Product Description

Sarah Palin has many faces: hockey mom, fundamentalist Christian, sex symbol, Republican ideologue, fashion icon, "maverick" populist. But, above all, Palin has become one thing: an American obsession that just won't go away. Edited by two senior editors at The Nation magazine, this sharp, smart, up-to-the-minute book examines Palin's obscure origins in Wasilla, Alaska, her spectacular rise to the effective leadership of the Republican Party, and the nightmarish prospect of her continuing to dominate the nation's political scene.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56481 in Books
• Published on: 2009-12-01
• Released on: 2009-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780757315244
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

From Publishers Weekly
According to The Nation magazine editors Kim and Reed (Unnatural Disaster), their title, a riff on Sarah Palin's memoir Going Rogue, references the transparent decision by Palin and the Republican Party to "use gender and sex appeal to advance their campaign to capture the White House." This collection of 50 articles-from sources including the L.A. Times, the New Yorker and the Guardian-is dominated by work from the heat of the 2008 campaign, and reads like it; Matt Taibbi's "Mad Dog Palin" has an outsized (even for him) battlefield mix of glee and horror (Palin "reminds Joe Average of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning"). Pieces critiquing Palin's platform and record retread territory covered in detail in the progressive press: Mat Hertsgaard on her conservation record ( "Our Polar Bear, Ourselves"); Jim Hightower on "Faux Populism"; AlterNet staff editors with Palin's "Nine Most Disturbing Beliefs." Kim and Reed provide a touch of urgency with some pieces on her present and future, including Frank Rich's "She Broke the GOP and Now She Owns It," and a forum discussion in which Jame Hamsher suggests Pailin will make a valuable GOP asset in 2010. Though useful as a catalog of offenses, readers shouldn't expect anything beyond the daily op-ed.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"A superb collection.... an engaging read from start to finish... You will read far more about the real Sarah Palin in Going Rouge than you ever will in her other memoirs."

—Geoffrey Dunn, The Huffington Post (Geoffrey Dunn )

About the Author
Richard Kim is a senior editor at the Nation. Betsy Reed is the executive editor of the Nation. She was the editor of Unnatural Disaster: The Nation on Hurricane Katrina, and the anthology Nothing Sacred: Women Respond to Religious Fundamentalism and Terror.

Customer Reviews

Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare
Editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed present a compilation of highlights from written reporting and editorial commentary on the rise of Sarah Palin from mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska to the vice presidential spot on the Republican ticket in the 2008 race for president of the USA. The contributors include Gloria Steinhem, Amy Alexander, and Rick Perlstein. The book is divided into eight chapters, each of which contains an array of articles or essays - 48 in all, that address an aspect of Ms. Palin's life, career, or political views. Several of the pieces include excerpts from transcripts of TV interviews conducted by Charles Gibson of ABC News and Katie Couric of CBS News. Of course, there are many direct quotes from Ms. Palin that she made during various campaign trail speeches during her public service career and comments that she posted on her blog.

Although the subtitle, //Sarah Palin - An American Nightmare,// pulls no punches in casting her as a troubling woman, elements of the book are, considering their authors, seemingly of an observatory nature. A fitting companion for this work would be //Hoodwinked// by John Perkins. Each of these volumes contributes to a picture of the current economic and political situation in the world today.

Reviewed by Ruta Arellano

Symptomatic of Deeper Problems -
"Going Rouge" is closer to the truth than "Going Rogue," depicting Sarah Palin as a conservative fundamentalist Christian flaunting ignorance as a virtue - 'America's nightmare.' (Given her stance on global warming, 'world's nightmare' might even be appropriate.) On the other hand, she's not that much different from Bush '43 and some of the other leading Republican candidates. Her approval rating among Republicans stood at 70% before the Huckabee pardon scandal (Maurice Clemmons - 4X cop killer), and is most likely higher now.

The book is actually a collection of more than 50 short essays written about Palin during the campaign - as a result, the material is generally dated. (Example: "Going Rouge" credits Palin with not getting into the Obama 'birther' controversy, while since it was written she has.) In addition, the essays do not cover well her early controversial days as Mayor of Wassila. Worse yet, the material is superficial and probably no more credible than Palin's "Going Rogue." Readers would do better to read the accountings within the Anchorage Daily News about her various ethics challenges.

Whether one likes or dislikes Sarah Palin, however, is not that important. A more significant issue is "Why do personages like Sarah Palin or Bush '43 appeal to so many in the U.S.?" My suspicion is that it derives from our historical values of personal freedom and limitations on government, coupled with educational laziness that easily translates into simple solutions consistent with those values. On the other hand, the general inability of academics or the educated elite to 'solve' basic economic, business, education, and social problems doesn't help them garner respect either; neither do dogmatic and authoritarian religions, the daily avalanche of confusing half-truths promulgated by various position advocates, and the near domination of dogmatic party-line responses to issues instead of pragmatic, data-driven analyses.

Bottom Line: The names don't matter. Whether its Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Joe-the-Plumber - someone with similar simple-minded 'solutions' will crop up to lead the right because its in our collective DNA. Meanwhile, the left's 'thinking' and solutions usually aren't much better. Thus, when combined with arcane Senate rules, gerrymandering, and the domination of elections by monied interests, major problems such as global warming, terrorism, oil shortages, out-of-line expenditures for health care, defense, drug control, government overhead, and education (vs. other developed nations), unfunded Social Security liabilities, deteriorating infrastructure, and illegal immigration all go unresolved. The U.S. political system is unable to cope with the complications of the 21st century.

Right on target about the Real Palin
This is not the fluff piece called "Going Rogue", but deals with the reality of Sarah Palin--who she truly is, what she is about, what she says and tweets (see Palintolgy Section).

This will irritate the sheep who blindly follow her and feel she is being attacked by the "liberal elite" not realizing the irony that she is an elitist who is using them as pawns for economic and political power.

This book bares that Palin as all about Palin. The book does what it sets out to do and points out that Palin is a fake populist who who wants to be in the spotlight as a celebrity, the better for the Palin brand.

Spouting rightwing populist talking points is great as long as it gets her where she wants to go (and sells books!!!) and it is used as an excuse when people question why she is a quitter.