Sarah is Swindling

As a point guard and captain for the “Wasilla Warriors” in high school, Sarah Palin’s job was to assist her teammates, inspire leadership and unify the team. Twenty-seven years later, the former governor of Alaska and as a Vice presidential candidate she did the exact opposite. Isolated voters, resigned her post as governor and divided the Republican Party.

And now she’s written a book on how she did it.

“Going Rogue: An American Life” hit the shelves on Nov. 17, selling over a million copies in the first two weeks. The book talks about her upbringing, her relations with the media and her feelings about being put in the spotlight for the 2008 election.

And I was lucky enough to read the thing.

To be honest, I feel I lowered my IQ reading the autobiography. The book was full of why she was the best woman ever in politics and how the media is completely sexist and hates any outsider. The book opens with a chapter describing when Senator John McCain asks the then-Governor of Alaska to be his running mate.

We then rewind nearly 25 years.

In the next few chapters Sarah describes her upbringing and her family life. She tells about how patriotic and well-natured her parents were, and her meeting with her future husband. It was actually an interesting story, the different lifestyle in Alaska and how she supports her political views. From there, it picks up on her rise to power and the development of her family.

She first served on the Wasilla City Council, and then became the mayor of Wasilla for three terms. Finally, she became the governor of Alaska after a heated race with incumbent Republican Frank Murkowski. She defeated the Democrat candidate Tony Knowles, despite being outspent and not as recognized. After telling her story of being an underdog she starts boasting of what exactly she did during her first term as governor. I actually thought that was a good idea on her part, considering not a lot of people knew her accomplishments outside of Alaska.

We then go to her meeting Sen. McCain, who claims that they can ‘change history.’ Palin rebuffs Obama’s campaign, saying she was advocating for change before ‘it was cool’. She then talks about her meeting with her new staff, and takes an immediate dislike for the campaign manager Steve Schmidt. She claims he was very condescending towards her intelligence.

Steve Schmidt ‘12?

Then we go to the highly contested 2008 presidential election. She tries to defend her less-than-stellar interview with CBS’s Katie Couric. Critiquing the Obama-Biden ticket by claiming they were only part of the elite, and then describes her resentful feelings towards the McCain staff. There is nothing really that shocking in the book, besides her claims that she felt her team of managers held her back and made her less aware of current events and information.

To put this bluntly:

Palin is a popular high school girl that everyone loves in the small town. When she transfers to the bigger school, she finds out she no longer is the Queen Bee. She isn’t on par with several of her classmates. She complains but in this new school, she can no longer transfer out.

I admire her writing style, her life story, and how she raised a huge family. But she tries to portray herself as huge victim instead of the murderer of the McCain campaign.

“Going Rogue”? You might want to “Go Home."