BOOKS: Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This was a fascinating look at a strong lady who has endured a tremendous amount of undeserved bashing from the media. While I disagree with many of her political ideas, I am disappointed that this country's feminists did not stand up and defend her and her daughters against some very vicious sexist attacks. Her personal stories were engaging and sometimes surprising. It was an enjoyable read and I believe it gave me some perspective on a strong and unfortunately polarizing political figure. She has earned my respect and I hope that she keeps on fighting.

Don't get me wrong. I have no desire to see her run for president. We disagree on too many issues. However, I am appalled at the level of poisonous garbage that she was treated with in an effort to utterly destroy her. Why attack her shoes and clothes? Would a male politician be attacked for the type of suit he was wearing? Why put a picture of her in running shorts on the cover of Newsweek? Would they make a male politician resemble a bimbo cheerleader? Why attack her kids, especially her baby with Down Syndrome? Don't make her out to be stupid. She's not. She's bright, witty and obviously connects well with a lot of American conservative women. The attacks were offensive, base, senseless and wrong.

There are plenty of legitimate issues to attack her on. The media doesn't have to go insane and create false or unnecessarily cruel ones. She has little high-level political experience (none at the national level) and probably destroyed any reasonable chance of running for president when she resigned as Alaska's governor. Sure, she had good reasons on why she quit her only major political office. She and her family have my sympathy. I think it's great that she put her family before her job. That doesn't mean I would support her to run for an office I don't believe she could handle. She doesn't have the experience.  She also doesn't seem to have the willingness to set her families' needs aside to accomplish her political goals (not necessarily a bad thing-----I admire her for doing that). I just don't agree with how the media has treated her or her family.



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