We never thought we would give credit to an author of anything that was published at the Huffington Post, but Stephen H. Dinan has written a review of Going Rogue which is as fair and balanced as anything that we're likely to see posted on that website. But Dinan is a rarity among HuffPo diarists -- a thoughtful liberal who was willing to give Sarah Palin the person a fair chance. Uncomfortable about his own prejudices against her, he read her book with an open mind about the quality of her character.
Dinan's review is a refreshing change from the usual HuffPo fare concerning Palin. It contains no lies, no smears, no snark, and no assumptions taken for granted about the motivations behind her words and deeds. Here's a sample taken from his review:
"Reading Going Rogue makes me understand that Sarah is not the ruthlessly ambitious and cutthroat caricature we feared; she is a woman who has befriended Democrats personally and professionally, shown real leadership in fighting corruption, and taken a more nuanced position on several issues in which she seemed far more polarizing. She seems quite sincere in her desire to serve in whatever way the universe calls for that service."We don't expect any confirmed liberal to read Sarah Palin's book and be magically transformed into someone who can't wait to pull a voting lever for her. As Palin supporters, we would be overjoyed if most liberals would simply stop smearing the woman and telling lies about her. But that's not likely to happen.
[...]
"Most of all, I come way from the book seeing Sarah as a woman who loves her family deeply, seeks to live a life of integrity, and wants America to be strong, successful and vibrant. While I may disagree with some of her policies and perspectives, I can better respect both her sincere patriotic intent as well as her willingness to take on hard fights in the service of democracy, in addition to her championing of the everyday people who often feel marginalized in our political process. I still would not vote for her for President, but I do respect her more as a person and as a leader of an important base of Americans."
As we said earlier in this piece, Dinan is a rarity. He's a liberal of good character who reminds us of what many liberals were like before the radical left pushed both the Democratic Party and the progressive movement well to the port side of the American political mainstream. We didn't bother to read any of the HuffPo reader comments to Stephen Dinan's diary, but we don't have to use much of our imaginations to know how hard he is likely being kicked around for posting such a fair and thoughtful review of Gov. Palin's memoir. And it goes without saying how many of them will use the opportunity to continue to spew their tired and hateful attacks on the lady from Alaska.
- JP
I went and read the entire column at the HuffPo, and then read through the comments that were left. Amazingly enough, there are ONLY 18 comments, and some of them were very favorable. Could it be that Palin hatred is on the wane, or are all the regular unhinged loons still in bed? I've seen far less favorable columns on Palin over there that have attracted hundreds of comments, 99 percent of which were foaming at the mouth rants against both Palin and the author.
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