EIGHTY-TWO

Palin speaks to Wasilla crowd in 2002

In the FIRST paragraph of p. 82 of GR, Sarah is discussing the 2002 race for governor in Alaska. She writes, "Alaska was just coming off eight years of a Democratic governor, Tony Knowles. Knowles was quite liberal--he was later considered by President Barack Obama for a cabinet position--but also very much supported by Big Oil. Polls showed Alaskans were ready for a change."

Next, in the SECOND paragraph, she continues, "This [the combination of Senator Frank Murkowski, Senator Ted Stevens, and Congressman Don Young, all Republicans] created what was arguably the most powerful congressional delegation in the nation, and they did bring home the bacon: more federal money per capita than any other state. I would eventually argue with them against the notion that Alaskans should be known as "takers," when we were finally becoming able to contribute more to our nation instead."

Lastly, in the THIRD and FINAL paragraph, she writes, "Meanwhile, family life swirled. Todd was building a new house for us on Lake Lucille, and we had to pack up and sell the one we were living in on Wasilla Lake. He was still full-time on the Slope, plus commercial fishing. He and his partner had recently sold our business, Valley Polaris; we were both busy shuttling around three kids with a full slate of homework and sports; and we'd just had our fourth baby."

What a fascinating literary triptych Sarah presents here!!

In the FIRST paragraph she paints a brief portrait of a DEMOCRAT who is in the pocket of Big Oil, who is corrupt.

In the SECOND paragraph she portrays briefly three REPUBLICANS who are corrupt, who are bringing home the "bacon."

In the THIRD she shows us her own dear FAMILY: Honest, upright, hardworking.

I think that this is an amazing juxtaposition of figures, of morals, of mental and spiritual universes!

First re Governor Tony Knowles, Sarah is telling us that Democrats too, not just GOPers, can be in the pocket of Big Oil. I think that a great part of the American public believes that this vice is confined mostly to Republicans. Not so, says Sarah; Democrats share in the blame!

Next, re the three Alaskan members of Congress [Alaska has just one member in the House of Representatives], Sarah gives "equal time" to censuring the corruption in her own Party.

Finally, she shows us the remedy for the evil of BOTH Parties: Americans, hard-working, patriotic, upstanding Americans, like her own family and like millions of other families that share the values and the virtues of the Heath and Palin households.

We behold, in opposition to Big-Oil man Tony Knowles, Todd Palin, who earns a clean and honest living on the Slope, in the oil industry. We behold, in opposition to the three GOP legislators and their program for Alaska, a family who are in the ranks of earners and not "takers."

I believe that Sarah, with a marvelous literary mastery of the placement and order of her paragraphs on this page, is pointing to the remedy for our ills.

Remember how, in "The Undefeated," right after her gubernatorial inaugural address in Fairbanks on 4 December, 2006, an Alaska State legislator, I think, says, "I thought that the speech was not a Republican speech or a Democratic speech; it was an Alaska-first speech, and I thought she did a wonderful job, and I'm real optimistic."

WELL WHAT WE NEED ARE NEITHER REPUBLICAN NOR DEMOCRATIC SOLUTIONS IN THESE DIRE HOURS AND DAYS AND MONTHS AND YEARS; RATHER WHAT WE NEED ARE AMERICA-FIRST SOLUTIONS, just as Sarah delivered a speech in '06 that was neither Republican nor Democratic, but Alaskan!!

And it is our dear Sarah and her beautiful and exemplary family, a family that has been viciously and mercilessly attacked by corrupt members of the establishment from both Parties, it is Sarah and her family who are a model and an exemplar of the redeeming remedy that may yet heal this land of ours.

Dear Lord, grant us in 2012 a true leader, who is neither a Democrat nor (primarily) a Republican, but rather is an American, a Constitutional-Conservative American!

Dear Lord, please make the Palins the next First Family of America!!

Dear Lord, in thy great and gentle mercy please grant us SARAH in 2012!!!


Read It For Yourself:

Read It For Yourself:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Palin Essentials:

Palin Essentials:

Credits:

All sidebar photos are from Wikimedia. I have tried to post all royalty-free images or to get permission, but in a few cases I could not locate the original source of a photograph or find a way to ask permission.


Contact info: bbrianus@gmail.com.

Other Great Going Rogue Reviews:

Jedediah Bila:

"Palin’s inviting first-person narration that is sometimes whimsical, often confident, and always patriotic...Going Rogue is truly one of those reads in which you put the book down after your eyes graze the final lines and you somehow feel like the writer is someone you’ve known all your life."
John Ziegler:

"I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime..."
Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata:
"Her book washes away all doubts that any reader might have had about her readiness to be president. She comes across as exceptionally bright, dedicated, and passionate about public service. Her moral compass is strong, pointing true North in this case. And she has a wicked sense of humor."
Don Surber:
"Conservatives know why Palin is still standing — and standing taller today than those who tried to bring her down. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Thank you, Tina Fey."

Sarah Palin is Coming to Town

Review by Stanley Fish:

When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an “Ask Me” button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I might find Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” She looked at me as if I had requested a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed in blood by the author....

A few days later...I had begun reading Palin’s book, and while I wouldn’t count myself a fan in the sense of being a supporter, I found it compelling and very well done....

First, the art. The book has an architectonic structure that is built around a single moment, the moment when Palin receives a call from John McCain inviting her to be the vice-presidential candidate of the Republican party. When we first hear about the call it is as much a surprise to us as it was (at least as reported) to her, because for six pages she has been recounting a wonderful family outing at the Alaska State Fair. When her phone rings, she hopes it might be a call from her son Track, a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, but “it was Senator John McCain asking if I wanted to help him change history.”

And that’s the last we hear of it for 200 pages. In between we hear a lot about Wasilla, high school, basketball, college, marriage, children, Down syndrome, Alaska politics, the environment, a daughter’s pregnancy. The re-entry of John McCain into the narrative on page 208 introduces Palin’s account of the presidential campaign and its aftermath, especially her decision to resign the governorship before the end of her term....

Paradoxically, the effect of the neatly spaced references to the call is to de-emphasize it as a dramatic moment. It is presented not as a climax, but as an interruption of matters more central to Palin’s abiding concerns — her family, Alaska’s prosperity, energy policy. (She loves to rehearse the kind of wonkish details we associate with Hillary Clinton, whom she admires.)

Indeed, it is a feature of this narrative that events we might have expected to be foregrounded are elided or passed over. Palin introduced herself to the nation with a powerful, electrifying speech accepting McCain’s invitation to join the ticket. It gets half a sentence (“I gave my speech”)....

The only event that receives an extended discussion is her resignation. It is important to her because as an act it reflects on her integrity, and she has to be sure (as she eventually was) that she was doing it for the right reasons.

Resigning was a moral act for which she was responsible. The vice-presidential candidacy just happened to her; her account of it reads like an extended “what-I-did-on-my summer-and fall-vacation” essay.

For many politicians, family life is sandwiched in between long hours in public service. Palin wants us to know that for her it is the reverse. Political success is an accident that says nothing about you. Success as a wife, mother and citizen says everything...

I find the voice undeniably authentic...It is the voice of small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety.

It says, here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. (“An American life is an extraordinary life.”) It says, don’t you agree with me that family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustain us?

And it also says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her knees, dusted herself off and “kept walking.”

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling into defeatism, is the key to Palin’s character. It’s what makes her run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn’t let her run (a mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because they feared another opportunity to go “off script,” to “go rogue.”

But run she does (and falls, but so what?), and when it is all over and she has lost the vice presidency and resigned the governorship, she goes on a long run and rehearses in her mind the eventful year she has chronicled. And as she runs, she achieves equilibrium and hope: “We’ve been through amazing days, and really, there wasn’t one thing to complain about. I feel such freedom, such hope, such thankfulness for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless.”

The message is clear. America can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. I’ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.

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