Say Anything Blog

This is probably the most fair review Palin’s going to get:

That said, “Going Rogue” is more a personal memoir than a political one. More than half the book is about Mrs. Palin’s life before the 2008 campaign. She discusses her coming of age in the “new frontier” state of Alaska; her personal faith journey; her experiences with marriage and motherhood, including two miscarriages, a special-needs child and a pregnant teenage daughter; and the free-market convictions that have guided her political career. As a politician, she comes across as a prodigious worker capable of mastering complicated issues—not least the energy policies that matter so much to Alaska’s economy—and of building bridges to Democrats. ...

But of course it is for details of the McCain campaign that many readers will pick up “Going Rogue,” and Mrs. Palin will not disappoint them. She describes in particular how campaign aides muzzled her and mismanaged her family. If anything, she is too gentle on the staffers who kept her out of the loop and under wraps. She is certainly too gentle on the man at the top of the ticket who let them get away with it. She has hardly a critical word to say about John McCain, whose appearances in the book are surprisingly few.

The mistakes started on day one. The McCain communications team had not compiled the usual press-briefing guides, she writes, with the result that the national media had “zero information” on her or her record in Alaska. Moreover, her “family, friends, and political associates were under strict instructions not to talk to the media.” She wasn’t even allowed to speak to her home-state press, which was very friendly. When one of her aides asked McCain headquarters for permission for her to go to the rear of the campaign plane to talk to reporters, the response was swift: “No! Absolutely not—block her if she tries to go back.” ...

Speaking of which, “Going Rogue” offers little guidance on the big question: Is Mrs. Palin preparing to run for the presidency? The final chapter, “The Way Forward,” is a mere 13 pages and reads like a stump speech. It consists mostly of generalities on conservative values, fiscal restraint and the need for a strong defense. But the quotation from her father with which she introduces the chapter perhaps offers a clue to her future plans: “Sarah’s not retreating; she’s reloading!”

It sounds like if you’re expecting the book to solve the riddle as to “what’s next” for Sarah Palin it sounds like you’re not going to get a good answer.

Personally, I wish she hadn’t decided to re-open her issues with the McCain campaign staffers in the book.  I think it’s obvious to any honest observer that they mishandled her and, after the campaign, outright attacked her.  But is it really helpful for Palin, and even conservatives in general, to re-live those not-especially-proud moments from last year?

I understand Palin’s impulse for some for-the-record retribution, but the most it’s going to result in is McCain’s former campaign staffers going on all the talking head shows and ripping her to shreds for journalists who are all but cheering them on.

Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lay.  Palin, at least from the tone of this review, would have been better served focusing on her biography, policy and the future than digging up corpses from the 2008 campaign.