Sarah Palin Can Thank AP for a Sale

I hadn’t intended to buy Sarah Palin’s campaign memoir. The genre isn’t one that I very often enjoy, and I expected – perhaps influenced by the drumbeat of nattering negativism from sophisticated conservatives – that the book would be a fluffy production ridden with embarrassing mistakes.

Then I read the Associated Press’s “fact check”. No fewer than eleven reporters collaborated on this effort, declaring that, “Sarah Palin’s new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven’t become any truer over time.” And what horrendous untruths did they uncover? A full dozen (not just six, as readers of a truncated version of the story might think).

Well, let’s start with the twelfth and last:

PALIN: “Was it ambition? I didn't think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons.” Throughout the book, Palin cites altruistic reasons for running for office, and for leaving early as Alaska governor.

THE FACTS: Few politicians own up to wanting high office for the power and prestige of it, and in this respect, Palin fits the conventional mold. But “Going Rogue” has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto, the requisite autobiography of the future candidate.

The rest of the series are equally non-damning. Some are differences of opinion:

PALIN: Says Obama has admitted that the climate change policy he seeks will cause people’s electricity bills to “skyrocket.”

THE FACTS: She correctly quotes a comment attributed to Obama in January 2008, when he told San Francisco Chronicle editors that under his cap-and-trade climate proposal, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” as utilities are forced to retrofit coal burning power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama has argued since then that climate legislation can blunt the cost to consumers. Democratic legislation now before Congress calls for a variety of measures aimed at mitigating consumer costs. Several studies predict average household costs probably would be $100 to $145 a year.

And several other studies back the “skyrocket” view. Apparently, the AP thinks that it’s a factual error not to accept Obami talking points.

There’s also quibbling about whether, as mayor and governor, Mrs. Palin stayed utterly clear of conflicts of interest. Most of the examples are penny ante, but I was struck by a certain lack of nuance in this one:

PALIN: Criticizes an aide to her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, for a conflict of interest because the aide represented the state in negotiations over a gas pipeline and then left to work as a handsomely paid lobbyist for ExxonMobil. Palin asserts her administration ended all such arrangements, shoving a wedge in the revolving door between special interests and the state capital.

THE FACTS: Palin ignores her own “revolving door” issue in office; the leader of her own pipeline team was a former lobbyist for a subsidiary of TransCanada, the company that ended up winning the rights to build the pipeline.

Aren’t these revolving doors swinging in opposite and not really comparable directions? A state employee might well have an interest in giving a sweetheart deal to a prospective employer. A former employee might think well of a former employee but usually has no economic incentive to favor it. We all know people who are thoroughly prejudiced against companies for which they once worked.

All in all, AP’s quasi-review suggests to me that Going Rogue is a carefully written, thoughtful book that is largely free from obvious foolishness. At least, a dozen hostile readers couldn’t find anything significant to criticize. That’s more than one can say about most writings of most politicians. And Amazon is offering it for just a bit more than the price of a mass market paperback. So I ordered a copy. I hope that the author is grateful to Calvin Woodward, Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine for my contribution to her royalties.

Comments

[Jennyinoz]

"I hadn’t intended to buy Sarah Palin’s campaign memoir...I hope that the author is grateful to Calvin Woodward, Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine for my contribution to her royalties."

Funny you should have said the above. I pre ordered the book yesterday from Australia via Amazon for the same reason. I am already 2nd on the waiting list for the book at the local library and I could have read it eventually for free. However because of the behaviour of the likes of AP and every other looney left media types I decided to buy my own copy given the current exchange rate. Thank you Mr. President!!