Palin’s book almost out, but two others pip her to the post
Two new books, one from the right, the other from the left, give political animals plenty to digest even before the moose-hunting former governor’s own memoir hits bookshelves in two weeks. The two volumes, “Sarah From Alaska” by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, and “The Persecution of Sarah Palin” by Matthew Continetti give sharply divergent views of the potential 2012presidential candidate. But both agree she has been a galvanising public figure in America. According to Continetti, the core of Palin’s appeal to middle America is upper-crust, chattering class contempt for her. “Palin speaks in a different patois,” he says. TV journalists Conroy and Walshe, meanwhile, argue Palin has a tendency to bend the truth in achieving her best national lines, most notably the so-called “bridge to nowhere” line. Both books agree she will be central to the Republican Party’s efforts to rebrand itself for 2010, 2012 and beyond. You can read these books, wait for Palin’s own memoir, or simply watch her on The Oprah Winfrey Show on 16 November. Read more: Washington Post
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