The New Yorker Reads Sarah Palin, Thinks She May Be Of ‘Historic Consequence’


sarah-palin-bookThe New Yorker may or may not be atop of Sarah Palin’s reading list (one sort of assumes not) but that hasn’t stopped The New Yorker from reading and reviewing Sarah Palin’s memoir Going Rogue.

This perhaps shouldn’t come as such a surprise, the magazine has recently been dipping its roguish toes in coverage of the Right’s most headline-making figures — Glenn Beck made an appearance a few weeks back, as did the tea partiers. But still, it has to be a sort of triumph on the part of Sarah Palin, (sneering or otherwise, depending on how you feel about the magazine) that her influence is now such she has warranted a near 4,000 word review — penned by Sam Tanenhaus, no less, who is moonlighting from his regular gig at the The New York Times Book Review, so a double whammy of sorts in the ‘liberal media elite’ category.

What does The New Yorker think of Palin’s Going Rogue ? Much like Newsweek (but without the alarming cover) they peg Palin as the modern-day successor to former conservative populists like Barry Goldwater . Unlike Newsweek, the New Yorker thinks that the very fact she is a woman may make her a populist of “historic consequence.”

Populists, from William Jennings Bryan and Huey Long through Joseph McCarthy and George Wallace, have always been divisive and polarizing. Their job is not to win national elections but to carry the torch and inspire the faithful, and this Palin seems poised to do. That she is the first woman to generate populist fervor on such a scale enhances her appeal—and makes her, potentially, a figure of historic consequence.

Didn’t necessary see that one coming did you? The magazine also notes Palin’s “iron grip” on the daily news cycle, and the “a permanent air of improvisation and experiment” that surrounds her career. Furthermore, they suggest that Barack Obama may have something to do with her popularity: “fascination with Palin owes something to the way that her cultish aura mirrors, or refracts, the aura that surrounds Barack Obama, the other political figure who comfortably inhabits the nexus of politics and celebrity” (also, “the only candidates from outside the Lower 48 ever to grace national tickets”).

But what did they think of the actual book? There’s actually precious little critiquing of the tome in the article; much like Palin has used the book’s publication to give her a renewed platform, the magazine has used it as an excuse to talk about her in a larger context. However they did have this to say:

Whenever “Going Rogue,” which Palin wrote with the help of the Christian journalist Lynn Vincent, leaves the subject of family joys (“Every child is created special, with awesome purpose and amazing potential”), the beauties of the Alaska landscape (“Autumn in Alaska shimmers in white and gold”), or the utility of prayer (“As the months went on, Todd’s prayer was answered by an offer for a permanent position with BP”) and turns to politics, it becomes a narrative of almost continual embattlement. It’s the outsider against the insiders, the innocent circled by wolves, whether in the Alaska Republican Party, in the “professional political caste” that stifled and, finally, betrayed her during the 2008 campaign, or in “the liberal media.” In almost every case, Palin’s own part in these conflicts is scrubbed free of complicating detail, lest it add darkening shadows to her pastel self-depiction.

We’ll have to keep an eye on Palin’s Facebook page to see whether the magazine warrants a reverse review.

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7 comments

  • Vidiot Vidiot says:

    We know Palin reads the New Yorker. After all, she reads every single magazine and newspaper out there. She said so! And she wouldn’t make anything up.

  • Sunnyr Sunnyr says:

    The goons in the LIBERAL MEDIA just can’t get enough of Sarah Palin. lol. Go Sarah, you have them all foaming at the mouth like little rabid ferrets. Keep up the good work!

  • TfT TfT says:

    Clearly, Sarah should be person of the year, if you just count the number of articles on this board, she wins hands down.

    Person of the Year: Sarah Palin and her face book page. She has changed the debate this year without a doubt.

  • m m says:

    There’s nothing wrong with covering a controversial figure. If there’s any bias at work, it’s “news” and “people’s general interest”.

    It’ll be interesting to see what’s going to happen in these following years with her.

  • Ted Ted says:

    TfT – I partially agree with you; Sarah should be dumb ass person of the year. Beck a close second. They are gold for Democrats. You betcha!!

  • It’s sort of strange to throw in Barry Goldwater as a comparison, when he was never mentioned in a very long article.

    The New Yorker doesn’t need an excuse to talk about Palin–they choose sometimes rather random topics and go on at length unapologetically. Palin is not even a random topic, book or no book.

    It also makes sense that the New Yorker devoted little text to the book itself, as most of its readers are probably dismissive of the book without a review… Sam Tanenhaus uses Palin’s book as a jumping-off point for delving into a comparison of her book with Powell’s, and of Palin herself with Clinton, Truman, Reagan, pointing out how her just-me/plain sarah pitch is actual quite singular and new.

    John Tantillo (a conservative) has a marketing blog and also blogs on Fox Forum–he has also drawn a parallel between Obama and Palin, saying that they both have (had) “forward motion.”

    Tantillo also criticizes the book but for different reasons: for its focus on the Past (sacrificing this ‘forward motion’).

  • shootfromthehip shootfromthehip says:

    She is of consequence. She signifies the end if the American empire and the rise of idiocy in what once was a nation that valued intelligence.

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