Sam Stein and Lila Shapiro have a must-read based on excerpts of Going Rogue, and beyond all the sniping, there's one paragraph that stands out for its future implications.
In this passage, Palin laments John McCain's reluctance to turn the campaign into a referendum on Barack Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright:
"I will forever question the campaign for prohibiting discussion of such association. All the more since these telltale signs of Obama's views, carefully concealed with centrist campaign-speak have now been brought into the light by his appointments and actions in office."
Palin's trying to accomplish something important here.
In effect, she's claiming strategic supremacy. She knew Obama's weakness then, and she'll know it down the road. She's the one who had the handle on the race, but was kept from turning it by the powers that be.
That fits perfectly into the picture Stein and Shapiro paint, and we'll have to see if that's the book's message, because judging from these excerpts, it seems Palin's not ready to concede anything, even though her team lost.
Of course, who's really a flagellate in his or her memoirs? Especially when it could be the springboard to a Presidential run.
We'll never know if Schmidt or Palin were to blame. Probably, it was both. Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury on the same team. Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey on the same stage. A-Rod and Jeter trying to see who'll get interviewed first by Chris Rose.
The recriminations are expected. What will be more interesting are paragraphs like the one highlighted-- ones that point to the future and how she'd frame a debate against Barack Obama under her own terms.
