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A couple of days ago, I commented on the shallowness of Sarah Palin's book, where I deduced from reading reviews and articles that it doesn't tell us much about her political ideas, philosophies and future aspirations.
Here is a very good article at Pajamas Media (what kind of name is that!) where Rick Moran voices my concerns.
At another post, I talked about Peter Brimelow of Vdare commenting that he was "impressed," but all he provided was a quote from the book. Recently, he has written a full op-ed (a rambling 1,700 words) on the whole book, and he couldn't convince me of the impressiveness of the book. In fact, he says very little about the book (is that because it has very little content?), and devotes his article to trying to explain the Palin phenomenon.
Some clarification. I mention Brimelow and Vdare because they purport to be some sort of conservative site which is fighting for national integrity (mostly through immigration restriction). So their opinions should have some weight, more so than other sites. I find in this article, that it isn’t necessarily so.
Mainly Brimelow reiterates that Palin’s appeals to the public is her small town, gun-toting, blue-collar, church-attending background, with a son in the military.
Brimelow writes sympathetically about Palin's resignation from Alaska's governorship. I remain skeptical. Politics is a grueling game. If she can't handle the fight up there in Alaska, how does she think she can take on Washington?
Brimelow makes too much of Palin's understanding of the mortgage induced recession. From the quotes Brimelow provides, Palin never connected this with minorities. Whether she's being politically correct or she's unable to see it, it is still an important omission on her part.
Since Vdare is dedicated to immigration restriction, of course Brimelow has to bring up Palin's position on immigration. He writes "The issue is completely unmentioned in Going Rogue." Yet, didn't her presidential candidate team member have a strong position on immigration, going for the "comprehensive immigration reform" platform? How could Palin leave this crucial national issue "completely unmentioned?"
To make up for this, Brimelow resorts to a November 17, 2009 Rush Limbaugh interview of Palin where he asks her about immigration. Palin mentions border security briefly - but doesn't elaborate on "comprehensive immigration reform" that McCain was so adamant about. Either she doesn't want to bring up the controversial issue, which might hurt her book, or she doesn't think it is important enough.
All-in-all, based on Brimelow’s long but insubstantial review, and Rich Moran’s much more lucid one, I will hold my original view that Palin’s book gives us nothing important about her politics, and I will refrain from buying it.
