An American Lion

Sarah Palin "Going Rogue"

I avoid the kneejerk reactions to things, and I've avoided even reading about Sarah Palin's new book Going Rogue. We know nothing about this woman. She is the new Dick Cheney. Depending on where you fall on the political spectrum, you are already in possession of an opinion about her that isn't going to be changed by any book that she and someone else ghostwrites. She's been on the radar for only a year and a few months. She will never be President, but she will always be a lightning rod for criticism and, well, kneejerk reactions.

Yes, I've ordered copies for everyone on my Christmas list. I think we're sending out at least forty copies. Miranda is working my Amazon account as we speak. If you get something to do with Battlestar Galactica or the Goth Bartender's Bible, blame her.

Someone who has read the book has this to say:

"Going Rogue," the title of Sarah Palin's autobiography, refers to the snide remark of an anonymous McCain aide late in last year's presidential campaign. It was used to describe the vice-presidential candidate's move to break free of her media handlers and speak out against the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan, a state that, in Mrs. Palin's view, was well worth contesting. The "word came hurtling down that I had been 'off-script,' " she writes. The campaign hadn't bothered to inform her of the Michigan decision, which she learned of from a reporter. "Of course," she adds drily, "it's pretty easy to issue candid, off-script messages when there is no script to begin with."

One of the biggest mistakes of the failed McCain campaign—and there was no shortage of them—was its handling of Mrs. Palin. Her criticisms of the campaign's treatment of her appear prominently in "Going Rogue." But the book contains self-criticisms too, if not as many as there ought to be for a candidate who was ultimately responsible for her own uneven performance.

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.

Through it all, Mrs. Palin emerges as a new style of feminist: a politician who took on the Ole Boy network and won; a wife with a supportive husband whose career takes second place to hers; and a mother who, unlike working women of an earlier age, isn't shy about showcasing her family responsibilities. She writes with sensitivity and affection about her gay college roommate, and she confesses her anguish when she found out that she was carrying a baby with Down syndrome. That experience, she says, helped her to understand why a woman might be tempted to have an abortion. This is not the prejudiced, dim-witted ideologue of the popular liberal imagination.

Now, being as that comes from the Wall Street Journal, it's probably going to skew more positive than negative, but still. Over half the book is about her life BEFORE anyone knew who she was? I guess the vehement reactions are a little over the top, aren't they?

She is not necessarily all bad, nor is she my cup of tea in a candidate for higher office. If anyone thinks that running against a vulnerable (he might be) President Obama with a throwaway candidate is going to get the Republican Party back up off the mat, they are mistaken. It will be a harrowing campaign in 2012, and it will drag on like the worst visit to the dentist you've ever had. But, in the end, Sarah Palin won't be part of it.