Sarah Palin's Book

I’m sure you will not be surprised to learn that I’m not a Palin fan. She reminds me of the worst of me; that woman who finds it easier to look outside myself for the reasons why something went wrong. “The press didn’t treat me fairly.” “The McCain handlers made me do it.” The Couric interview was “supposed to be a light piece, and she made it into a ‘get Sarah’ question and answer.” And, “the campaign made me keep doing it even though I knew it wasn’t going well.” For someone who touts herself as a strong, independent – you can count on me to do what I think is right, not whatever wants me to do – she sure didn’t behave that way in the campaign, and that’s her excuse for every single problem she brought to the table.

But in the interest of my blog, I made myself stand in line yesterday to get it. It was marked down to $9. Nine dollars! That should tell you something. The day after it was released, it was marked down 70 percent. I felt that said it all. You get what you pay for, you know what I mean?

Here is what you pay for. Chapter after chapter of looking out the window of her life rather than in the mirror. As a protective mother, I find her putting her kids in the forefront of it all and the tour she is now weaving throughout the country is the most egregious act in the book, and the way she lives her life. She talks in the book about a call she got from her pregnant daughter, exposing yet another private moment to the world from one side of her mouth and then complaining that her kids were not off limits during the campaign from the other. I must say that I don’t see Obama exposing his children in that manner.

But here is the thing. It’s full of juicy backroom antics, which may or may not be true. One thing we know about Sarah is she talks fast and hard, but facts are not always part of what comes out of her mouth. It’s written in flowery language that works with her style – and style she has. Her voice in the book mirrors her own. As the underdog she weaves a fabulous tale from the mouth of a stunning face and aspirational presentation. Every downtrodden, middle class woman wishes she looked like her. And, when Palin talks, that same woman feels like she is her – misunderstood, put upon and the underdog. No wonder lines are long to get the book.

That said, like her meteoric rise to adored political icon, Going Rogue has nothing of substance. “I don’t believe that God put us on earth to be ordinary.” That statement opens her book, but every paragraph inside speaks to nothing outside of ordinary other than being the choice of a stupid McCain group of handlers who were rolling the dice  in a very high stakes game of craps which they lost when they chose her.

The book has no substance. It scares me that neither did the choice of her as the possible next President of the United States. She was very close to that heartbeat away from the President point of view that helped turn the tide against her. You know those scary nuclear stories we hear about submarines almost causing World War III years after they happened? I feel a bit like that with Sarah Palin. The book does nothing to dispel that because there is nothing about her insides in the book.

I would not buy it, although if you wait another few weeks it might be down to a $1, and that is about what it’s worth.