Keep Your Powder Dry

Today at 10:34am

As you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release. And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book. Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it! Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain.

We can't wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first...

- Sarah Palin

I have signed a nondisclosure agreement with Harper Collins regarding Sarah Palin’s new book so until it comes out I am limited to discussing only what is currently in the public domain. However, I simply must respond to the Associated Press "report" on Going Rogue.

Even grading on the "Palin Scale" of media bias, the AP’s synopsis is a joke.

Based on how the AP sees the book, you would think that the most significant disclosure is that Palin had to pay back the McCain campaign for part of her vetting because they lost, followed closely by the fact that she felt "badgered" by Katie Couric and didn’t get her way on election night.

In short, the book that the AP supposedly read sounds like it is full of self-serving whining and almost totally lacking in substance. That is not a remotely accurate evaluation of Going Rogue.

First of all, there are far more interesting and important revelations in the book (I have noticed in my own experience with my film "Media Malpractice" that one of the most insidious forms of media bias against conservative projects is to paint them as boring) that the AP has for some reason chosen to totally ignore.

Second of all, Palin’s analysis of what really happened with the now infamous (and totally misunderstood) Couric and Gibson interviews could not be LESS whiny — it is instead full of fact-filled writing that finally provides the full story of what really happened in the way that only a book can do (my documentary, which I am told Palin handed to her collaborator and said "here, this is what happened" could only provide a foundation of understanding that is magnified in much greater detail in Going Rogue).

My greatest regret (and I have many) in the course of making and promoting my documentary of the news coverage of the 2008 election is that I completely underestimated how impossible it is for a conservative (especially one as hated by the news media as Sarah Palin) to correct the historical record about media coverage because it is so easy for the very same media to portray you as whining.

I was naVve. I thought that telling the real truth of what actually happened would be seen as intrinsically valuable and eminently appropriate. Governor Palin instinctively knew different, telling me several times before during and after my interview with her that she was wary of being wrongly perceived in that way, and knew that she would have to thread a very small needle. I wish I had done a better job of combating that totally incorrect perception and perhaps that is why I am so sensitive to the subject when it appears the AP is not so subtly laying the groundwork for a resurrection of that bogus charge.

The bottom line is that the AP is either purposefully or out of their own profound unconscious bias, badly missing the most important points of Sarah Palin’s book. Considering the role the mainstream media played in creating the need for her to write this book in the first place, that should not be a big surprise.

If you are interested in this most amazing of all modern political stories, I urge you to read the book for yourself and not let those who want Palin destroyed to continue to dictate your perceptions of her. Her book may be the only way for you to know the real Sarah Palin. Don’t let the AP read it for you.

HER TURN!

Fri Nov 13 2009 07:27:12 ET

Going Rogue: An American Life

by Sarah Palin

Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257

By the third week in September, a "Free Sarah" campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate.

From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well on the trail thus far. My suggestion was that we be consistent with that strategy and start talking to outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal. I really didn’t have a say in which press I was going to talk to, but for some reason Nicolle seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon.

"Katie really likes you," she said to me one day. "she’s a working mom and admires you as a working mom. She has teenage daughter like you. She just relates to you," Nicolle said. "believe me, I know her very well. I’ve worked with her." Nicolle had left her gig at CBS just a few months earlier to hook up with the McCain campaign. I had to trust her experience, as she had dealt with national politics more than I had. But something always struck me as peculiar about the way she recalled her days in the White House, when she was speaking on behalf of President George W. Bush. She didn't have much to say that was positive about her former boss or the job in general. Whenever I wanted to give a shout-out to the White House’s homeland security efforts after 9/11, we were told we couldn’t do it. I didn’t know if that was Nicolle’s call.

Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. "She just has such low self-esteem," Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. "She just feels she can’t trust anybody."

I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain’s campaign how?

Nicolle said. "She wants you to like her."

Hearing all that, I almost started to feel sorry for her. Katie had tried to make a bold move from lively morning gal to serious anchor, but the new assignment wasn’t going very well.

"You know what? We’ll schedule a segment with her," Nicolle said. "If it doesn’t go well, if there’s no chemistry, we won’t do any others."

Meanwhile, the media blackout continued. It got so bad that a couple of times I had a friend in Anchorage track down phone numbers for me, and then I snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and someone I thought was Larry Kudlow but turned out to be Neil Cavuto’s producer. I had a friend call Bill O’Reilly after I was inundated with supporters in Alaska asking why the campaign was "ignoring" his on-air requests for a McCain campaign interview. I had another friend scrambling to find Mark Levin’s number. Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters’ strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press. At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, Tracey or Tucker would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, "No! Absolutely not- block her if she tries to go back."

Thank you, Washington, for Requesting a Demonstrably Good Idea

I commend the president for acknowledging today that "there are limits to what government can and should do" to ease our 10.2% unemployment rate – the highest it’s been since 1983. I also applaud his call for suggestions and expression of openness to considering "any demonstrably good idea." Taking him at his word, I’d like to suggest this one: let’s learn from history and follow the example of the man who occupied the White House in 1983 and was able to transform an even worse recession than the one we’re currently experiencing into the largest peacetime economic expansion in American history.

When you realize the magnitude of President Reagan’s achievements, there is absolutely no reason why anyone would ignore his "demonstrably good" example. If you want real job growth, cut taxes – including capital gains taxes and small business payroll taxes – and slay the death tax once and for all. If you want to stimulate the economy and help poor and middle class families, cut payroll taxes so that more Americans can keep and invest more of what they earn.

If you want lasting economic expansion and prosperity, get the federal government’s budget under control. Instead of more pork-laden stimulus plans, let the free market correct itself. That’s what Reagan did, and history proves it worked.

In his comments today, the president honorably suggested that he welcomes our ideas on how to put America’s economy on the right track. But, there also seemed to be a suggested chastisement of the private sector’s efforts to right some economic wrongs when he said, "...small businesses and large firms...have not yet been willing to take the steps necessary to hire again."

As business owners seek to expand, or just to keep doors open today, it’s not as if they are refusing to hire out of spite. Given a pro-private sector environment they will be only too happy to hire more people and grow their businesses. Perhaps if leadership in Washington reassured them by, for example, cutting tax burdens and making government more efficient, it would send our businesses a message that it’s safe and smart to expand today.

These are difficult times for so many Americans who are out of work. I implore our leaders to not threaten our economy’s job creators with increased taxes and job-killing schemes like cap-and-tax and the government health care takeover. Government needs to get out of their way and off their backs so that they can grow and hire again.

The lessons of history are clear. We’re blessed to have so many lessons from which to learn, and we’d be smart to emulate successes in America’s past. Our economic recovery decisions should be based on the same free market principles that Reagan employed. They work, history proves it, and I thank our president for asking for this input.

- Sarah Palin

Pelosi "Health Plan" Should Be DOA

Today at 10:40am

We need to be vigilant in investigating the ramifications of the Pelosi Health Care Bill. Some provisions sound so outrageous as to be considered impossible to fathom, but they’re right there in the bill in black and white. For instance, page 297 of the bill explains the punishment for not purchasing government mandated health insurance. If you don’t buy what the government considers "acceptable health care coverage," you’re going to be hit with a tax of at least 2.5% of your income. And if you don’t pay that new tax, you could be fined as much as $250,000 and sentenced to up to five years in prison.

But here’s the thing: they have to make the penalty for opting out very harsh in order to force us to buy coverage. The only way to keep this government run health care plan afloat is for everyone to buy into it – especially young and healthy people. That means that they will have to penalize citizens if we choose not to buy a plan that will cost a minimum of about $15,000 per family per year.

The bill that came out of the Senate last month – the Baucus Bill – does just the opposite. It calls for a much lighter penalty ($750 maximum) for people who don’t buy government approved health coverage, making it cheaper to pay the fine than to pay for the coverage. (And with a recession on, who can blame families for not wanting to pay $15,000 for a government mandated health care plan?)

But here’s the kicker: the bill also forces insurance companies to cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions. Think about what that means. A lot of people – especially young and healthy people – will just pay the penalty instead of purchasing coverage because they’ll figure that it’ll always be there if they get sick, as government has promised. That’s what will happen, and when it does it will totally undermine the very concept of "insurance" – which is basically a group of people pooling their resources over time to cover themselves for a rainy day, paying while they’re healthy so that they’re covered when they’re sick. Those who are healthy now pay for those who are sick. If your insurance pool only contains sick people, it’s a bust. And that’s what this government plan will be. Without all of those young and healthy people paying into the pool and defraying the costs, the government will have to pony up more and more money, and who knows how long the whole crazy plan will last before it goes broke – and our country with it!

That’s where we are with this bureaucratic mess: either the government penalizes people so harshly that they could be hit with huge taxes and even possible jail time, or the government makes the penalty a slap on the wrist and undermines the plan from the get-go. Forcing individuals to buy health insurance seems unconstitutional, yet Congress wants to foist it on us anyway. Proponents of government controlled health care will say, "But we’re made to buy car insurance and home insurance, what’s the difference with health insurance?" It’s apples and oranges. Auto insurance is a state law requirement, and people can always choose not to drive. Banks might require you to have home owner’s insurance, but again, you choose to own a home, just as you choose to drive. You have no choice at all when it comes to this federal government health care insurance mandate.

There are other ways to reform health care without violating our Constitution and our personal liberties. Let’s get back to discussing market-driven, patient-centered, result-driven solutions, like, for example, allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines, tackling existing government waste and fraud, and reforming medical malpractice laws (tort reform) to stop unwarranted lawsuits that force doctors to order unnecessary procedures just to cover themselves.

Please let your Senators know that the Pelosi Bill should be dead on arrival. Once we go down this big government path, it will be virtually impossible to reverse course. Let’s fight for the reform that makes sense for Americans before it’s too late.

- Sarah Palin