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NRL News
Sarah:
How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down
Reviewed by Dave Andrusko This small gem of a book was written well before pro-life Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen by pro-life Sen. John McCain to be his vice presidential running mate. The Barnes & Noble clerk told me the day I purchased the book that they had just gotten copies in of Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down and that she expected “vigorous sales.” It doesn’t take much expertise to surmise that until two weeks ago, Kaylene Johnson’s story of Palin’s stunning, against-all-odds political ascension in Alaska probably experienced only minor success. It is published by Epicenter Press, which describes itself as a “regional press publishing nonfiction books about the arts, history, environment, and diverse cultures and lifestyles of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.” But all that changed August 29, in Dayton, Ohio, with McCain’s introduction of “first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, a stunning selection of a little-known conservative newcomer who relishes fighting the establishment,” as the Associated Press (AP) described it. After reading Sarah, I realized how revealing (inadvertently and otherwise) that first AP story actually was. For example, it did not convey at all the enormous excitement Gov. Palin generated at the rally, or the instant bond the self-described “hockey mom” established. Talk about missing the obvious. Palin’s charisma was almost as self-evident as her ability to speak in commonsense language that endeared her to the audience. That’s exactly the response that Palin has stirred in her years in Alaskan politics. “The more people got to know Palin, the more they like her,” Johnson writes. At the very end the AP story mentioned her husband, Todd Palin, who is “part Yup’ik Eskimo” and “a blue-collar North Slope oil worker.” What Johnson’s book teaches us is that the Palins are an extended family without whose total support Sarah Palin could never had ventured out to do battle with the “good old boy” network in Alaska. Johnson quotes a family friend who said of Sarah that she “is a tireless campaigner,” adding, “Todd would make a lap around the state in twenty-four hours just to put up signs.” But Todd and the larger family did more than put up signs. “Todd’s schedule had him working on the North Slope one week on and one week off,” Johnson writes. “During off weeks, he took over the household. When he was away, Sarah’s sisters and mother helped fill in the gaps.” In one great understatement, Palin told Johnson, “I have a great network.” At the Dayton rally, an exuberant McCain told his audience, “She’s exactly who I need. She’s exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of ‘Me first and country second.’” Johnson documents Palin’s shake-it-up approach at considerable length. Palin stirred up dust beginning with her first public service as a member of the Wasilla city council. Her unwillingness to “go along to get along” continued through her successful campaign for mayor, a narrow loss for lieutenant governor, a stint on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in which she fought corruption wherever she found it, through a remarkable upset in the Republican primary for governor (where she defeated a political institution), and finally her upset victory over former Alaska governor Tony Knowles in 2006. I came away from Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down with two clear impressions. Opponents have consistently underestimated Palin, to their great detriment. Living where she has all her life and raised by parents who wanted the best for their children, Palin is intelligent, focused, physically tough, and unwilling to yield if she believes she is right. Also, when she is the subject of obvious bias, it infuriates her supporters. One volunteer told Johnson about a talk show host who “clawed, fought, ridiculed, embarrassed, and deliberately misrepresented Sarah.” One time the host showed up at the campaign headquarters to clear up a point before his show. “Waiting at the front desk was a man who took one look at [the talk show host] and dug out his checkbook,” Johnson writes. “‘This is your fault,’ he said, waving his checkbook in the air. ‘Every time you bash this woman on the air, I’m down here writing out another $500 check.’” As events have transpired these last few weeks, no doubt it’s a lesson that Barack Obama would have paid a pretty penny to have learned in advance of Sarah Palin’s arrival on the national scene. |