Sarah Palin's Going Rogue, a book to nowhere

There are some biographies of Sarah Palin already published (and reduced in price). They came out before she went rogue and "wrote" her autobiography with the help of a very Christian ghostwriter, Lynn Vincent.

One of these biographies has a long title: Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down.

It was written by Kaylene Johnson after Amanda Coyne turned down the honour of putting pen to paper in order to give the American public a glimpse into the life and times of Sarah Palin according to... Sarah Palin.

Here are some excerpts from a review of the book by an Alaskan reader:

This book, unfortunately, reads like a fanzine. In its small format, there are 32 full pages of photos and just 90 pages of text, with generous, generous white space. Five of the 90 pages are devoted to Palin's JV and varsity high-school basketball experiences.

"Sarah" is studded with the memes Palin made famous. Johnson calls Palin from the title onward a "hockey mom," but offers no details at all of that experience.

Kaylene Johnson's published works are varied, with many articles about Alaska and... Jesus, the bible and all that.

Amanda Coyne gave her reasons for turning down the project in an e-mail to the publisher:

"I've been following the governor's performance these last months, and I fear that she is floundering. Her administration is exiting rapidly, some of her decisions have been ill-thought out, at best.... Sarah is the type of woman who will end up defining her own success, but I have a hunch that that success will be to sail off to D.C. to take Stevens' seat if and when he gets indicted, and leave this state in a lurch. I've been talking long and hard to many people here, and I'm realizing that I can't write the book that you and I have spoken about. I simply can't have my name on what, so far, is turning out to be a puff piece without substance."

Amanda was right about Sarah Palin leaving the state in a lurch, but was wrong about Sarah's reasons. It turned out to be money and Sarah seems to be in a hurry to cash in before it all goes pear-shaped. The speaking engagements are failing to materialize and it doesn't seem to be that her fees are too high, it's more to do with people being embarassed to invite her:

Palin's bookers are said to be asking for $100,000 per speech, but an industry expert tells Page Six: "The big lecture buyers in the US are paralyzed with fear about booking her, basically because they think she is a blithering idiot."

Many big lecture venues are subscription series, "and they don't want to tick people off," said our source. "Palin is polarizing, and some subscribers might cancel if she's on the lineup." Other lecture buyers are universities, which have a leftist slant, and corporations, which dislike controversy.

"Palin is so uninteresting to so many groups -- unless they are interested in moose hunting," said our insider. "What does she have to say? She can't even describe what she reads."

People are beginning to see what Amanda Coyne saw some time ago: the pretty gift-wrapped package is just an empty box.