Books: "Going Rogue" By Sarah Palin

Maybe, Sarah Palin was hoping to bury any hards feelings with her daughter's baby father, Levi Johnston, when she made a gesture toward him this week on OPRAH inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner. But Johnston was quick to decline the offer.

Johnston turned a little more caustic in his new PLAYGIRL interview, claiming that "You could tell by her laugh(on OPRAH) that she was full of it". Johnston apparently didn't view the Thanksgiving invitation as really all that sincere it seems.

But Palin's appearance on OPRAH was largely in support of her new book, "Going Rogue" as well. Her appearance was hardly solely for some peace gesture towards Johnston or to repair bad feelings. The Johnston family has seen their share of bad headlines as well. Johnston's mother was arrested on drug dealing charges for example.

Interestingly, Palin didn't address the ongoing family feud with Levi Johnston at all in her new book, but instead appeared to offer a sort of olive leaf to her grandchild's father. It's certainly understandable that a baby's father should be an active part of a baby's life. But Palin's book does offer up plenty of surprises. In Chapter 4 she raise the question, "Who the hell was managing the McCain/Palin Campaign?" Palin certainly felt that the campaign's bad management style was a large part of the reason for the loss by 9.5 million votes at the polls, as well as the loss of many traditional Republican leaning states like Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado as well.

Palin also relates how a staffer arranged her first major interview with Katie Couric rather than a more friendly interview with FOX or some other outlet. Palin wasn't expecting the hardball line of questions on foreign policy or other topics. At the time, Palin was glowing in the excitement of being only the second major female nominee for vice president in American history. The interview which went badly was only the beginning of problems for the McCain Campaign which actually threw away a small early poll lead coming out of the Republican convention.

Like Palin or not, "Going Rogue" is still an interesting read and a decent enough first person account of the behind the scenes action at the failed McCain Campaign. Palin doesn't appear to accept too much blame for any missteps in the campaign, and too often seems to deflect blame on others. But that's probably about as much as can be expected. But the books is a good enough read to recommend.

If anything, "Going Rogue" is a surprising decent read by an important figure in the 2008 presidential election, and offers up more than a few fresh insights into the internal problems in the broken McCain organization. It may be well short on looking to shore up any personal shortcomings. But then again look at the source.