-Dewey Whetsell, Alaska
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain
OK, so if you haven't guessed yet, the above quote from a former Fire Rescue Chief from Alaska refers to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin - aka "Sarah Barracuda." And yes, though I was a little afraid to admit it at times, I actually read Sarah Palin's recent biography, Going Rogue: An American Life.
Now I'll be one of the first to admit that I don't agree with many of Sarah Palin's political, social, or moral viewpoints. I am glad John McCain lost the 2008 presidential election so she would not be our vice-president. I too, at first was very skeptical about reading this book, thinking it would be really slanted, (which it was at points), or not the most stimulating or rigorous read (which it wasn't, but who wants to work too hard while reading?). So why did I tell my mom that I wouldn't mind reading this book? Why did I actually read it after my mom sent it to me for Christmas?
During the 2008 campaign, I was as dumbfounded as anyone else when John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. I, like many Americans, didn't know who she was. I too had to laugh, and sometimes cringe, like many democrats, when she fumbled her way threw national interviews or made silly comments that just seemed "unpresidential." However, as the campaign progressed, it was reported that Gov. Palin was held to a narrow script when making speeches or giving interviews in front of a national audience. When she went off that script, as when she publicly questioned the McCain camp for abandoning the campaign in Michigan, she was accused of "going rogue" or defying logic with her personal whims. Now I'm always one who roots for people who speak their mind, unafraid of consequences, and it was at this point where I started to feel for Sarah Palin a little bit. Sexism or not, she was hounded constantly by the media, and not allowed to speak freely on the trail. At that point, the hounding even came from the campaign staff that was supposed to be on her side.
After seeing these events unfold, I asked myself the question, "Why would a campaign staff, and a presidential one nonetheless, choose a running mate whom they didn't trust to speak freely, or didn't think was smart enough to give her own thoughtful answers? If her own campaign doesn't trust her, why should the voters?"
It were the above questions that led me to read her book. I definitely wanted to hear her side of the story. Also, I have always been interested in reading about presidential campaigns and the happenings behind the scenes for both the winning and losing campaigns. I was throughly impressed with the workings of the Obama campaign as the results spoke for themselves. I had read about the Bill Clinton campaigns, and then the Lewisnsky scandal, and I also read articles about Al Gore's 2000 campaign, and the failed John Kerry campaign of 2004. So, it was also an interest in the entire process, and not just the personal views of Sarah Palin that led me to read it. Sometimes it seems that in major elections, it's the speeches, the antics, the highlights and/or the gaffes that get the credit for winning, or losing, an election for a candidate. What gets overlooked, and wrongly so, is not only the mundane, day to day work of the campaign managers and staff, but also the crucial and timely decisions that must be made away from the publics eye. I know the book represented Palin's views only, but after reading Going Rogue, some earlier conclusions I made seemed accurate. The McCain campaign, overall, seemed pretty incompetent.
The early chapters of Going Rogue detailed Palin's unique upbringing in the remote villages of Alaska. Her family didn't have a lot of money or luxuries. One interesting note was that while she was a child in the 1970's, the local television stations would not get some programs until a week after being aired. Her and her father would never read the newspapers or check the news out of fear of hearing a sports score before the contest could be shown on local TV. There was always work to be done in her household and it was interesting to read about how she aquired the wilderness skills of hunting, fishing, field dressing a moose, and cleaning fish. She definitely developed hardiness and toughness with this upbringing that a majority of American children arent' subject too. Of course she wouldn't trade it for the world and I can't blame her. She also detailed her accounts as a member of her high school cross country team, state champion basketball team, and later as a marathon runner (all activities in which I also particiapted in my youth, except my teams never won a state championship).
Palin would then go on to earn a degree in journalism at the University of Idaho and work briefly as a sports anchor in Alaska before marrying her high school sweethart Todd. She would then work only part time in order to be full time housewife and mother. However, her domestic duties did not stop her drive to be civically involved in her community. As many know, she would go on to win elections to the city council and eventually the mayor's office in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
After a failed bid for Lieutenant Governor, Sarah campaiged on the promise of ethical reform and genuine fiscal conservatism for Alaska as she ran the office of Alaska governor. As an underdog she defeated fellow Republican and incumbent Frank Murkowski in the primary and won a six way election with 48% of the vote in the final election.
While governor, Palin made good on her campaign promises, she cleaned house of corrupt politicians and staffers. However, it was alleged that she fired one staffer because he had fired her brother in law from the state police force. This scandal came to be known as Troopergate. After the smoke cleared and the facts were out, Palin's brother in law did deserve to be fired, but the staffer who Palin fired was let go for other ethical reasons, and justifiably so. The story was blown out of proportion. She also stuck to her fiscal conservatism guns which included firing the governor's cook because "she could cook for her own kids." She also sold the governor's jet. She also rid the state of other wasteful spending while making all cuts and expenditures more trasparent then ever to the public. She always claimed she was working with the "citizens' money."
Palin also made strides by taking on the oil corporations and seeing that oil profits were used for the greater good of Alaskans and not just lining oil exec's pocketbooks. She set up numerous projects to tap into Alaska's vast resources to provide jobs and energy sources to not only Alaska, but the entire United States. She did so while conserving the environment as well. Conservation seemed to be important to all Alaskans regardless of policital party.
All in all, I was impressed with Palin's record as someone who brought real change to local and state government. She did a lot of good for Alaskans and the entire country as governor of Alaska. She ended government corruption, maintained a responsible and healthy state budget, and secured jobs and enegry from the state's natural resources for years to come. She was well suited to Alaska government and politics, and would've done an outstanding job for years to come. She proved that local and state government are the best avenues to bring real results and change to citizens. As someone interested in the workings of local government, I was impressed with the details of her work and accomplishments at the local and state level. But of course, in August 2008, that all changed when she was tapped to be John McCain's running mate for president.
While reading Going Rogue, I was surely interested to hear her take on how she was mishandled by McCains's staff, as pretty much the entire campaign was. I was also eager to read about the Katie Couric interview, the debate with Joe Biden, and her resignation from the Alaska governorship. Overall, I believe she was quite honest in her accounts of all of these events. She claimed she "let the team down" after the Katie Couric interviews. She never gave a reason as to why she never answered Couric's question about which magazines or newspapers she recieved her information from. She only talked about interviews she gave the New York Times, but not about actually reading that paper. She also admitted she didn't answer questions about her foriegn policy experience very well. In fact, she did have some decent experience when it came to Russian and Chinese developers who were interested in oil contracts in Alaska; she just didn't allow herself to expand on that experience when she should have. Interestingly, she also claimed that the McCain camp told her that the Couric interview would be "easy" and that's she's mostly talk about the work balance between the governorship and motherhood, and that there would only be more interviews if the first one went well. Needless to say, it wasn't an easy interview at all and CBS still did three interviews.
Next, reading about her debate prep was very fascinating. Her crash course began in Philadelphia hotel rooms with McCain staffers who were strict and harsh with their criticisms in order to prepare her best. Progress was slow. On the other hand, Palin claimed that the staffers criticized her responses to questions with their "non-answers" that didn't make sense to her. It seemed if the question or topic was too deep or intricate, the staffer would say, "Oh, you don't have to answer that question, just say this." She includent the texts of question cards in the book. I couldn't blame Palin for feeling her intelligence was insulted. As both sides were frustrated, it was determined that Palin would change locations and strategies by prepping in Arizona at McCain's ranch. Now being a teacher it was really fascinating because of the stark contract in instruction methods. While working at the ranch with McCain himself, the atmosphere was much more relaxed as McCain was much more encouraging and positive than the previous debate coaches were. Joe Lieberman also came into advise her. He also used positive re-inforcement and constructive criticism that made more sense. He also told her to "just have fun." Of course, as most of us saw, Palin did as well as expected in that debate; she held her own. She didn't mention why she used all those little winks toward the camera, or why she claimed to represent the "Joe six packs" of America, which again, never seemed presidential.
Finally, Palin also commented on the campaign stretch when things weren't going very well. As the poll numbers were slipping, Palin suggested more events and rallies where her and McCain could connect with real people and be closer to the voters. The campaign staff pretty much ignored her and scheduled too many events with party big-wigs. It does seem that in past elections where an underdog has won (Harry Truman in '48, Jesse Venture for Minnesota Governor or Scott Brown for Massachusetts Senate, or, why not, Sarah Palin for Alaska governor) the trailing candidate would increase the grass roots efforts by tirelessly talking directly to voters - making as many house visits and shaking as many hands as possible. The incompetent McCain campaign would have been wise to listen to her on this one.
Of course, another criticism of Palin came when she resigned the governorship of Alaska after the '08 campaign. I vividly remember her telling Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC that the costs of countless allegations and lawsuits were taking their toll on the finances of the state of Alaska. That was her primary reason for resigning. She detailed in the book how her staff had to print and gather thousands upon thousands of pages due to Freedom of Information Act requests. This was time and money away from productive work for the people of Alaska. There were also many ethics lawsuits, mostly unfounded, filed against her, and she, by some law, would have to pay out of her pocket for attorney's fees. These actions against her were definitely hurting the state financially, and knowing what kind of a fiscal conservative she is, it's no surprise, and I don't blame her for her resignation. It was the right thing for the people of Alaska. Now of course, critics argued, that if she gives up while the going gets tough, she may never be able to run for public office again. It would be political suicide. Sarah Palin certainly knew this was the case, but she said she didn't care if she never holds another policital office; she was putting the people of her state first. I believed her; it was the best move for Alaska.
Of course I should mention the ordeals of her children whom she mentioned frequently in the book. Her oldest son Track in still in Iraq, any mother would worry about a son deployed overseas. Her daughter Bristol became pregnant out of wedlock at age 18. Everyone knows Palin has strong pro-life views, but after reading her side, I don't believe she's holds an extreme "anti-abortion" view like most radical pro lifers. She's more disappointed by abortion, not infuriated. And of course, there's her fifth child, Trig, who was born with down syndrome. It was touching to read how she and her family handled that challenge. She wrote a letter to her kids that was from God, and he explained just how special their new brother would be. Whatever views one has on religion or abortion or the military, Sarah Palin has been an outstanding mother and has helped her children through their trials with strength and grace.
Well, like I said, Sarah Palin has been an outstanding citizen of Alaska and the USA. She was a great benefit to the 49th state and our country by utilizing Alaska's vast resources for the betterment of America and to provide jobs, living wages, and necessary services for her Alaska consitituents. It was kind of too bad John McCain (she claimed it was ultimately his decision to choose her) had to take her away from Alaska cause she could have done much more beneficial work for the country from the governor's office. No one can really blame her though. The chance to be the Vice-President of the United States of American was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and she would have been stupid to pass it up. Just reference the Mark Twain quote above.
Now, Palin is a political commentator for Fox News. Some say she's after the money. Well, she's has a new grandchild, a child with down syndrome, and probably a few lawsuits against her still. If she wants to improve herself financially, more power to her. As stated earlier, I wish she was back in Alaska where she served the country much more valiantly and effectively. Now I have to hear her making many ill-informed remarks about what's best for the national government - which she also did in her book. She's praising the Tea Parties and bumbling on about how more taxes and spending are not going to solve our countries problems. Of course though, as in the book, she doesn't offer any alternative solutions.
It should be no surprise she chose the Fox News desk though. After all, she was a journalism major and former sports anchor.
I'd rather see her on Fox Sports.
