her evangelical faith. She provides abundant examples of her leadership skills and her constant battles against corruption. She writes about the delight she finds in being both a mother and a career woman and defends her ability to do both with excellence. She does not quite seek to be all things to all men, but still she seeks to be the every-woman, or perhaps the any-woman. She portrays herself as a completely normal person who has been given remarkable opportunities. She writes often about her faith, though she is sure to mix in the occasional caveat (yes I believe in creation but don’t worry, I believe in evolution too) and the occasional “ass” or “hell” just to show that she isn’t one of those fundies. While she will discuss her faith, she says little of church or denomination or anything that might indicate that her faith is something more than personal. It is, all-in-all, a very carefully-crafted book that must have been vetted by long lines of politicos.
Along the way Palin answers many of the charges against her. She writes about Troopergate (or Tasergate depending on the side you take), about her daughter’s pregnancy, about the firing of one of her subordinates, about her infamous and ill-advised interview with Katie Couric, about the birth of her son Trig and the ridiculous assertions that he was not her son at all. The bulk of the book is given to her weeks in the international spotlight as she joined the McCain campaign trail. There are some very interesting inside looks at life in that spotlight. She tells about having press releases dealing with her family released in her name even though she had not signed off on them. She talks about the campaign completely abandoning her the very moment the election was over. She writes about the constant and vicious attacks against her that she had to defend with her own money and how she spent over a half million of her own dollars simply to head off the worst of these. We see how some people will stop at nothing (nothing!) to implicate her in something (anything!) that will discredit her. The level of corruption in the American political system is both sickening and infuriating.
Palin inadvertently raises some interesting issues for the Christian. Predominantly, Christians will need to consider the implications of having the most powerful woman in the world be a career woman who holds such a job despite having young children. While Christians will be pleased to be able to support a woman who is strongly pro-life, pro-family and pro-constitution, they will also wrestle with the fact that she will want to lead the country even as the mother of several young children. And Christians may wonder what she really believes and how strongly she believes it. She is anxious to win over evangelicals but in the end she offers little of spiritual substance beyond what we might expect from any American politician. After all, no President has yet denied being a Christian.
Going Rogue is well-written and flows very nicely. I suspect that those who hate Sarah Palin will hate her even more by the time they read the last page, and I suspect that those who love her will love her all the more. Already the book has several hundred reviews on Amazon and, judging by the ratio of positive to negative reviews, they show the expected partisan spirit.
Having finished this book I still like Sarah Palin. In my mind I have a difficult time picturing her as President of the United States of America, but I can’t deny that it would be awfully refreshing to see her bring just a little bit of common sense to the White House. Of course 2012 is still a long, long way away and a lot can change between now and then. But still, if half of what she says about herself is true and if she does half the things she claims she would do if given the opportunity to lead, well, we may all be a little bit better for it.
Buy this one. I think you’ll enjoy it.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (19)
I didn’t vote for Obama in the general election, but neither am I a fan of Palin. Honestly, I don’t want “everywoman” leading the country. I want someone who’s smarter than “everywoman”, more knowledgeable, better able to lead, better able to articulate herself, better able to persuade and manipulate (yes, manipulate) those who oppose her in government, etc. I don’t feel like Palin is any of these things. She really is “everywoman”.
I like Palin. I think she’s a breath of fresh air and a very likable person. However, not for president. We need someone who is liberty minded, who is for small government, non-interventionist FP, sound money, individual liberty, religious freedom and pro-constitution and who is willing to rid us of the central banks that are unconstitutional! Sarah is a neoconservative, she is a nationalist, like many of the “conservatives” here. Ron Paul is the only one who really believes and practices what he says! RON PAUL 2012
Eh, you Canadian-types like anyone who can survive the cold. ;-)
Good for you for slogging through these books, it can’t be fun.
I liked Sarah Palin back when she first became AK gov, and rooted for her for the VP slot back in May, when no one else seemed to know who she was.
So it’s with disappointment that I say she’s become an insider, a part of the establishment. I liked Sarah Palin the Common Sense Commoner. I’m finding that I’m not a big fan of Sarah Palin the Populist Optimist. (Nor Glenn Beck, the Populist Pessimist, for that matter.)
I looked over the book as much as I had time for at Barnes and Nobles last week. I felt very refreshed by how Palin begins the first chapter by talking heavily about her Right to Life involvement and then ends the book by challenging her readers to follow Christ. She says that He is the only one who has gotten her through all the ups and downs of life and offers this hope to her readers. I still feel she can be a little confusing to read sometimes but I like her fearless mentality and her determination to stand for things she is passionate about with actions as well as words.
As for the “everywoman” comment, I think the commenter misunderstands what “everywoman” or “everyman” really stands for. It is a positive thing to be seen as an “everyman/woman.” It makes one human…one who, with all their virtues and vices, is like us. Palin may not have gone to Harvard but she has really, really lived which is more than Obama or Bush or Clinton, etc could ever claim. She has worked her way up the ladder by shear work ethic, determination and might I dare say some worth while brains. Practical brains that actually get things done. She governed Alaska very successfully and I still love the fact that she sold the governor’s personal plane as one of her first acts in office. That is a highly unusual move but one which speaks volumes in regards to her priorities!
Anyways, I’ve said enough. I think many of my fellow Americans let good old Katie Couric bash their views of Palin to pieces. I for one will not let the liberal media establish my views of who Palin is. I’ll attempt to figure her out through less biased, more humane press.
I remember when she was announced as McCain’s running mate…”Sarah who?” was my first reaction. At first I thought this was a fresh and bold choice, and I fully expected her to be the true Reagan republican that I long for…but as time past and I’ve watched and even pursued finding out more I’ve become more and more convinced there simply is no substance to this women that qualifies her to any office higher than Governor of Alaska.
Already she knows the art of the sound bite that panders to those who don’t want their politics any deeper than easy black and whites. But we don’t live in a world of black and whites anymore and we need someone who can swim with tact and substance in the deep end of the pool. Sorry, but Palin is not that person. She really isn’t.
Those that were upset with the Couric interviews were upset because she exposed Palin’s chief weakness…granted Couric was tactless, partisan and unprofessional in the process, but in the long run she may have done us a favor. The interesting thing is that a presidential campaign is a long, arduous and difficult process—rightly so. One designed to winnow weak candidates. Due to her lack of substance I don’t think she’ll survive it…but we’ll find out and with this book the process has unofficially begun!!
I need to look at this book sometime, but the fact is I have a hard time believing she’ll be a good candidate. But then again, I have a hard time believing the Republican party can put anyone up that can beat the Democrats right now. So much more reorganizing to do.
I need to look at this book sometime, but the fact is I have a hard time believing she’ll be a good candidate. But then again, I have a hard time believing the Republican party can put anyone up that can beat the Democrats right now. So much more reorganizing to do.
But then you can look at the long line of former (and current) Presidents and wonder what they offered that she doesn’t. At least her experience goes beyond community organizing!
Mike said, “The interesting thing is that a presidential campaign is a long, arduous and difficult process—rightly so. One designed to winnow weak candidates”
Did you somehow miss the fact that someone with almost no experience - but with a great, big personality and a lot of charisma - was elected president last year?
Does she explain in the book why she quit as governor of Alaska? Because her press conference/explanation afterward was really unsatisfactory. I don’t think I could ever vote for her because of that. It seems now that she quit to write her book and get back in the national limelight. Perhaps that’s unfair, but I don’t know what else to think.
I knew about Palin before McCain chose her as his running mate. She had great potential to be the prefect antidote to the GOP establishment that has run the party into the ground and abandoned genuine conservativism.
But sadly, Palin, for all her positives, exhibits in full one of the most damning traits of contemporary Americans: expediency. And expediency is destroying our country.
The perfect path for Palin would have been to serve her full term as governor of Alaska, do a stint in the Senate to gain further experience on the national stage, and then pursue a presidential run. Instead, she jumps the gun, grabs for the brass ring, flunks out of her governorship, and will now run as the one thing America does not need: an impatient, inexperienced celebrity. (Ask the state of California how that’s working for them right now!)
I would have eagerly voted for Palin a decade or so from now but I won’t vote for her in 2012, not even in a primary. America does not need inexperienced celebrities running this country. Our current president is one tiny step away from that status, and look where that is leading us.
The fanboy mentality that surrounds Palin (and Obama, for that matter) only proves that Americans are shallow thinkers beholden to glitz and “right now”—and sadly, in our form of government, we get the leaders we deserve.
Tim, I really like your blog and have been following pretty faithfully for 3 months now, but maybe you should review your book on discernment because your endorsement of Palin shows a lack of the just that. Palin is not a legitimate candidate because she lacks experience in nearly every key area that the POTUS requires: foreign policy, domestic policy making, military, etc, etc. For me, I needed to see nothing more after her absolutely embarrassing interview with Katie Couric. She is not well-read, doesn’t think deeply, has no gravitas and has no business even considering the idea of running for POTUS. And I’m a life-long Republican (even at a young age I knew something was very right about President Reagan and very wrong about his second-term challenger, Walter Mondale) and I find her to be a serious detriment to the aims of the party and thus the turnaround of this country.
DLE…well said!
First off, I approached her with an open mind when first introduced to her by the McCain campaign. Analysis above about the embarrassing Couric interview is spot on. I say that, despite the fact that another previous commenter lamented she was truly the ‘everywoman’ who should not be a candidate for president. While I agree she shouldn’t be held up as the hope of U.S. conservatism, it’s not because she’s an everywoman.
There’s a fine line between the elitism held up by the intelligentsia and populist know-nothingism the great benighted masses clamber for at election time in the U.S.
The framers were ostensibly writing and agitating for the U.S. to throw off the elitism and oligarchic tendencies inherent in the crown they were revolting against. Still, the men writing the Federalist Papers and US constitution were truly well-educated, urbane men of letters. They made room in those documents, however, for a government of the people, low and high-born, rich and poor, and planted the seeds for liberation from racial injustices, making the current occupant of the Oval office a possibility. Of that there is no doubt.
You don’t need a doctorate in poli sci to run for office in the U.S. and you shouldn’t have to have one. Nor should you have to have gone to Harvard Law School or to have made millions writing premature memoirs in the private sector. So we shouldn’t hold up as ideal the urbane, well-read candidate, necessarily. Neither should we hold up the prettiest one as the ideal, either. I just wish the GOP (or even a third party) would field a candidate somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. I’m not convinced Sarah Palin (nor Ron Paul, for that matter) is that candidate.
On a somewhat lighter note, Tim, I’m surprised you make an issue about her motherhood being an issue. JFK was assassinated with young children living in the White House. No one blinked an eye at him for not waiting till his children were a bit older to run for president. Trig will be a 4yo, and well on his own way by the time 2012 rolls around (if the Mayans don’t call the whole thing to a close before November, that is).
For me, Palin is not the type of Republican candidate I want to be going head to head with Obama. I prefer Huckabee. Anyone who can be a pastor of an SBC Church knows how to deal with people, particulary folks with more opinion than real knowledge (and that’s most of the U.S.). Huckabee spent years being a real politician - one who can broker deals with blue-haired ladies and brash youth ministers. And he seems much more informed on the issues than Palin. His push for the fair tax shows his dedication to conservative values and his care for the children of illegal aliens (which got him in a lot of trouble during the election cycle) communicates his compassion. He may be what we all wanted George Bush to be - a truely intelligent, caring, compassionate Conservative.
Palin? Not so much.
Susanna’s pleading on Ms. Palin’s behalf is weak at least 2 counts. First: Ms Palin has “really, really lived” while Obama has not, supposedly because he attended Harvard. Obama is the son of an interracial couple, a black African and a white American, who divorced in his childhood. He was raised l by his white lower middle income grandparents and his divorced mother. Sounds like he did some real living. Is he being criticised for his work ethic because he got into Harvard Law School from such humble beginings on ACADEMIC MERIT and became the first ever black editor of the Harvard Review? Seems to me some good work ethic was needed along the way.Second: Katie Couric must not blamed for asking tough fair questions of a candidate Vice-President of our great country.The questions were not liberal or conservatine. Couric should not be criticised for Ms Palin’s hopelessly poor answers. The questions were not trick questions. It was Martin Luther or John Calvin who said something to the effect that he would rather be governed by a wise non-Chtistian than an ignorant Christian.
RON. PAUL.
I like Palin, but I sense a manipulation that is common to politicians, although quite a bit less than most. Not all politicians are like that. Jesse Ventura for example, says exactly what he means no matter who will like him or hate him for it. So does Ron Paul.
Ron Paul. Definitely.