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Palin's 'Rogue'-ish memoir shows she's not Reagan's heir
Copies of Sarah Palin's new book, "Going Rogue," on display at a Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Orem, Utah. George Frey / Associated Press
By TIM RUTTEN Los Angeles Times
Published: 11/22/2009 2:23 AM
Last Modified: 11/22/2009 11:36 AM
A particularly shrewd political analyst once remarked that Ronald Reagan's great strength as a candidate was that he was "a sincere phony." In the world of electoral realpolitik, that's a compliment.
What the analyst meant was that Reagan had the ability to convince himself that he actually held expedient views he'd never previously entertained and that belief, in turn, allowed him to speak of them with utter conviction.
Sarah Palin's autobiography, "Going Rogue: An American Life," suggests that while she may be overreaching when she aspires to the Great Communicator's mantle as leader of the conservative movement, she may well be able to claim his facility for convenient sincerity.
Take, for example, the matter of this book's authorship.
It's customary for politicians and celebrities to collaborate with a professional writer, particularly when there is a tight deadline and the publisher has a multimillion-dollar advance on the table.
However, the name of Palin's collaborator — the evangelical Christian writer and pro-life activist Lynn Vincent — doesn't appear on the cover of "Going Rogue." Collaborators sometimes trade such credits for higher fees, but their names usually appear prominently in the acknowledgments.
Palin's first acknowledgment goes to herself: "I'm very glad this writing exercise is over. I love to write, but not about myself. I'm thankful now to have kept journals about Alaska and my friends and family ever since I was a little girl. That practice allowed an orderly compilation over the past weeks and let me summarily wrap up at least some of my life so far "
Three paragraphs later, after she's thanked her lawyer Robert Barnett and five HarperCollins executives and editors, Vincent's name is mentioned with several others.
It's an interesting reticence because Vincent reportedly was selected for this job in large part for her ability to connect with evangelical Christians, and they won't be disappointed to find that Palin discerns "God's hand" and a divine purpose in nearly every turn of her life, including her tenure in Wasilla, Alaska's city hall.
More than half the book deals with Palin's life before the last presidential campaign, so there's a lot of winter, guns, fish guts, long hours at the nets under the midnight sun and a great deal about Palin's fondness for meat, particularly caribou and moose.
Palin is genuinely convincing in her admiration for Reagan, but one of the things she misses about his appeal was the utter absence of resentment from his persona. This book, on the other hand, fairly seethes with resentment, particularly in the more than 100 pages devoted to the McCain-Palin campaign.
There are lots of charges here, but the McCain aides have been firing back — something a moose never does — and they seem to have the e-mails and other documentation to back up their versions of events.
"Going Rogue" is so obviously a campaign biography that a reader comes away trying to figure out what he thinks of Palin's presidential chances rather than what he thinks of her. In that context, the constr
uctive example is not Reagan, but Jesse Jackson. For years the civil rights activist spoke to the most viscerally committed factions of the Democratic base in a way no other political figure did.
Palin appears to be something similar — a figure from the political periphery who nonetheless speaks to her party's passionate heart.
‘Nervous’ anticipation for Palin
Sarah Palin’s book tour will include one
oklahoma stop — 7 p.m. Dec. 3 at Hastings
Books, 2300 W Main St., in Norman.
Store manager Rob Wood said, “This is
definitely the biggest thing we’ve ever had
happen. I’m excited but nervous. We expect a
lot of people will be here for it.”
GOING ROGUE:
AN AMERICAN LIFE
By Sarah Palin
Harper, $28.99
By TIM RUTTEN Los Angeles Times
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