Book Review: Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue"

I just finished reading Sarah's book and thought I'd do a quick review for those that maybe interested. Overall I thought it was a very pleasant read that lets people see Sarah in her own words talk about her accomplishments in government, her beliefs on the role of government, and the current challenges that face this country and where we should be going from here.

The book starts out with Sarah as an infant in her mothers arms as her father moved the family from Idaho to Alaska. From there she spends some time talking about growing up in different small alaskan towns before the family settled down in Wasilla. It would seem that in growing up Sarah was a bit of a tomboy who would go out with her father to hunt before school on occasion, and who enjoyed taking part in competitive sports such as running and basketball. The overall theme of this part was just to paint Alaska as a state that is a picture of the need to be self reliant. Being so isolated they don't have very many large grocery stores to call home so much of what they eat comes from what they hunt, fish, or grow themselves.

Forward past that and her college years and she discusses settling down with Todd Palin and starting a family in the late 80's. After Bristol was born she quickly became pregnant again to which her and Todd became excited and hoped for a son. They had went so far to already pick out a name and start planning for his arrival, only for Sarah to have a miscarriage. This was a very surprising part of the book for me not only because i was unaware of the miscarriage, but her reaction to it really seemed so overwhelming. It was the loss of a life that they had come to treat as though it were already there. Later in the book she would relate how she found out at a Governor's conference in New Orleans that she was pregnant with Trig. She found out initially that she was pregnant with a at home test and admits to a fleeting thought of being able to "take care of it" without anyone knowing since she was in New Orleans. At this point she again affirms her stance on abortion as pro-choice as she says this causes her again to think about how we as a society should place more value on life than on perceived "problems" they may cause.

Getting back to government, she talks a bit about her days on the Wasilla city council only to mention that it opened her eyes to the fact that many in charge did not use their positions of public trust as they should. Instead they often sat back, collected a paycheck without doing much for the public, or worse, were corrupt. It was in the spirit of trying to change that that she ran for and was elected mayor. During that time she re prioritized the city budget and was able to reduce property taxes and quickly became one of the more popular mayor's in the state. Later she would be offered a chairmanship in the state oil regulating committee which she accepted. Again she was faced with mounting corruption as she reported possible ethic violations to than Gov. Murkowski, only to have them dismissed or swept under the rug. Faced with little other choice she resigned her position and soon after the guilty parties were cleaned out of elected office in a massive FBI investigation. From here she would eventually be elected Governor on a platform of smarter government spending.

When she got into office she started renegotiating leases on oil rich land held by large oil companies which had so far refused to develop. After some tough negotiating she got these large oil companies to concede and start drilling in these spots, producing more jobs in the state and upping the domestic production of oil for our country. Even more impressive was the work on a project called AGIA, or the Transalaska pipeline that when completed will provide us in the Continental states with a large direct source of energy. This pipeline had been talked about for decades, but ineffectual governors did nothing about it until Sarah got into office and the plans for the pipeline became a reality.

Fiscally she is conservative and as governor she took pride in being able to cut out 85% of pork from the original budget first submitted to her. Over and over again she mentions the importance of letting individuals keep more of what they earn and about government only focusing on items that are necessary such as the maintenance or roads, hospitals, and education. Keep government's roles simple and allow people to keep their individual freedoms and they will flourish.

All in all it was a very good read IMO. Conservative readers will enjoy getting to hear about her accomplishments and her vision of proper government. Liberals may appreciate her open style of leadership where she did govern with an open door for all elected officials to discuss state issues with her. That's all for now.

-Zach