Jacob Laskin reviews 'Going Rogue':

*
FrontPage Magazine managing editor Jacob Laskin's review of Sarah Palin's memoir is, overall, a balanced one. Laskin praises the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate for "writing movingly" about her family and "powerfully" of her reaction to the news that her fifth child would be born with Down Syndrome. Palin also earns high marks from Laskin for effectively rebutting "the disinformation, manufactured scandals and outright slanders" that her critics bombarded her with in the media during the campaign.

But Laskin rather incomprehensibly says Palin is only "probably right" in saying that her part in the campaign was poorly handled by Steve Schmidt, when it is obvious to most observers that neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin were well served by Schmidt's mismanagement of the campaign. We're also at a loss to understand Laskin's criticism of former Gov. Palin for referring to her family as everyday people. Laskin says that "'ordinary Americans' don’t get $5 million book advances," but before Sarah Palin signed her deal with HarperCollins, she and Todd were between a rock and a hard place financially, no thanks to the six-figure legal bills they faced from a number of unfounded ethics complaints filed by the former governor's political enemies. Besides, Sarah Palin is the same person she was before she received her advance, and she holds to the same values. We can't think of another family less likely to be changed by any amount of new money.

Laskin's other criticisms of Going Rogue carry more weight. He is not the first to point how that John McCain gets off too easy in former Gov. Palin's book, but it is not difficult for us to understand why she didn't lower the hammer on her former running mate. Sarah Palin is a Blue Star mom, and her eldest son was serving in Iraq during the campaign and is still an active member of the armed forces. Many people don't realize how important McCain's history as a POW and his unyielding determination to see an all-out victory in the Iraq war is to most families who have members who have served or are serving in harm's way.

The reviewer also expresses his disappointment at not finding "a deeper statement of political principles" and a specific statement from Sarah Palin about her future plans. We suspect that her next book will deal with policy. This one was a memoir. Also, we know of very few political figures who would box themselves in by spelling out their political intentions in print, and former Governor Palin is no exception, at least in that one regard.

No review of a review is complete without at least one excerpt, so here is ours from Laskin:

"How passé can Palin be if her critics are determined to parse her every word?"

"The short answer, which Going Rogue does much to substantiate, is that Palin is anything but washed up. While the book is frustratingly tight-lipped about her future ambitions, it reveals Palin as a compassionate mother, a combative campaigner, and canny politician whose presence on the failed presidential ticket was no fluke. Her critics, in short, are right to be worried."

The reviewer correctly concludes that Sarah Palin's memoir confirms what most of us who have studied Sarah Palin extensively already knew -- her critics dismiss The Arctic Fox at their own peril. Read Laskin's full FrontPage Magazine book review of Going Rogue here.

- JP