Sarah Palin Book Tour: "Going Rogue" is Going on the Road

Hallelujah, Sarah Palin is going on a Going Rogue book tour. Great news for those who think that Sean Hannity knows what he's talking about (he doesn't) and Rush Limbaugh is the voice of conservatism (he isn't). Sarah Palin sat down with a word processor/computer and pounded out a 400-page tome, something she's titled Going Rogue: An American Life (the subtitle being a Ronald Reagan rip-off -- nothing like originality), in a couple of months (nothing like thoughtful consideration of one's words) and is attempting to pass it off as something worth reading. Most books take years to write and the ex-Governor of Alaska certainly doesn't strike one as an Isaac Asimov or an Alexandre Dumas -- or even a Danielle Steele, people known for their prolific writing. She got paid untold millions in advance for Going Rogue and according to Amazon.com, it has either held the top spot -- or been close to it -- on the bestseller list for weeks (at 69% off and $9 per copy, how could it not be a bestseller?). HarperCollins reported that there will be a first printing of 1.5 million copies and a book tour has been announced. And all this writer can think to say is, "Who really cares?"

Obviously, HarperCollins is banking on at least 1.5 million people to care enough to buy the Going Rogue. If it becomes a runaway bestseller, it could sell quite a few more. Although Sarah Palin's political capital seems to be waning, her popularity among the more literate of the lunatic fringe of the political Right remains unabated. And she continues to draw multitudes to her public appearances -- which is also good news for those who set up the book tour. Of course, literacy does not imply wisdom, and the bandying about of hate-filled and buzzword rhetoric (even in a 400-page book), which seems to be her stock-in-trade, certainly does not mean she's an intellectual of any sort. (It also does not mean she isn't, but we have her speeches and her Katie Couric interview for proof of that.) And just because it happens to be in book format this go-round does not mean that Sarah Palin is on par with even Michael Savage; it simply means she wrote a book and is touring to promote it. Calling political opponents "terrorists" and voluntary clinical counseling "death panels" might work for those who think a dollar and a gun is the solution to all the world's ills, but most people are more intelligent than that and the people who buy Going Rogue will either be the same old lock-step neo-conservatives who made Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity rich or those inclined to parse her every word to make her look as asinine as possible. The latter has not been proven to be overly difficult in the past, so...

The Going Rogue book tour, according to the Associated Press, kicks off two days after Sarah Palin appears on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (November 17) and a day after her book is released (November 18). So far the Going Rogue book tour is to continue until December 6 but that is a flexible end date. In addition to the book tour, she will appear on a Barbara Walters special interview that will air in five installments. Sarah Palin hopes to do interviews, according to her Facebook page, with Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Greta van Susteren, and Glenn Beck.

What happened to not doing "business as usual"?

Truly, Fox News should make the Glenn Beck / Sarah Palin interview a pay-per-view event, because conservatives and liberals (and moderates) would pay to see the two most far-out fringers of the political Right in a one-on-one strategy session. One could take wagers on how quickly Glenn Beck begins fawning enough to make Todd Palin rush onto the stage and pry Glenn Beck's lips off Sarah Palin's derriere. That kind of political lunacy in one room would be pure entertainment for peoples of all political stripe. They could call it "How To Lower Your Political IQ In Minutes."

For those who cannot stomach listening to Sarah Palin and/or Glenn Beck (or anyone else who eventually interviews her) blather on in unsubstantiated ecstasy about how America is going to hell, read her book. But don't buy Going Rogue; something that cheap isn't worth owning, even as a paperweight. It is suggested that the library's copy will suffice. Take the $9 (and upwards once the Amazon pre-sale price goes up and the book hits bookstore shelves) and donate it to any political candidate -- Republican, Democrat, or Independent -- she does not endorse. Your country will thank you for it (years from now, when history looks back and breathes a collective sigh that she was never elected to anything higher than the governorship of Alaska).

And besides checking out Sarah Palin on her book tour (because you really, really have better things to do), take a look at David Letterman's "Things More Fun Than Reading The Sarah Palin Memoir."

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Sources:

Associated Press
Amazon.com
HuffingtonPost.com