Going Rogue

I just finished the book.

I gotta say, it's a great read. Even if you hate Sarah Palin, even if you don't think she's qualified for anything above dogcatcher; if you don't believe a word she says - it's still a great read. Take it as a great piece of fiction, if nothing else.

It's funny as all get-out. That's what I took away the most - how hilarious it was.

I also had to reshape a few of my opinions. Given what Palin had to say about her legislative director, I guess I can throw my John Bitney post in the trash.

As far as accuracy goes, look: this is her story from her perspective. I take everyone's point of view with a grain of salt, including hers. Five people can see a murder and walk away with five different accounts of the murderer.

And I don't expect every conversation in there to be verbatim the way it actually happened, obviously. You don't remember every word that was said twenty years later. But she can't preface every conversation with the disclaimer: "I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something like this...." You should be able to figure that out by yourself.

I loved her personal stories. I loved her stories of the thoughts going through her head during the campaign. It was flat-out funny. When she described the staffers emerging from the bus and lighting cigaretts walking away looking like a cloud of smoke with legs... It's just funny. The stuff Joe Biden was doing before the debate... crack me up.

It's just an overall good book. Policy and philosophy is scattered throughout with an extra push at the end. I loved the part where she talked about Andree McLeod calling her. Sarah would just put her on speakerphone and do her stuff while McLeod would drone on and on...

She presents a different take on some things than what I thought was the truth. It's interesting to me what she included and what she left out. I'm not going to go into detail - you're just going to have to read it for yourself.

Read it - even if you hate her guts - it's entertaining if nothing else.