PAGE 135

First ladies...and dude

On p. 135 of GR, Sarah continues her discussion of her gubernatorial administration, with emphasis on Todd's role. She writes, “Two years running, at the end of February, Todd rushed off the Iron Dog trail to hustle back for his official First Gentleman duties, which included accompanying me to D.C. for meetings of the National Governors Association.

"It seemed he barely had time to tear off his Arctic Cat gear and rip the protective duct tape off his face before settling in to sip fine tea with Laura Bush and other First Ladies of state at the White House. (He was getting good at those tea parties!) I remember teasing him later--'What? Did you chat about your snow-machine suspension? Did they ask about top-end speed and size of carbides?' Todd was a good sport and an awesome First Dude.

“Todd would develop his own role in contributing to Alaska's progress while we served in office. His family had long struggled against the tide of increasing state and federal intrusion that was creating a climate of government dependency for our rural areas.”

There is so much contained and captured in this seemingly simple passage!!

First, notice how she, not once but twice, in both of the (partial) paragraphs cited above, makes an allusion to the great Tea-Party struggle of our time, first with the whistling battle-arrow of humor and a smile, and then with the hammer of hard facts!!

In the first case, she pulls off a quick switch. I don't know about you guys, but when I read the words “settling in to sip fine,” I expect “wine” to be the following and subsequent word (we “sip fine wine”). Sarah substitutes … “tea” for “wine”: Tea with Laura Bush!!

Then, she further develops and unfolds the hint and the allusion and the suggestion by saying (and I can just see her WINKING as she writes this)--by saying, “He was getting good at those tea parties!”

Wow! Todd was a stalwart, stand-up “Tea Party” guy even before there was a Tea Party!!

Then, in the next paragraph, she develops the whole theme of the purpose and point (the “teleology”--er, TEA-leology :-) )--the purpose and point and end and goal of the Tea Party when she says that Todd's family “had long struggled against the tide of increasing state and federal intrusion that was creating a climate of government dependency for our rural areas.”

This is, IMHO, a simply brilliant, brilliant piece of allusive, humorous, and yet deadly serious writing. The FOOLS who have attacked the Governor's power with both the written and the spoken word will be exposed in due time for the purblind and corrupt idiots that they are—especially if, as I suggested yesterday, she gets a three-cornered Presidential debate with Jeb and Hillary in 2016!!

Next, let us notice how Todd's ruggedness in both physical and political climates is illustrated and illuminated. It is EXPLICITLY stated that he “barely had time to tear off his Arctic Cat gear and rip the protective duct tape off his face [i.e., from the Iron Dog] before settling in to sip fine tea with Laura Bush and other First Ladies of state at the White House.”

He is armed against the spears and arrows and darts of the Alaskan winter … and now she says implicitly that he has to face the blasts, not of the ice and snow of the Great Land, but of the knives and daggers of the snake-pit of Washington DC!! She does not SAY that, leaving Alaska for DC, he had to don protective gear of another sort, but, IMV, she implies it!

To bring these brief reflections to a conclusion, let me observe what the Governor can accomplish while she is wielding the sword of the pen, wielding the battle-mace of the written word, in just a PART of ONE page of her magnificent volume!!

This LADY is:

A BRILLIANT WARRIOR;

A FEARLESSWARRIOR;

A PATRIOT WARRIOR …

… a warrior who, God willing, will take out the vile Establishment foes that have tried so maliciously and mendaciously to destroy her, to destroy her family, to destroy her State … to destroy the country that she loves with every last filament and fiber of the brave and bonny banner of her heroic soul.

SARAH VICTRIX SEMPER!!!


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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