The Rogue

The Rogue: Searching for the real Sarah Palin

By Joe McGinniss

Published by Crown Publishers USA, 2011

Occasionally I pick up a free book from a shelf outside the shopping centre book store. The books are often too old or not exciting enough (for me), but I’ve found some which seemed to be good books. One I found last week was written by Joe McGinniss, a writer I’d never read before, but the title of his book intrigued me: The Rogue – Searching for the real Sarah Palin. I had a quick look through it, thinking that if McGinniss was pro-Palin I wouldn’t take that book. Inside the cover it says “The Rogue” is the eagerly awaited result of his research and writing: a startling study of the illusion and reality of Sarah Palin...” That was interesting, but would the book be?

I hadn’t really seen or listened to anything on the news about Palin when she stood for USA’s vice presidency, but I did notice the really bad reports she received on the media. At that stage I wasn’t interested in following whatever she had done back in 2012. But McGinniss’ book was written before that election she lost, published in 2011. Perhaps reading it would give me more information.

McGinniss wrote that she blurted much; she made up a lot of stuff; she told far too many lies; she was religious (attached to evangelical religions such as Assembly of God, Pentecostal and Apostolic Reformation); and believed that this globe was only here for 6,000 years, ‘created’ by a fantasy being, her god (even though she often went with her husband to Iditarod dog sled races which have proof that dogs sledded humans for more than 10,000 years). I’ve been into true history, and this globe has been researched back for millions of years – earth, animals, universe - all more than 6,000 years old. Dinosaurs, Ms Palin, lived in the Mesozoic era on this Earth for between 266 and 165 million years and disappeared around 65 million years ago. They had gone many years before we got to 6,000 years old. Even many of the religious people understand this!

McGinniss added more I hadn’t known about, other stuff which made her a really ‘evil’ woman: she mis-used money as a governor; used her own children for her political games; pretended to give birth to a Down Syndrome baby (I agreed with Joe McGinniss that she hadn’t even looked pregnant, and her tale leading to Trig arriving was incredulously weird, even though there is a national USA organisation which arranges adoption of Down Syndrome babies.); allowed her husband to do whatever he wanted to do – as she was Mayor of Wasilla or Governor of Alaska; and told so many ongoing untruths about McGinniss (he was renting the house next door to her – his one was nowhere near as big and Palin’s house had been built closer to the fence than it should have been).

She was anti-abortion (abortion is legal in Alaska) and pro-guns (even though “In 2017, Alaska had the highest gun death rate among the states...”). As Mayor of Wasilla she fired anyone she didn’t like (usually Democrats – she was Republican) and did the same thing when she was elected as Governor.

Those who voted for her initially loved her and believed her, but they began to realise that what she was doing was her own self-build. As the Mayor of Wasilla and the Governor of Alaska she eventually lost most of her support in Alaska. After McGinniss wrote his book she had resigned as Governor and moved into the mainstream of USA. The majority of her supporters there were also religious like her, or were gun owners who supported her belief in guns.

McGinniss wrote well, which the exception of (to me) the extremely boring repetitions of what happened at Palin’s religious meetings. Throughout his book he included photographs which could have stung Palin – and she spent far too much time talking to whichever media would publish her complaints about how she was upset about where he was renting. He wrote about things that every voter needed to know, including her push for a (non-existent) gas pipeline and her claim of costs for flying herself and her family between Wasilla and USA (religious meetings). He spoke to many people who liked her, and many other people who no longer did. He collected information and put the essential stuff into his book. But he didn’t look over the 14 foot high fence into Palin’s daughter’s bedroom.

Maybe most of the readers of this review might think it’s not relevant for you, but, for me, Palin is Trump and everyone in this world should be concerned about what Palin – and Trump – are doing to us. Many writers do not like Palin, and call her up on her uncivilised life which seems very different than most other people – perhaps I should read the article online about her “anti-woman feminism” or another book which tells of lies that Palin has told. Maybe I need to read many more, too.

Even though I don’t live in USA.