By Ardain Isma
CSMS Magazine Staff Writer
Every famous person wants to put in print the legacy of his/her success, and Sara Palin is no exception. But lately, writing about gossips or about other people’s lives has become a very lucrative business. However, these books have nothing to do with literary oeuvres. Nor do they master the linguistic skill necessary to keep readers within the realm of intellectual satisfaction. The ghostwriters simply don’t care. In fact, they’re too busy writing gossips for clumsy politicians who would otherwise have to resort to the airwaves to make their voices heard. The sad thing is, in the corporate publishing world, quantity vastly outweighs quality. Show me that you can sale books, and I’ll have you in the front spot of my retail bookstores. It’s a logic that resonates well into the hearts of every writer.
In her new book, America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag, Sara Palin takes on everything: from American Idol to the Hip Hop industry to American Beauty to Rev. Jeremiah Wright etc… Many have the suspicion that the former Alaska governor’s new release is a prelude to her 2012 presidential ambitions, although in the book itself, Palin makes few references to her plans. She rather heavily emphasizes on the need for a leadership change in Washington.
Remember her first memoir, Going Rogue? It has reportedly sold more than 2 million copies. Of course, Palin has been gaining big since she relinquished the Governor’s mansion in Alaska. From the Tea Party Express to the convention halls across the country making sterile speeches at $100, 000 a piece, nothing could more lucrative than that. The book industry, which has been waiting in the wing to jump on the bandwagon, now seizes the moment to get a piece of the pie.
What can someone learn from this latest of Sara Palin? “We’re worried that our leaders don’t believe what we believe, that America is an exceptional nation, the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan believed it is,” she writes. And she goes on to sat that “we want leaders who share this fundamental belief. We deserve such leaders.”
In reference to John Kennedy’s electoral speech on religion during the 1960 campaign, Palin claims that JFK’s speech “essentially declared religion to be such a private matter that it was irrelevant to the kind of country we are.” We’re not quite sure that Sara Palin truly understands the irrelevance or hypocrisy behind such statement. This could easily be interpreted as a faulty move—clumsy one may say—to bring weigh to her book. In her own logic, taking on to such an important statesman will certainly give her the push that she’ll need to secure a spot in the pantheon of “great writers.”
“I am not the Catholic candidate for president….I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic,” Kennedy said in this historic, persuasive speech that many still believes was crucial in convincing the country that electing someone who is not the traditional Anglo-Saxon protestant would do no harm to “our beloved nation.” In no where in the speech did Kennedy make the voters understand that his catholic faith was going to guide his presidency. Nor did he ever promote faith-based initiatives like the ones George Bush was promoted.
Palin takes on the Jeremiah Wright issue during the last presidential race, Obama’s controversial former pastor. Questioning the Obamas’ patriotism and referring to Michel Obama’s comment during the presidential race that “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.”
Rebuking Michelle’s statement, Palin was blunt. “I guess this shouldn’t surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church listening to his rants against America and white people,” Wright writes.
Like the first one, this book will sell. Palin has a base, remember that. However, America by heart may take Palin to many convention halls and book tours across the country while swelling her lot even more, but it will certainly NOT lead her to the White House in 2012. We believe many experts will agree to this assertion.
Note: This story was first on CSYF Magazine www.csyfmagazine.org
