Sarah Palin's book energizes fans and critics
Dan Liftman
November 20, 2009
Former vice presidential candidate and vocal archconservative Sarah Palin has written a book about her experiences, called Going Rogue. In the book, Palin discourses at length about her time campaigning with Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee for president. Much of what Palin includes in the book has been refuted by former McCain campaign aides, with some parts described as "total fabrication."
Among the claims made by Palin is that the thousands of dollars in designer clothes she wore on the campaign trail were forced on her by McCain consultants. In fact, Chuck Martin, a photographer for the Toledo Blade, took several snapshots of Palin coming out of a Neiman-Marcus store with armloads of Dior gowns and Armani suits. When he commented on the pricey merchandise, Martin said, "she smiled and told me ´I talked them into it.´"
Another claim made by Palin is that McCain himself vetoed her request to give a concession speech of her own on election night. Tired of denying that story, a frustrated McCain admitted yesterday that he stopped Palin from giving her address after reading her proposed speech and finding it littered with misspellings, typos and "things that just didn´t make any sense."
One of the most talked about incidents from the campaign was Palin´s interview with CBS News´ Katie Couric. The Alaskan´s seeming cluelessness when Couric asked her choice of reading matter made her the butt of jokes for weeks afterward. In the book, Palin states that she reads "a lot, but the pointy headed intellectuals probably wouldn´t count Wonder Woman comics as worthwhile reading material." Palin goes on to say that McCain campaign aides "kept their distance" from her after she began referring to the Couric interview as a "Communist plot to embarrass me. They just didn´t get it, darn it. What would you expect from CBS," she asks. "Everyone knows those letters stand for Commies, Bolsheviks and Socialists."
Palin also discusses her earlier life in the book. Among her more bizarre claims are that she accompanied her parents on a safari to Africa at age five, where she "brought down a rhinoceros with one shot from my dad´s high-powered rifle." Palin also illustrates her description of herself as "one tough broad" by claiming to have climbed Alaska´s Mt. McKinley at age 15 "wearing nothing but a bikini and flip-flops."
Referring to her teenage daughter´s pregnancy, she says that "there´s no doubt in my mind that ´abstinence only´ works. I kept her out of those sex education classes in school, where all they do is encourage kids to have sex. But I couldn´t watch her all the time. I´m sure when she visited some of her friends, they watched the Playboy Channel. If they don´t take that channel off of cable, there´ll be more girls her age getting pregnant, goshdarn it."
Later in the book, Palin coyly refuses to say whether she will run for president in 2012, bragging that she has received "hundreds of thousands of letters and cards" urging her to do just that. "I´ve received so many," she says, "that we´ve had to park our truck and SUV outside because the garage is completely full of them." One Palin critic, who asked not to be named, said, "It´s Palin who´s full of something, but not cards and letters."
Palin kicked off her book signing tour in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wednesday. Reports of "over a thousand people" lined up outside a Barnes & Noble bookstore hoping to meet Palin and have her sign their copy of Going Rogue initially took the Alaskan´s detractors by surprise. It was revealed today, however, that more than half of those in line were not Palin fans at all. It turns out that, in hopes of drawing attention to Palin and increasing sales of the book, her publicist paid the state of Michigan an undisclosed sum to have 600 patients from the state´s Institution for the Criminally Insane show up while the media were there.
When he learned of the deception, Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC ´s Countdown With Keith Olbermann, cracked, "the other 400 in line were the real crazies."
Among the claims made by Palin is that the thousands of dollars in designer clothes she wore on the campaign trail were forced on her by McCain consultants. In fact, Chuck Martin, a photographer for the Toledo Blade, took several snapshots of Palin coming out of a Neiman-Marcus store with armloads of Dior gowns and Armani suits. When he commented on the pricey merchandise, Martin said, "she smiled and told me ´I talked them into it.´"
Another claim made by Palin is that McCain himself vetoed her request to give a concession speech of her own on election night. Tired of denying that story, a frustrated McCain admitted yesterday that he stopped Palin from giving her address after reading her proposed speech and finding it littered with misspellings, typos and "things that just didn´t make any sense."
One of the most talked about incidents from the campaign was Palin´s interview with CBS News´ Katie Couric. The Alaskan´s seeming cluelessness when Couric asked her choice of reading matter made her the butt of jokes for weeks afterward. In the book, Palin states that she reads "a lot, but the pointy headed intellectuals probably wouldn´t count Wonder Woman comics as worthwhile reading material." Palin goes on to say that McCain campaign aides "kept their distance" from her after she began referring to the Couric interview as a "Communist plot to embarrass me. They just didn´t get it, darn it. What would you expect from CBS," she asks. "Everyone knows those letters stand for Commies, Bolsheviks and Socialists."
Palin also discusses her earlier life in the book. Among her more bizarre claims are that she accompanied her parents on a safari to Africa at age five, where she "brought down a rhinoceros with one shot from my dad´s high-powered rifle." Palin also illustrates her description of herself as "one tough broad" by claiming to have climbed Alaska´s Mt. McKinley at age 15 "wearing nothing but a bikini and flip-flops."
Referring to her teenage daughter´s pregnancy, she says that "there´s no doubt in my mind that ´abstinence only´ works. I kept her out of those sex education classes in school, where all they do is encourage kids to have sex. But I couldn´t watch her all the time. I´m sure when she visited some of her friends, they watched the Playboy Channel. If they don´t take that channel off of cable, there´ll be more girls her age getting pregnant, goshdarn it."
Later in the book, Palin coyly refuses to say whether she will run for president in 2012, bragging that she has received "hundreds of thousands of letters and cards" urging her to do just that. "I´ve received so many," she says, "that we´ve had to park our truck and SUV outside because the garage is completely full of them." One Palin critic, who asked not to be named, said, "It´s Palin who´s full of something, but not cards and letters."
Palin kicked off her book signing tour in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Wednesday. Reports of "over a thousand people" lined up outside a Barnes & Noble bookstore hoping to meet Palin and have her sign their copy of Going Rogue initially took the Alaskan´s detractors by surprise. It was revealed today, however, that more than half of those in line were not Palin fans at all. It turns out that, in hopes of drawing attention to Palin and increasing sales of the book, her publicist paid the state of Michigan an undisclosed sum to have 600 patients from the state´s Institution for the Criminally Insane show up while the media were there.
When he learned of the deception, Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC ´s Countdown With Keith Olbermann, cracked, "the other 400 in line were the real crazies."
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