Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" Left Me Cold

I have always been a Palin supporter, a Palin booster. But I've gotta tell ya... after reading her book - her own story - I'm shaken.

Do I admire Governor Palin? Yes. I still do. But what "Going Rogue" makes perfectly clear is that "VP Candidate Palin" was not the Sarah Palin I thought I was supporting at the time.

The "pre-McCain" Sarah Palin was someone I could - and did... and still do - look up to as a sincere, caring, compassionate, resourceful, usually right on the issues, forthright, brave, hard working, qualified candidate for federal executive office.

Unfortunately...

The "VP Candidate Palin" who put up with shit from the likes of Steve Schmidt isn't anyone I'd want within a hair's breath of the presidency. Heck... "VP Candidate Palin" was no one I'd want sitting on the Wasilla, AK. city council - or sitting on my local PTA board for that matter!

Those of you familiar with my views know of my deep abiding disgust for Senator John McCain. But that aside, I can't knock Palin for accepting a place on his ticket. After all, for good or ill (and believe me... it was for ill!) John McCain was the GOP presidential candidate in 2008.

Hell... I can even understand the loyalty Sarah Palin still feels towards the man.

Here's where Palin lost me, however:

Page 321 of Going Rogue --

"...life is too short to hold a grudge. If I ever see Schmidt again, maybe I'll bring him a pretty white Peace Lily."

You've gotta be shitting me..!!!

I know... I know... I try to keep my blog postings free of cursing and vulgarity, but I've gotta be honest... reading the chapters in "Going Rogue" detailing Sarah Palin's treatment by the McCain campaign left me fairly trembling with rage.

Oh, sure... I'm disgusted by McCain's part in this; after all, Schmidt was McCain's boy and thus ultimately McCain was responsible. Still... McCain is who he is. He's a backstabber. He's a vain, self-righteous, shallow, stubborn, mercurial phony, a selfish and self-serving old man desperate for power and willing to do anything in the pursuit of it.

The thing is... I'm just as disgusted with Sarah Palin for allowing herself to be "managed" and frankly abused by McCain's staff.

A leader... someone worthy of his or her Party's nomination for the Vice Presidency of the United States acknowledges one superior in the campaign hierarchy - and that's the Presidential Candidate!

To read "Going Rogue" and realize that Sarah Palin - at the time Governor of Alaska as well as the "Number Two" on the GOP Presidential Ticket - allowed Steve Schmidt and his creatures to "manage" her, to control her, to "forbid" her this and "allow" her that... it just makes me sick to my stomach - physically ill.

To those of you who haven't read "Going Rogue," I strongly urge you to read it. This applies especially to those of you so ignorant as to rely upon SNL skits and the rest of the mainstream media news and entertainment liberal establishment for "thinking points."

In many ways - in most ways - Sarah Palin was and is everything her proponents (including yours truly!) portray her as.

Qualified to the Presidency? Allow me to answer that question this way: She was and is more qualified to be President of the United States than John McCain was or Barak Obama is.

But... and this is key...

The "She" I'm referring to is the "real" Sarah Palin, not the woman who ran as John McCain's running mate.

The "She" I'm referring to is Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska, the woman who took on and beat the corrupt GOP establishment of her state and who as Chief Executive of Alaska governed - quite effectively - as a true conservative.

Would I vote for Sarah Palin should she seek and win the GOP nomination in 2012? Sure! Absolutely! Does this mean that I'm a "decided" voter in terms of the 2012 GOP primaries? No. Of course not. It's 2010... there's a long way to go.

The bottom line is that Sarah Palin possesses far more strengths than weaknesses - more pluses than negatives.

Again... to those of you who haven't read "Going Rogue," I respectfully suggest you do so.