1. Robert D. Steele - December 2, 2009

   EDIT of 20 Nov 09. This is my final review. 57 of 302 this date.

   The book consists of five parts.

   Part I: Life up to the call from John McCain. The book I read and appreciated earlier, Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down was instrumental in her selection, along with the heroic work of a band of bloggers, covers most of this ground so the first half will be old hat to those who followed Palin before she became VP. Stuff better told here includes Todd being the Big Man on Campus (BMOC) with TWO “rides” when others had none; beauty contests paid for college; eloped, terrible pain of pregancy, lost second child, Exxon Valdez killed fish prices down 65%, lost some bids for office, and very meaningful for me, with respect to Downes syndrome, she asked “why us” and Todd responded “why not us.”

   Part II: Photos, very disappointing for pre-campaign, better for campaign but over-all TERRIBLE.

   Part III: From the call through the campaign to resignation and a fairly rotten “what lies ahead section. I tried to help her, as did so many others, but when I volunteered at the McCain campaign headquarters I was told that the Vice-Presidential Operations section had been fully staffed (by Bushies) three months before she was selected, and I knew in that moment that McCain was being set up as a fall guy. Although the book is relatively kind in its delivery, the second half made me angrier….and angrier…and angrier, confirming my worst fears about McCain’s campaign staff. She is way too nice, making nothing of the fact that she is “given” a staff and told what to say etc. There are a few things here I was not aware of, including a discussion of the CBS hit job in which a great deal of flim was taken to be distilled down to the worst of the worst, and I feel sympathy. I will probably never be a candidate for President or Vice President, but if I were, I would follow Lee Iacocca’s model, and kick out the first person to dare to tell me what my positions are going to be. It’s time we send the “staff” to muck out the stables, and leave only principals to deal with substance. She thinks Joe Lieberman is a nice guy–he may be nice, but he cannot be trusted and is more a representative of Israel and Wall Street than he is of Connecticut or the rest of us, this one sentence left me completely dismayed.

   Part IV: Dewey Whetsell, “A View from Alaska” ends the book, with six excellent summaries of good things Sarah Palin accomplished for Alaska, and that alone is worth the price of the book.

   Part V: Missing in Action–the parts not there. The Index is not here, but after reading the book, which is very light on substance, that is not as important as it might be. There is a great deal more that should have, could have been in this book, from more detail on the abuses she suffered at the hands of staff to more about the “alternative” campaign she started ginning up in self-defense, to more about Obama-Biden and some of the dirty tricks their campaign pulled, and finally, a better discussion of why she resigned as Governor instead of leading the Alaska Independence Party in declaring secession an option, inviting Christian Exodus to homestead on lands no longer “federal,” while also negotiating with Russia, Yukon and Nortwest Territories, Greenland, and Denmark to create a Northern Circle of opportunity and prosperity. Sorry to say this, I think resigning was a mistake, giving up the power of Alaska to nullify federal over-reach.

   There are two helpful references that go with this book.

   1. The index of who gets praised, whacked and ignored, look online for “POLITICO A guide to who gets whacked”

   2. Facts that are not, look online for “FACT CHECK: Palin’s book goes rogue on some facts”

   Neither of the two references, while helpful, is fully satisfactory, and neither can be said to discredit the book in any significant way.

   If McCain had purged his staff of the Bushies, let Palin be “First Mom” and herself, history might have been different. Still, seeing Obama-Biden as a continuation of Bush-Cheney (White House as theater and out of control) might yet be the best thing that could have happened, a necessary stimulus for the sleeping Republic.

   I certainly agree with her condemnation of Rahm Emanuel, but have to observe that Newt Gingrich is the one who first destroyed the bi-partisan model in leading the $300 million a year “buy out” of the government from schoolhouse to White House, and in destroying Speaker Jim Wright, a story told in The Ambition and the Power: The Fall of Jim Wright : A True Story of Washington.

   This is a very “lite” book that will be very satisfying to those who see in Sarah Palin a populist who may not have all the world smarts (news flash: most in Washington do not either) but is, as she coins the term, a “Commonsense Conservative.” I love the term, I believe it has staying power.

   Two political books that are better than this one are:
   
   Stand For Something: The Battle for America’s Soul
   
   America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers

   I am concerned that Chuck Hagel is following Bill Bradley into discredited oblivion. Both smart men, both appear to have concluded that America cannot be saved from the axis of evil between Wall Street (and the Mafia) and the corrupt Congress and equally corrupt–if not irrelevant–White House. Obama-Biden are Empire as Usual, the Bush-Clinton crime families continue to hum along with their gold certificates, and the only losers are us–We the People.

   For those who are angry at me for speaking truth and not being all goo-goo over Sarah Palin, suck it up. I love the quote from Fedor Dostoevsky: A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else. Sarah Palin has a LOT of rough edges.

   For those who cannot comprehend my admiration of her and my acceptance of her as an emergent leader who speaks for tens of millions angry at being treated like second-class citizens, betrayed by Senators and Representatives who have sold out to Wall Street, allowed the hollowing out of pension funds, sold out to military-industrial, intelligence-industrial, prison-slavery, and hospital-pharmaceutical complexes, I also say, suck it up. She’s here to stay, if she does not drive Todd away with pretentious airs and being too much of a girl dog around the house.

   Put simply, I embrace Sarah Palin as one who must be at the table, along with Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Jackie Salit, Cynthia McKinney, Al Sharpton, Carol Mosley-Braun, and a number of others who have been neglected by the fradulent media (include FOX and CNN, neither of which can put together any intelligent thoughts about the real world). The BAD NEWS is that none of these people plays well with others. Sarah Palin has enough star power to host a Sunshine Cabinet that creates Commonsense Conservative policy inside of a balanced budget, and I would love to see her harness the Collective Intelligence of the Republic and be in Obama-Biden’s face every day. Biden is trying, but he is surrounded by partisan hacks, loyalists, sychophants, and serves a President who was bought for $750 million and knows his place, playing the role of major domo in the world’s most expensive and useless of theaters, the White House (Buckminster Fuller said this first).

   I’m going to use my remaining seven links in three groups:

   Group A: Death to the two parties
   
   Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
   
   Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny

   Group B: Harness the Collective
   
   The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
   
   Society’s Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
   
   Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential

   Group C: Serious Reading for Sarah Palin
   
   Election 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (Substance of Governance; Legitimate Grievances; Candidates on the Issues; Balanced Budget 101; Call to Arms: Fund We Not Them; Annotated Bibliography)

   I could have deleted my pre-review and the 307 negative votes, but I treasure the 57 smart people that understood what I was getting at, and “stand pat.” It is what is, I am what I am, get over it. May God bless the Republic and the Constitution, and protect us from the despicable creatures that have dishonored our flag, our morals, and the goodness of America the Beautiful.
   Rating: 4 / 5

2. Alan Dickson - December 3, 2009

   I LOVE SARAH PALIN SO MUCH THAT I DECIDED TO GET HER ATTENTION LIKE THE MASS MEDIA! IT DOESN’T MATTER! AS LONG AS WE GIVE HER ATTENTION SHE CAN BE WHO SHE NEEDS TO BE! SHE IS AN UNDERDOG! YOU CAN’T STOP HER!

   PALIN 2012!
   Rating: 1 / 5

3. Reynaldo Rodriguez - December 3, 2009

   Excellent book …
   
   Sarah recounts her personal experiences in this book.
   
   I encourage all who purchase this fine book.
   
   You will never regret ….
   Rating: 5 / 5

4. Y. Yang - December 3, 2009

   I’ll be picking up Palin’s book in the bargain bin come Dec. as a cheap and eco-friendly alternative to firewood.
   Rating: 1 / 5

5. Gunner - December 3, 2009

   It took Jimmy Carter to bring us Ronald Reagan. Now is it going to take Barack Obama to bring us Sarah Palin?

   Gingrich because he knows how to get things done in Washington, D.C.

   Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin (Hardcover – Nov 17, 2009)

   Going Rogue: An American Life
   
   by Sarah Palin
   
   Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257

   By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate.

   From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well on the trail thus far. My suggestion was that we be consistent with that strategy and start talking to outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal. I really didn’t have a say in which press I was going to talk to, but for some reason Nicolle seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon.

   “Katie really likes you,” she said to me one day. “she’s a working mom and admires you as a working mom. She has teenage daughter like you. She just relates to you,” Nicolle said. “believe me, I know her very well. I’ve worked with her.” Nicolle had left her gig at CBS just a few months earlier to hook up with the McCain campaign. I had to trust her experience, as she had dealt with national politics more than I had. But something always struck me as peculiar about the way she recalled her days in the White House, when she was speaking on behalf of President George W. Bush. She didn’t have much to say that was positive about her former boss or the job in general. Whenever I wanted to give a shout-out to the White House’s homeland security efforts after 9/11, we were told we couldn’t do it. I didn’t know if that was Nicolle’s call.

   Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. “She just has such low self-esteem,” Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. “She just feels she can’t trust anybody.”

   I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain’s campaign how?

   Nicolle said. “She wants you to like her.”

   Hearing all that, I almost started to feel sorry for her. Katie had tried to make a bold move from lively morning gal to serious anchor, but the new assignment wasn’t going very well.

   “You know what? We’ll schedule a segment with her,” Nicolle said. “If it doesn’t go well, if there’s no chemistry, we won’t do any others.”

   Meanwhile, the media blackout continued. It got so bad that a couple of times I had a friend in Anchorage track down phone numbers for me, and then I snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and someone I thought was Larry Kudlow but turned out to be Neil Cavuto’s producer. I had a friend call Bill O’Reilly after I was inundated with supporters in Alaska asking why the campaign was “ignoring” his on-air requests for a McCain campaign interview. I had another friend scrambling to find Mark Levin’s number. Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters’ strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press. At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, Tracey or Tucker would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, “No! Absolutely not- block her if she tries to go back.”

   Going Rouge
   
   Sarah Palin
   
   (2009)

   It took Jimmy Carter to bring us Ronald Reagan, it might take us Barack H. Obama to bring us Gingrich/Palin, I sure hope that’s the ticket.

   Sarah Louise Palin ( née Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician who served as Governor the state of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009 and was the Republican candidate for Vice President in 2008.
   
   Palin was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska city council 1992 to 1996 and the city’s mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission 2003 until her resignation in 2004. She was elected Governor of Alaska in November 2006. Palin became the first female governor of Alaska and the youngest person ever elected governor of that state.
   
   In 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose Palin as his running mate in that year’s presidential election, making her the second female candidate and the first Alaskan candidate of either major party on a national ticket, as well as the first female vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Since the defeat of the Republican ticket in the 2008 election, there has been speculation that she may run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Palin resigned as Governor on July 26, 2009, saying that the ethics complaints being filed against her were hindering her ability to govern

   From her humble beginnings to her time in the spotlight as the first female Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin has led an extraordinary life. Going Rogue recounts her political experiences, her time as Mayor of Wasilla and as the first female governor of Alaska, as well as her rapid rise on the national stage during the 2008 campaign. Additionally, she shares insights into the personal challenges she’s faced including balancing her time as a working mother, recognizing the war’s impact with her son serving combat in Iraq, having a child with a disability and supporting her teenage daughter through an unplanned pregnancy.

   Palin has received much attention through the media, but never before has her complete story been told in her own words. The memoir is both a personal and political chronicle of her life.

   I highly recommend this book and Sarah Palin as the antidote to Barack H.Obama.

   Gunner November, 2009
   
   Rating: 5 / 5

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