PAGE 120

Election Night, 2006

On p. 120 of GR, Sarah talks about "Triumph on November 7, 2006!"--her great victory in the race for the Governorship of Alaska. She then turns to the inauguration.

She writes, "All through Alaska's history, the inaugural swearing-in had taken place in the capital city of Juneau. But in a break with tradition, I selected Fairbanks, the Golden Heart City, as the location for the December 4 ceremony. The fiftieth anniversary of statehood would take place during our term, so we wanted to celebrate the Alaska Constitution, which was written in Fairbanks."


How profoundly significant, how indicative of the philosophy and the spirit of Alaska's and America's Sarah are these words!!

She innovates, and she returns to roots, sources, foundations at the same time!!

NOVA ET VETERA: Things new and things old!!

One thought that leaped immediately into my mind when I first read these words back in the autumn of '09 was: When she begins the great work of her Presidency, might she perhaps hold her inauguration, not in corrupt Washington, DC, but in the City of the Drafting and Signing of the American Constitution, Philadelphia?

Whether or not she chooses to take such a course in the future, I think that this Alaskan act of hers in 2006 is a wonderful example of bold innovation and simultaneous fidelity to traditions and roots. The Governor made a deep and profound statement with this choice of the locale for her inauguration, a statement about the GOLD and youthful vigor of the spirit and the ROCK of foundations. She goes to Alaska's "Golden Heart City"; she also goes to the spot where the legal and Constitutional foundation blocks for Alaskan Statehood were set firmly into place.

I have always sensed this about Sarah: She is sort of ageless. She is both modern, in the best sense of that term, and yet very much a traditionalist too.

Look, for example, at what her election as POTUS would mean and signify. She would be the first woman President--the modern, innovative aspect--yet simultaneously she would be taking America back to her Constitutional roots and sources--the "ancient" aspect!!

Consider also her use of modern social media as a potent weapon in America's war against the bleak and blighted regime of barack hussein obama--look at the powerful Facebook "missiles" that she has launched against the "president's" "fundamental transformation" of our country. Yet the message that she delivers by this most modern of means is an ancient and timeless one!

The Governor herself possesses the mysterious qualities of the old and the new. If, no dare I say WHEN she is elected our President in 2016, she will be fifty-two years old. I think that, as we watch our new President-Elect on that triumphant and liberating evening in November, we will behold and witness a lady who combines great beauty and youth with GRAVITAS (yes, Mr. Karl Rove!!), the gravitas of a world stateswoman.

I believe that we all owe a debt and duty of gratitude and of thankfulness to the Lord for giving America, in this dangerous and decisive hour, a brave, fearless, beautiful Patriot Soul!!

Our Youthful Warrior, Sarah!

Our Veteran Warrior, Sarah!

Our Ageless Warrior, Sarah!

Our Sarah; America's Sarah!


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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