The worst thing about reading a book about Sarah Palin is reading a book about Sarah Palin. In the case of a public figure defined in large part by her relationship with (and attitude toward) the media, the reader of her biography cannot escape a particularly strong sense of complicity in the circus that has been following her since John McCain announced her as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.
This is the central, though not the only, problem with The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, Joe McGinniss’ partly inconsequential, partly interesting portrait of one of the most polarizing public figures in contemporary America.
But first, things that aren’t wrong with the book. Much has been made of the author’s unconcealed bias. It is clear that McGinniss stands squarely in one corner of the boxing ring that is public opinion of Sarah Palin. The epigraph, to take an early example, is comprised of Webster’s Dictionary’s definition of the word rogue: “An elephant that has separated from a herd and roams about alone, in which state it is very savage.”
That might not start things off on a balanced note, but balance rarely plays a role in all things Sarah Palin. Some of the best writing comes from the least objective, and for McGinniss to have undertaken his research without coming to some kind of partisan judgment would have been, given his subject, practically impossible.
Then there is the matter of McGinniss’ research methods. In the Spring of 2010, he (in)famously moved into a rental house next door to the Palins’ Wasilla, Alaska home in order to gather information for Rogue. The Palins—and Glenn Beck, who suggested that Todd receive a medal for not having physically beaten his new neighbor—were furious.
But good journalism is often a product of deep immersion, and few reporters would disagree with the proposition that a story becomes more successful as the physical distance between its author and its subject decreases.
At its heart, McGinniss’ real problem has to do with neither bias nor malpractice in reporting. It is instead simply substantive: many of the book’s 300-something pages are filled with the kind of drivel indigenous to celebrity gossip magazines and blogs.
Among the highlights uncovered by McGinniss in his relentless pursuit of that hidden wealth of information to which all American citizens, in the undying name of the public good, are supposedly entitled are such revelations as Palin’s allegedly having snorted cocaine and having had sex with a black man.
In a passage about Palin’s son Track: “’At least monthly,’ a parent of one of Track’s classmates tells me, ‘Todd and Sarah would be called to the school because of disciplinary problems with Track.”’
Here are evident not only MgGinniss’ penchant for the trivial but also his shoddy use of sources. While some of his accounts use named, authoritative witnesses, others rely entirely upon the testimony of “a parent” or “a friend.”
Anonymous sources come with an inherent unreliability. Their authority, motives, and trustworthiness are unverifiable. They sometimes are necessary to reveal a momentous truth that would otherwise remain in secrecy. But McGinnis has them appraising Track’s behavior as a high school student and ruminating on Sarah’s distaste for domestic chores.
These kinds of details would be less obtrusive were they not dropped like chunks of Velveeta into an otherwise gourmet account of a political peculiarity and the American landscape that made her possible. Palin’s real story—the one that matters—is darker than most Americans know. It includes political betrayals and cutthroat shadiness, nepotism and bitter grudges, ties to Christian Dominionism (a movement to establish a Christian theocracy in the United States), and alleged race and sex discrimination during Palin’s tenures as both mayor and governor.
McGinniss, who took Alaska itself as his subject in the bestseller Going to Extremes, is at his best when he is tying Palin’s aggressive, ego-maniacal pursuit of fame, wealth, and power to her home state’s history of institutionalized political corruption.
But even Rogue’s high points are marred by inevitable and frequent returns to the lowlands of unnamed sources and cheap shots. The result is an account sometimes interesting and sometimes lurid. In the end, McGinniss does manage to prove beyond much doubt that Palin is an aggressive, dangerous figure in American politics.
If only he didn’t do it so aggressively and dangerously.
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