Shortly after her national debut, I wrote my literary agent an email asking him if he thought a Sarah Palin book would fly. He wrote me back and asked me how long it would take to write it. The result is "Sarah Barracuda: The Rise of Sarah Palin.
I think the book will be like a Rorschach Test: if you dislike Palin you will probably find more reasons to dislike her. If you're a fan, you may grow to be more of one. Either way, I hope you'll pick up a copy.
Fans who think her a decisive leader will likely be pleased to read about her take-charge style which usually involves her firing people and putting her own people in key positions when she begins new administrations. My favorite example of this was the time she decided she needed to get control of the Dairy Board, and realizing that she couldn't get rid of the members without firing the person who supervised the board, promptly replaced the supervisor and eventually got her way with the Board.
Opponents will likely be troubled by her close association with the Pentecostal movement, and her penchant for turning on friends. She once opposed her mother-in-law who sought to succeed Palin as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. The other Mrs. Palin was a pro-choice Democrat, so her daughter-in-law opposed her and helped elect her opponent. Palin also ran against Frank Murkowski for governor, a man who had been something of a mentor to her.
I wrote the bulk of the book before the strange Couric interview which I admit to being baffled by. The Palin I encountered in my research is no dummy, so I just can't figure out why she seemed unable to answer basic questions like which newspapers she read, or her seeming inability to answer certain questions at the debate with Biden. My only thought is that perhaps she's been overhandled and at least for a time, lost her confidence.
If McCain wins, Palin will likely be a towering force in American politics for years to come and has a strong chance of succeeding him, given his age and health. If they lose, I'm not sure what will become of her nationally. There will likely be a battle for the soul of the party and her status will depend on whether or not she gets blamed for McCain's loss.
