- BIG NEWS:
- Kindle
- |
- Book Publishing
- |
- Authors
- |
- eBooks
- |
There have been so many lies and distortions pointed out in Sarah Palin's Going Rogue since it was released last week that her memoir has already become something of a gag line.
But perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe so far is her mis-attributed quote to UCLA basketball legend John Wooden.
As the epigram to Chapter Three, "Drill, Baby, Drill," Palin assigns the following remarks to the Hall of Fame hoops coach:
Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it--with their lives.
Only the quote wasn't by John Wooden. It was written by a Native American activist named John Wooden Legs in an essay entitled "Back on the War Ponies," which appeared in a left-wing anthology, We Are the People: Voices from the Other Side of American History, edited by Nathaniel May, Clint Willis, and James W. Loewen.
Here's the full quote:
Our land is everything to us. It is the only place in the world where Cheyennes talk the Cheyenne language to each other. It is the only place where Cheyennes remember the same things together. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it--with their life. My people and the Sioux defeated General Custer at the Little Big Horn.
Oops! That's not quite the sentiment that Sister Sarah was trying to convey as she guzzled down sugar-free Red Bull and cranked up Toby Keith's "How Do You Like Me Now?" while jumping on her patriotic high horse at the opening of the third chapter.
There's also no small amount of irony in the quote, given Palin's abysmal record on Alaska Native issues during her truncated term as governor.
I was a huge UCLA basketball fan as a kid. Whenever the Bruins came to the Bay Area, I did whatever I could do to snag a ticket. I loved to watch Wooden coach. But I never figured the Wizard of Westwood as an advocate for radical land distribution.
Obviously this one slipped by Sister Sarah and her crack team of investigative journalists Lynn Vincent, Meg Stapleton and Ivy Frye, as well as all those dutiful fact checkers at HarperCollins. Obviously, they didn't get the quote from anything Wooden ever wrote, but from a cute little web site called The Quote Garden. Isn't that sweet?
Okay, I was a little leery reading Palin's book and wondering if she really had read Aristotle and Plato. Somehow I didn't think so. But I thought, maybe, just maybe, she might have read Sir John. Apparently not.
But just because we're all good sports here at HuffPo, I thought I'd save the former Governor (can you imagine what Wooden thought about her quitting?!) a little bit of time, and here are five actual Wooden quotes, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor, that she might want to take to heart:
1. It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
2. Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.3. What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.
4. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
5. Never mistake activity for achievement.
We'll see if the second printing carries a correction.
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Geoffrey Dunn's book The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power will be released by St. Martin's Press in spring 2010.
Loading comments…
Major achievements:
1) University Professor who taught constitutional issues.
2) A civil rights lawyer for 8 years
3) A state senator in Illinois.
4) A US Senator representing Illinois
5) The first affrican american to president of the harvard law review
6) Has a geniune interest in helping his community and those around him through as shown time spent as a community organizer.
Palin is/was not qualified
Major achievements:
1) Mayor for a town of 6000 residents
2) 1 term governor of Alaska who resgined half-way thorugh
3) Won 3rd place for "Miss Alaska"
4) Attended 3 universities and grauated with a bachelors from University of Idaho. Had aspirations to be a sports caster.
5) Authored a book about a the pres. campaign she participated in, described by fellow campaign memebers as: "pure fiction"
6. High school basketball star.
How can you possibly compare the two?
You know as well as I, that Obama was being groomed for his current office before he was even sworn in to his previous (lucky for us, Palin is being groomed for the same office as we speak). I remember well when he accepted his US Senate position there was much talk amongst the democratic pundits about this fresh new voice that was going to change the face of national politics. Regardless of how he was picked, he was picked. The means of the nomination are beside the point. The delegates are going to pledge for the candidate they think has the best chance of winning. Those candidates who have a lower chance of winning the presidency are usually compelled (by the powers that be) to drop out of the running and ‘endorse’ the favored candidate they had been talking trash about for the previous year.
I agree that Palin wasn’t the best choice for VP on the McCain ticket (if I didn’t make that clear before). It was probably just a failed effort to steal some of that ‘rock star’ thunder from Obama.
Obama: Tries to tell the truth, seems informed on world events, seems uninterested in "revenge" or punishing anyone, seems able to see, and willing to admit, his fallibility.
Palin: Tries to further her agenda without regard for the truth, seems uninformed on world events, sees those who disagree with her as enemies and seeks to destroy them, and seems completely incapable of introspection.
One more time: Obama's fact checking began before John Kerry asked him to speak at his Democratic National Convention. Fact Checking him has continued thru the Clinton and Orly Taintz. Palin followers forget that Racists have been after him all this time and found nothing. Nothing which means there's no news to be made from his books. Palin's petty attacks on those around her brought on fact checking; the Death Panel" lie brought on fact checking her, All of her well known antics as Gov. brought on fact checking her. The bottom line of the facetious Obama fact check comparison is that Sarah set herself up for it long, long after Obama went thru it.
Also, Obama addressed his "57 state" misstatement -- Palin's inner child blames other for all her missteps. She needs to grow up and act like an adult and not a fancy walking, winkin' beauty contestant.
http://www
"His book was never fact checked"
Really? I mean, really? Either you are ignorant, dishonest or you believe Limbaugh, Hannity and Fox are not doing their jobs. Just because they couldn't find the blinding idiocy pouring out of Palins book does not mean it was not fact checked. Come on, at least to the table honestly.
"woman who speaks from the heart" You honestly and genuinely believe that she does not develop 'message' and tactics for getting it out there? Now, we are not discussing her ability to pull this off, but you honestly believe she is not a politician? Being a second rate flubbing politician does not make someone a good, honest and genuine person. She absolutely and undoubtedly speaks to her audience and says things for absolutely no other reason than they want to hear it.
You think that hasn't been tried already? Nah, more likely, his books have been fact-checked, nothing was found, and no-one on the right wants to admit it or talk about it.
No, in this case, Palin (or her writers) made a major error. She (or her writers) should have checked their facts. What she/they have done is an insult to the Native American people.
I'll keep an eye out for your great discovery, by the way..
Yes - he said there were 3 left, but his campaign wasn't taking him to two of them.
47 plus 3 equals 50. It's clear he stumbled over "forty" and said "fifty" seven. An off-the-cuff response that flubs the word forty is nothing like a published mis-attribution that made its way through several drafts and editing. The fact that the real quote has the context that it does (which is contrary to the image Palin presents) is just the icing on the delicious irony cake.
Did you manage to write that with a straight face??
It made me think of Spinal Tap
"Do you think their popularity is waning?"
"No. Their appeal is just becoming more selective.
CHARACTER IS WHAT AND WHO YOU REALLY ARE.
REPUTATION IS WHAT PEOPLE ASSUME THAT YOU ARE.
At least I know that if I avoid the 'Fiction' book section, I will be sure not to see it.
Mrs. Palin now holds the record for the second-fas