Friday 2 October 2009

Sarah Palin, ghosts, originality...


Sarah Palin's book title is not very original. Our Sarah seems to have a problem with originality... Going Rogue is the expansion of a computer game, City of Heroes. An American Life is the title of Ronald Reagan's autobiography.

Will Sarah Palin's book be better than the game?

In the Going Rogue expansion, hero and villain characters will become immersed in the new parallel universe known as Praetoria, which is governed by Tyrant™, the evil incarnation of the game's main protagonist, Statesman™. As gamers search for Tyrant and the rest of his Praetorian guard, implacable foes and fierce resistance will arise to face them from all sides, causing heroes and villains alike to question their loyalties.

It sounds fairly entertaining, if you like this sort of thing.

How about the other autobiography? Here's a review on Amazon:

"A book obviously ghostwritten to such an extent it is difficult to imagine Reagan wrote a word of it. (Especially with the senility and Alzheimers he was obviously suffering from at this period in his life). As a political memoir it is vague and lacks detail (any military action the US takes is simply to "save them from communism")."

There were only two negative reviews of Reagan's book. Most people gave it 5 stars.

"this is an awesome book on the life of this great man who was one of the greatest presidents of the usa and a world leader.it is really disgusting to see some mentally sick one star reviewers on this page who are obsessed with insulting the memory of this great man .please ignore all the mean one star reviews on this page and read this book which gives us an insight about his life.may his great soul rest in eternal peace."

"A very good book. Contains much history which either wasn't or couldn't be reported at the time it was happening. Although it is over 700 pages, it was a good and enjoyable book."

Some gave it only 3 stars:

"This autobiography is interesting reading indeed, in that Ronald Reagan was a very fascinating person and his life certainly amazing in every aspect. I hesitate to give it a raving review and more than 3 stars, as it doesnt seem to fully live up to the subject matter. It lacks analysis and sophistication, but is still worth a read."

I bet the reviewer who can't type the capital letters is going to love Sarah's book.

Both autobiographies were ghostwritten to overcome the subjects' challenges: Ronald Reagan was challenged by Alzheimers, Sarah Palin is... challenged.

Sarah's ghostwriter is not getting very good press. Lynn Vincent is a lightweight who specializes in religious rhetoric and associates with questionable characters.


Of course nobody has read Sarah's book yet, but what we have seen so far doesn't look good. Bad title, bad cover and bad ghostwriter.

Oh dear...

(You may have noticed that I tweaked the colours of Sarah Palin's book cover to give her an orange outfit. Poetic license and wishful thinking, if you don't mind.)
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25 comments:

MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel said...

$P's book also "competes" with a series of three Marvel Comics titled "Going Rogue," that I found on eBay. I'd bet on the comics...

JB said...

Great post! The way she copied "An American Life" from the Reagan autobiography is outrageous. What an inflated ego! An almost half-term quitty governorship equates to the presidency?

Dianne said...

Like the poetic license and the orange jacket. Now, how about putting some bars in front of her?

Anonymous said...

Ditto to what JB said! And Regina, you are so clever to put her in orange...lmao!

Susan in MD

haha my wv is derap..as in Sarah's gonna take de rap!

CC said...

Great post, Regina, as usual.

Yes to the orange jumpsuit and yes to putting some bars in front of her.

That is where she belongs. And even if she is done politically by hawking lipstick (I hope) she still deserves to be in jail for being so nasty and evil to so many on her quest to the top. It irritates me that this evil twit is making money.

Anonymous said...

When I googled "going rogue" what came up were a bunch of steamy romances and semi-porn books and movies.

How perfect for naughty monkey barbie!!

Amy1 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amy1 said...

I knew it! I KNEW Letterman had sex. But let's be fair, news media: we had it first.

ProChoiceGrandma said...

Amy1, you link did not work. Did you mean this one? One of my favorites!

http://www.ottoline.net/PalinHoax/main.shtml

Dianne said...

@Amy1

Link worked great for me. Too funny! Yep, big surprise here that Letterman had sex. Although Scarah's babies were all via immaculate conception or found under a cabbage patch or just magically jumped into her belly practically full term. How handy. Abstinance for all!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Regina. McCain certainly seems interested in her book. And since the McCain camp released those emails, I wouldn't be surprised if she attacks and blames the McCain camp for everything. (The photo with her all puckered up, Cindy was standing to her left with a sly, gratifying smile. I've always wondered what Cindy said to Barracuda.)

Anyway, I love the orange tweet, and I think she deserves an orange jumpsuit, with flip flops, too.

EyeOnYou said...

Well it looks like there are 2 quitters in the family now. Is it contagious? Or are the true colors just finally being exposed?

Todd Palin won't be pulling a hard-core winter shift on Alaska's frozen North Slope, home to the richest oil fields in the country -- at least not with energy giant BP.

The husband of former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is no longer employed by BP, the energy company confirmed Thursday evening.

Company spokesman Steve Rinehart said Todd Palin submitted his resignation effective Sept. 18. Todd was a production operator on Alaska's North Slope. Production operators manage oil gathering centers, hubs where oil comes together from multiple wells.

The news comes only a few days after publishing company HarperCollins announced Sarah's memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life," would be released Nov. 17



http://www.alaskadispatch.com/news/politics/2215-todd-palin-resigns-oilfield-job





And what could add to that news?
How about a vote of "no confidence"?

Mr. Schmidt, who was an advocate of choosing Ms. Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate, had a falling out with her as the campaign lurched to the end. He made clear at a forum this morning that he thought it would be a disaster for Republicans to nominate her in 20120


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/a-vote-of-no-confidence-for-palin/

Amy1 said...

McCain's response to SP's book is why I feel so cynical about politics: it sounds like he's taking the high road with those comments re SP's book, if one didn't know the background.

And McCain KNOWS the background. (If he doesn't, he has a whole other kind of problem.)

I'd like McCain to comment on why he put a "congenital liar" up for VP.

("Congenital liar" is just a goodbye to Wm Safire, who called Hillary that, but then (jokingly) backtracked at one point and said "no, no, I meant 'a congenial lawyer.' " Even though I am in general fond of Hillary, I do think she she is a liar -- her Bosnia quote and esp its aftermath was one good indicator among many. But now she has a job where that is an asset.)

Amy1 said...

PCG: I put up a bad link first, sorry. Then deleted it. My link on HuffPo, while still there, is lost in the gazllion comments on this silly topic.

Amy1 said...

So Todd's quitting sounds like they are NOT going to separate -- he would need his own money to do that.

Anonymous said...

SO much for how Todd is a hard-working blue collar guy (not that he ever was, but they sure sold that pack of lies to the base).

Now he's free to have affairs 24 hours a day, when he's not babysitting her majesty and her many dramas, traumas, and poutrages.

Anonymous said...

@Amy - they could separate now if he is entitled to half of Sarah's income, due to divorce laws in the state of AK.

isn't he living in Palmer now?

Anonymous said...

That family has a poor record in terms of staying on the job:
Sarah, quit as governor
Track, sent out of town after suspected vandalism- did he ever finish high school before going to Iraq?
Bristol, finished high school on the computer, at least she appears to be taking care of the kids
Piper, who cares if she missed alot of school, she was so darn cute on the campaign trail
And now Todd, who we saw accompanying Sarah to Hong Kong. Looks like he is happy to be cashing in too, also. Does he still get the Arctic Cat deal for the next big Snow Machine Race?

midnightcajun said...

Regina, be sure to read the book copy that Harper Collins has now released. That's what'll be on the inside flap of the cover jacket.

Here's what you need to know about cover copy: the publishers have a department that writes these little blurbs. But in my experience, they tend to write something sketchy to awful, at which point the editor forwards it to the author who then rewrites the thing into something coherent--and that says what they want. The more power the author has (say, a multimillion-dollar celebrity as opposed to a midlist romance author) the more likely the editor will accept the new copy without comment.

So know when you read this cover copy that it was written by the ghostly VIncent and not HC. Therefore, it gives us an insight into what's in the book and what Sarah and Lynn will be emphasizing. It also contains a blatant lie, since it says in the cover copy that Track "IS" serving in Iraq when we all know he was home before that little sentence was written (cover copy is written after the book is turned in). So if they lie in the cover copy, imagine what they're doing in the book itself! Sarah's lucky she's not Pinocchio, otherwise all the lies in this book would make her nose grow so long it would REACH Russia.

Anonymous said...

McCain has to pretend that Miss Wasilla is a great thing...HE picked her, even if he was just pouting because he couldn't have his BFF Lieberman, he is still responsible.

That is why he is so defensive.

Anonymous said...

Sarah should get a refund from Lynn Vincent, if that is who chose the part of the title "An American Life." A google search showed the following items that also are defined with the same phrases. (I only did a few pages; there may be more).

Kissinger-An American Life, by Walter Isaacson

Mellon: An American Life by David Cannadine

Burt Lancaster: An American Life by Kate Buford

Archibald MacLeish: An American Life by Scott Donaldson

Sunchaser: Marion J. Vann, An American Life, Ann ArborMI Scholarly publication Office

American Life ALN TV Station

This American Life, NPR presented by Ira Glass

American Life, section of Voice of America which covers people, places and issues in the news across America

Ben Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Condolezza Rice: An American Life by Elisabeth Bumiller

Leonard Bernstein An American Life, Eleven part documentary series

An American Life - on live version of The New Yorker Magazine

Hallelujah Junction, Composing an American Life, John Adams (the composer, not the president)

Ronald Regan, as described in the post by Regina

Barack Obama - An American Life, biography posted at America.gov

Amy1 said...

anon@17:27 -- good facts. Yes, SP: get a refund!

colidii said...

Before this is over she will wish that she had chosen another ghostwriter. That isn't a nice association ... the "other mccain," who claims that he got email from $P denying that she and Todd were divorcing.

Time will tell whether the book is really a best seller and, if so, whether it was due to bulk buyers.

Anonymous said...

Orange.....all we need is an Ankle Braclet to complete the ensemble. Now THAT is good fashion!

KaJo said...

Let's have another Photoshop Palin tweaked picture contest!

(this time, no pregnant bellies involved, nor any "iconic images")

Here's my latest effort. When I saw that picture of Palin in the limo with Steve Schmidt, I just couldn't resist...