I found Sarah Palin's book on sale for $4.99 a few days ago. I think I paid too much, given the content. But I collect political biographies and needed to add this one to my list.
The book's strength is that it provides some insight into her upbringing and history, although it was likely sanitized for public consumption. She is trying to establish an appeal that is rooted in small town American values. In many respects' she's a product of a strain of American political tradition that uses the mythologies of frontier values to enhance political images. She will always have followers because that appeal is strong. It isn't strong enough to win the Presidency on its own though.
However the book is completely devoid of any policy prescriptions, and any discussion of important issues is usually reduced to cliche's and slogans, even moreso than most political bios of this nature. Foreign policy is practically not covered, we only get the standard call for a strong and aggressive foreign policy. I guess we've established that she's in the neo-conservative camp! Palin talks in general terms about keeping taxes low, regulation down, and drilling for oil, a theme she returns to throughout the entire book (one chapter of the book is titled "Drill Baby Drill") The flow of the book is rather erratic--kind of like listening to a Sarah Palin speech, only 413 pages long.
What do I make of Sarah Palin? First, she's almost definitely running for the Presidency. The book is written along the lines of a campaign autobiography, with the cheesy antidotes and homilies to America. She is looking to establish her political narrative--small town mom with all American values makes it big and runs for the Presidency.
Secondly, she's quite a petty person, personally insulting people who oppose her.
Thirdly, Palin is remarkably thin skinned and is incapable of any type of self-introspection. She claimed outright that she didn't make any mistakes during the campaign. Even though she might feel that she didn't do anything wrong during the course of the campaign, such a smug and self satisfied attitude belies a lack of humility.
Fourth, she has a major victim complex, passing blame to everyone around her, whether its the McCain campaign (who, I will give her credit here, did run a very bad campaign), Katie Couric (Palin believed that her interview was going to be a light-hearted affair that would "deal with motherhood and family" and not policy), and the "Washington-New York political axis". It comes across as a list of grievances and paybacks.
If she ever makes it to the Presidency, my bet is that her enemies list would be bigger than Nixon's!
I'm sure her political opponents could care less at this point though.
She brings up Ronald Reagan at times throughout the book and tries to establish herself as his political heir. However I would argue that Reagan was a different type of conservative. He was far more flexible, less reactionary in word and deed. Palin's rhetoric as opposed is more culturally divisive. Reagan didn't really have the kind of mean streak that she has and tried to compromise when the situation dictated a more moderate tone. They both appeal to the same constituencies, but they both had different approaches. There was a reason why Reagan the politician had such a wide appeal, and why Palin doesn't. She goes out of her way to polarize and draw distinctions, definitely not a good trait for a leader looking to lead a nation of diverse constituencies.
I came out of this book with a lower opinion of Palin on a personal & political level. She's a total reactionary who would only exacerbate problems rather than resolve them. Her concept of reform is rather negative in orientation, more drawn out of culturally based grievances than substantive policy disagreements.
