MS (Maya Schenwar): Although your book is being released the same day as "Going Rogue" and has a similar cover, it doesn't seem like you intend to trick readers into buying the book when they mean to buy "Going Rogue." What was your aim in compiling this anthology?
Betsy Reed: We want to emphasize that although the cover has an element of satire, the book is not a parody. Our goal was to present a serious appraisal of Sarah Palin's record and an assessment of her role in American politics - and her future in American politics. She is a very well-packaged celebrity at this point, so we felt it was important to show her beneath the gloss.
Richard Kim: "Going Rogue" has already printed 1.5 million copies, and it has been number one on Amazon for weeks. We can assume that it's going to be painting her in the most generous and heroic light, and it's really important to tell the other side of her story, about her record in Alaska as governor, what she did on the campaign trail and what her politics are, and not to fall prey to the Sarah Palin branding machine.
BR: We're seeing this argument take shape where anyone who's critical of Sarah Palin is portrayed as launching unfair personal attacks on her. Our book is not personal at all; it's about who she is politically. There's really nothing about Levi Johnston in the book.
MS:Why do you think Sarah Palin remains so widely accepted by conservatives as a viable national politician, despite her obvious shortcomings?
RK: A part of that is definitely the narrative she sells; being a mom from Alaska. Also, she also does share the views of 20 percent of the electorate: the far right. And it's clear that they are not actually thinking in this moment of winning national elections. They're not even trying to hold onto a seat in New York's 23rd district, which has been in Republican hands since the 1850s. That was the race where Sarah Palin intervened and hacked out the moderate Republican. So that's a big question that's unknown: Is the Republican Party going to follow Palin into basically suicidal territory in terms of a national election?
BR: I think she does have quite a strong following among a certain cohort of Christian, conservative, white, married women. The Republican party is a mostly male phenomenon, but I think Republicans recognized that they needed to do better with women when they picked her.
RK: Going back to what Betsy said earlier, the narrative that she sends out of being persecuted is actually deeply resonant now with that portion of the Republican Party, which is out of power in the White House, out of power in Congress, and seeing the policies of the Bush years being rolled back. She constantly says, "I'm not being recognized by the national media, so I'm going to go rogue and tell you the story directly." In that way she can bypass Washington and bypass the media world.
BR: It's nothing new - The American right has always felt itself to be aggrieved. They always present themselves as fighting against a liberal elite. During the Bush years, obviously, they controlled everything. But now with Obama, there's a receptive audience for Sarah Palin's line of being the victim of this liberal conspiracy.
MS: Criticisms of Sarah Palin always seem to contain this combination of outrage and humor. That's a hard balance to strike, and I'm interested in how you dealt with that balance in compiling the anthology.
RK: Some of the humor in the book just comes from quoting Sarah Palin. She's funny enough just on her own. There's a piece in the book that puts Sarah Palin's own words into verse, in haiku form.
So, some of the writers have a lot of fun with her. She has a sort of comic element, but then there are also terrifying elements to her, like the ignorance that she exposed in her interviews with Katie Couric or with Charlie Gibson.
That balance is represented in the book. The appeal of her youth, her wardrobe, her charm has been used to evade the hard political questions of her record and her knowledge.
(You can read the rest of this interview from the folks at Truthout by clicking the title, and also purchase your own copy of "Going Rouge" for a mere $16.00 right here.)
But if you simply cannot start your day without some "Going Rogue" information, my friend Geoffrey Dunn has your fix over at Huffington Post with an article he calls "The First Ten Lies from Going Rogue". Enjoy.
Thanks, Gryphen. I am excited about this book, so I will be buying copies. Know how long they were working on this book? Just wondering if their research had anything to do with SPalin's abrupt resignation and that rushed book.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see just how much of her religion co-mingles with her politics.
Great post!
As wonderful as many of these contributing authors are, this book is not going to do diddly squat to bring down The Wicked Witch of Wasilla! CNN is the problem. CNN has been in on the scam from the very beginning. Practically all of CNN's staff and talking heads are Republicans. Ya'll go pat yourselves on the back because you got rid of Lou Dobbs by playing the race card. What did CNN do? They gave his time slot to the most Republican talking head they have that does not already have his own show: John King. You all just go right ahead and keep kidding yourselves. There is only one secret that matters: SP acquired, not birthed, a DS child for the direct intent of taking The White House. The Christian Mafia engineered the whole affair and practically all of the MSM knows it! You're going to stop this maddening runaway train with a few essays about her political and economic scandals? How many of you plan to attend her inauguration?
ReplyDeleteI work for a book wholesaler & was disappointed that OR would not work with us. I would have loved to have sold it to my customers alongside Sarah's whinefest.
ReplyDeleteSo then...I guess all the riddles will be solved in spring of 2010?
ReplyDeleteAndrea Mitchell's Friday show just ended, but before she signed off, she invited Margaret Carlson of The Bloomberg Report to comment on the Oprah-Palin interview. BOTH of them just excoriated Palin, particularly about her slams toward the McCain campaign staff.
ReplyDeleteThey were saying that if she intended to run for any national political office, these people Palin just insulted are part of a limited corps of savvy staffers and consultants that ANY candidate might need to court.
They couldn't understand why Palin would burn these bridges -- but you folks up in Alaska know why, don't you? Maybe it's time a few of those who know Palin best get on Twitter, Facebook, or even e-mail, and let Andrea and Margaret know what you know.
Thank you Floyd. You are so absolutely right. The longer this woman goes on the stronger she gets. In my opinion the greatest wrong beside Palin is the failure of the press. LET'S GET SOME CREATIVE IDEAS GOING... BILLBOARDS IN EVERY CITY?
ReplyDeleteThe book that is due in the spring sounds like it will blow things wide open, but why is it taking so long? It just gives the woman credibility. I've discussed her fake pregnancy with some very intelligent people and they look at me as though I have two heads. The universal response is "That can't be right. Why hasn't the press run with this story.?" For some reason even the National Enquirer is not interested in the fake pregnancy.
I'm reading along, nodding, and then trainwrecked on the verey notion that 'the policies of the Bush years are being rolled back.' Oh, are they?
ReplyDeleteThe public sector is about to be given a religion-based mandate to deny not only legal, but necessary medical care to every woman in the US. It took just a signature for Bush to give pharmacists and orderlies the right to deny care to women on religious grounds. I seem to recall DOMA being fought for, by this administration. Obama declined to sign his John Hancock to an order to set aside dismissal from the armed forces via DADT. Private contractors -- oh, let's call them mercenaries, shall we? -- are still able to protect their employees from prosecution for rape, murder and criminal negligence. Dominionists are still running very effective shell games inside our military and political complex. There is no plan to try our famous war criminals; some of them might, however, end up with a talk show. Hey, Ollie North is doing well! Our pay checks are being sold to the highest bidders in the insurance industry... notice I don't say to the health care industry -- insurance isn't health care, now is it? Of course, the reason that industry has to come after our day-to-day pay is that our savings and futures were already handed over to mortgage companies.
Oh, and my very favorite -- religious institutions and private property are being confiscated by the government, because the owners, we are told, have a connection with one of them bad 'muslim-style' countries. It wasn't a problem when they bought the buildings -- not at all. Heck, at one point Bush was prepared to turn American seaports over to Arab concerns! But those mosques are dangerous now... they ain't Xian. And while the men, women and children who worship there might be American citizens... they ain't as Amurrican as us.
Of course, I'm still trying to wrap my head around a government that goes in and closes down an entire church, without charging anyone in that church building with a crime, and then just to finish off, takes the building from its owners.
And paid-up skyscrapers can always be auctioned off for a little extra cash, right?
Yeah, maybe we *are* drifting away from Bush policies. He and Cheney only WISHED they could get away with this cr@p.