NINETY-ONE



On p. 91, Sarah is continuing her account of her making Governor Frank Murkowski's short list in 2002 of candidates to fill his own US Senate seat, which he vacated to assume the governorship of Alaska.

The fact that Murkowski did not select Sarah for the Senate (providential, IMHO!);

The fact that he sort of lectured Sarah on the difficulty of having kids and still serving in Washington;

The fact that he then, shortly after this interview, handed the Senate seat to his own daughter, Lisa, a mom with TWO YOUNG KIDS;

The fact that Sarah then dumped and dislodged the hypocritical Governor Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2006;

The fact that we are still stuck with Murkowski's disingenuous choice of his daughter, who blocked Tea-Party candidate Joe Miller from election to the Senate in 2010 ...

… all this, while it might make for interesting material and matter for reflection and for commentary, will not be the subject of my remarks this morning.

Instead, I would like to focus on the following brief excerpt from p. 91:

"Todd drove me into Anchorage in our Ford Extended Bronco on a sunny but frigid November day. We were supposed to meet with the governor and his newly chosen attorney general in the Anchorage governor's transition office [i.e., to discuss the Senate seat].

"Todd drove laps in the parking lot to keep the truck warm while I rode up in the elevator."

Here we have seemingly simple words that, I suppose, provide no scope and no field for any fruitful reflection.

I think not.

I believe that the tiniest acts and words of goodhearted servants of the Lord are often invested and endowed with weight and meaning and significance!

Let us examine the faithful Todd's acts from several points of view.

First there is the bare and obvious fact that he was willing to do this for his wife. It cannot have been easy to drive a Bronco round and round and round in a parking lot just to keep it warm, especially with the anticipation that Sarah might be away for several hours in the interview.

Todd has done so much, IMV, QUIETLY AND STRONGLY AND BRAVELY to support and help his special spouse in what, as we believe, is a unique career: Eventually to become not only the first woman to hold the lofty office of the Presidency of the United States, but to take her place as one of our greatest Chief Executives---Mother of Her Country; a Mount Rushmore President!!!

However, I think we can extend and trace these reflections even further.

Let us contemplate the difference between driving in a straight (more or less) line, when one has the reassuring motivation of a definite goal and target at which one is aiming, and driving in circles, with an uncertain and nebulous goal in mind.

It is relatively easy to proceed and press on when one's geographical and physical aim is simple and clear and straightforward.

Even if one is making, e.g., a lengthy trip on US Highway 10 to get to, say Texas, from the southwestern part of the country, at least one has a limpid and clearly demarcated goal at which to shoot. Even with a trip across the entire length of the country, the same can be true.

The miles and the time can fly by!!

I think it is much harder when circumstances compel us to meander in the mind- and spirit-numbing tracks of uncertainty and circles!!!

Let us then consider the pre- and post- 5 October, 2011 situation for Sarah's supporters.

Before that Fateful Fifth of October, we were, all of us, I think, 100% certain and sure that Sarah was going to toss her Alaskan fur hat into the ring of a CONVENTIONAL run for the Presidency.

We were all going to gun our engines: Straight ahead to Washington, DC and Inauguration Day, 2013!!!

Now, since the Fifth, everything has changed.

While the REALITY is very possibly that SARAH has a plan in mind to derail Mitt Romney's Tampa Express, along the lines and paths that our dear friend exodus has suggested, the fact is, WE, WE do not know for sure.

In a sense we are literally GOING IN CIRCLES, as we fill each CIRCLE OF TWENTY-FOUR HOURS with prayers for Sarah, and as we continue to fight as well as we can in the absence, up to this point, of a clear plan of campaign and battle.

Let us then imitate and follow Todd Palin's fidelity and patience, waiting and driving, literally in Todd's case, in circles, AS WE WAIT, JUST AS TODD DID, TO SEE WHAT THE DECISION OF THE LORD IS about Sarah's fate and role in our nation's history--now, and in days and years to come.


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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