Another very positive review of Geoffrey Dunn's book "The Lies of Sarah Palin."

Courtesy of The Agony Column:

Dunn's book is pretty simply constructed. We get the life of Sarah Palin, as told by those who know and knew her, in roughly chronological order. It stands in pretty stark contrast to the official version, however, and here's where Dunn shows his ability to write more than news. While carefully documenting everything he writes about Palin, he also manages to give readers a story, to put things in context. Through fine prose, a remarkable job of excavating witnesses and friends from across the years, and the ability to craft character from fact, Dunn tells us the story of Sarah Palin.

This story is not without controversy, and what Dunn presents contradicts much of the publicity associated with Sarah Palin's carefully constructed image. In a sense, this is also a book about the state of news coverage in American media, where competence and coherence compete for our attention with sheer chutzpah, while we select facts to bolster our own opinions from a buffet of boutique made-for-me outlets. Dunn's story is powerful and convincing, no matter what your political inclinations may be. Of course, you'd have to read it, and by virtue of the title alone, many will understandably be disinclined to do so. They'll certainly miss a compelling story of American politics.

Now that the hubbub over Frank Bailey's book has died down, people are really starting to take a much longer, and more significant look at Geoffrey's book.

I know that people have been comparing the two books, and proclaiming which one they like the best, but in my opinion BOTH books have something important to offer. 

In Bailey's book you get the behind the scenes 411 on what was happening in real time during Palin's campaign, her scandalous behavior while she was Governor, and her frame of mind after she returned from the McCain/Palin campaign trail.

In Dunn's book you get just about everything else.

Of course there is STILL much left untold, which leaves plenty of interesting details, and scandalous facts,  for Joe McGinniss to reveal in his book.

The important thing to note as you read these three books is that they ALL describe Sarah Palin as the duplicitous, manipulative, and deeply troubled woman we all know her to be.

Which of course is in stark contrast to the person described in "Going Rogue",  the propaganda laden "The Undefeated," and even Palin's stupid reality show.

By the way, speaking of the REAL Sarah Palin, you would be well served to take a moment and read what Andrew Halcro had to say about Snowdrift Snooki in his Anchorage Press article entitled "We Can't Make These Things Up." He is ALSO describing a woman, very similar to the one in Baily and Dunn's books.
 

Another excellent review of Geoffrey Dunn's book "The Lies of Sarah Palin."

From OpEd News:

Despite the title of the book, to his credit as a journalist, it must be said that this author tried vainly to give a balanced picture of Mrs. Palin's life and professional resume. However, it seemed that at every turn no matter how hard he tried, the facts of her life kept conspiring against a balanced view of her. On the good side of the ledger, he dutifully reported the reasons why the conservative kingmakers were all gushing over her. At first only the friendly conservative media were doing so, but then later on, the "big dog" powerbrokers inside the Republican Party took up the cause and eventually convinced John McCain that she was an "ideological rock star" worthy of being on the Republican ticket.

As the author repeatedly notes, at first glance and on paper, Palin "shows well," and did indeed seem to reflect the quintessential conservative tribal qualifications: a hockey mom who lived on a lake, ice fished, was a snowmobiler, a lily white beauty queen, who had helped her High School win the State basketball championship -- with roots in Idaho, and who was also tough and gutsy. Moreover, it was well known that she was rabidly pro-gun, pro-life, religiously fundamental, and a proponent of American exceptionalism. Along with this stellar conservative ideological resume, it did not hurt her cause at all that she was also (almost predictably) anti-gay, anti-tax, anti-black, and (even in Alaska) anti-Native American. In short, Mrs. Palin viewed herself (and was viewed by others, especially the conservative Republican powers that be) as coming from a different kind of America: the white sub-tribe of "real" Americans.

After a "quick and dirty" vetting process (that would later prove to have been disastrous), Palin was certified as "Grade A" republican material, prancing with the Republican "big dogs on the national stage as John McCain's Vice Presidential candidate. As it turns out, this would be the end of the good news in the book of Sarah Heath Palin. As McCain and others on the national scene would abruptly find out, Ms. Palin was a lot less than meets the eye. In due course, they would discover that she was a lying and deceiving politician as well as a vengeful and hypocritical human being and very much un-Christian like in her behavior -- a fact well known to Alaskans who had dealt with her well before Ms. Palin made her national debut.

This review is DEFINITELY worth the read, in fact it was so good it almost made me want to go back and read Geoffrey's wonderful book again.  And you know, I JUST now finished Bailey's book so you would think I needed a break.

I am very glad to see my friend getting some more attention.  In my opinion his book deserves to be read by EVERYONE with any interest in politics, Sarah Palin, or how the Republican party chooses their candidates.

I am no expert on pregnancy, but is it common for women to get pregnant in their shoulders like Sarah Palin apparently did?

(H/T to Brad Scharlott for the image.)

Laura Novak conducts yet another very interesting interview with Professor Scharlott over on her blog.

This link will take you the most interesting clip, where Mrs. Palin talks about “huntin’ and fishin’” and her big family. The interviewer at one point interjects: “And you have four?” meaning, children. And Palin replies, “I have a bunch of kids” before rapidly changing the subject. Was this because she wasn’t sure how many she would have in the following days, or because she wasn’t yet prepared to tell the world about a fifth? “A bunch of kids.” How maternal.

It’s not just that Palin was supposedly 7 months pregnant during this interview. It’s her behavior, posture, and her stunning announcement the next day that still mystify, dumbfound and disturb so many followers of this fairy tale.

Throughout her entire Newsweek interview, which was at least 10 minutes (judging from several YouTube clips), she remained in that forward-leaning position with her legs crossed.

LN: What an amazing woman.

BS: Amazing indeed. How late into your own pregnancy, Laura, could you comfortably assume that position and hold it several minutes?

LN: Are you kidding? I still can’t, and my baby’s now 16 and rides a BMX bike.

Now for many of us THIS is well covered ground, that we are now seeing revisited by new eyes. However the last part of Laura's answer directed my focus to something that I have not given a great deal of thought to in the past.

As many of you know I have interviewed a number of people who worked with, or around, Palin before, during, and after her "pregnancy." In one of those interviews the person mentioned that not only did Palin not appear pregnant DURING her month and a half long pregnancy, she also did not appear to have just given birth AFTER Trig was born.

Now here you will have to forgive me because I am JUST a man, so until I read Laura's somewhat tongue in cheek answer above I did not give that as much thought as I should have.

So I went back through my notes to check, and was reminded that not only did Sarah Palin not have any of the pain or discomfort you would expect during her pregnancy, she also did not seem to have ANY sign of having just given birth in the days and weeks afterward. 

Now granted these people would have been interacting with Palin in a professional setting where she might not have felt comfortable talking about her soreness, or appearing weak or needy in front of staff, so I wondered how she might have acted in the privacy of her home, when she was just letting it all hang out.

But WHO would have seen her in her home only a few weeks or days after giving birth?

Oh yeah, that's right!

So I gave my friend Mercede a call.

As it turned out Sadie and her mother were stuck in traffic here in Anchorage, and so I was able to ask both of them whether or not Sarah demonstrated ANY signs of having given birth on May 3 2008, only twenty days after Trig arrived, and the day that they both went over to Palin's house to see the new baby and to celebrate Levi's birthday.

To the question of whether she appeared sore, or had trouble moving around or sitting, they both said "No, she appeared fine."

To the question of whether or not they could have discerned that she had just given birth by her appearance, they both replied "No." "In fact," added Sherry, "she did not look like she had given birth at all!"

I then started trying to think like a woman, and asked if Palin complained about any soreness in her breasts, or whether or not they appeared milk laden or uncomfortable. Again the response was "No, not at all."

Sadie did point out that she was in a sweatshirt, so it would have been hard to see if she was swollen, but that she certainly "did not act as if she were uncomfortable."

I thanked them for their time and hung up the phone. (By the way you should be hearing more from Mercede herself later on today.)

You know the difference between pretending to be pregnant on a television show, and doing the same thing in real life, is that in a movie or television show when the director yells cut you can take off the fake baby bump and have a cigarette. But in real life you have to be prepared to play your scene 24 hours a day, for as long as the "pregnancy" (And the appropriate amount of time after the pregnancy), lasts.  Clearly Palin was just not that good of an actress.

Which is WHY we see her bending forward when she should have been seven months pregnant, and WHY her belly changed size and shape so often in that month and a half span of time, and WHY she acted afterward as if it simply did not happen.  Because, and stay with me on this part, it DID NOT HAPPEN!

Now look, one of the arguments against the idea that Palin pulled off this fake pregnancy has always been, "that's crazy NOBODY would do such a thing! Especially while in the public eye!" Which on the face of it seems like a reasonable argument, but not when it comes to Sarah Palin.

Just ask yourself about all of the crazy Palin lies that you know about.  This is a woman who has lied and said that NONE of the ethics complaints filed against her ever had merit, that the U.S. federal debt had grown more under Obama than “all those other presidents combined," repeatedly lied that she quit her job as Governor because under the laws of the state, her family was going to be bankrupt by litigation and public records requests, and apparently supported her daughter's lie that her very obvious facial surgery was really due to a dental procedure to align her teeth. (And those are only the tip of the iceberg.)

So you see what WE all might consider a lie too outlandish to tell by ANYONE, is really just business as usual for Sarah Palin and her family.  And until somebody REALLY calls them out on their lies, there is NO reason for Sister Sarah to change her tactics. None.

(By the way if you want to get an idea of just how often Palin lies, all you need to do is buy "The Lies of Sarah Palin" by Geoffrey Dunn.)

Geoffrey Dunn, the author of "The Lies of Sarah Palin," in his own words.



Geoffrey Dunn and Gryphen in Alaska

Below is my interview with author, and my good friend, Geoffrey Dunn.

I attempted to ask Geoffrey questions that perhaps others would not think to ask him, as well as those to which I already knew the answers, but thought all of you might enjoy learning about as well.

Hopefully this interview will clear up some of the misconceptions that are swirling about concerning the research done for this book, and provide some insight into just what a herculean task writing a book which reveals the truth about such a secretive person can turn out to be.

So get a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back, and enjoy the conversation.

Gryphen: What was your very initial impression of Sarah Palin, when she first came onto the scene?

Geoffrey Dunn: I felt like I saw right through her from the get-go. I never felt, to steal a phrase from Gertrude Stein, like there was a there there. I knew people in the Mat-Su who said that her mayorship in Wasilla had been a disaster. I just never bought into the hype. When she was nominated for vice-president, I knew there was trouble ahead, and I was right.

Gryphen: How long did it take for you to start thinking there might be a problem with her ability to tell the truth?

Dunn: You know, there’s a fascinating editorial from the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman that was written in 1996. And it’s devoted to Palin’s inability to tell the truth. It’s stunning. It’s been part of her M.O. from the beginning. In November of last year my friends in Alaska all emailed me about her lying about the weather in Juneau when she was on Fox News. She lies about the weather. She lies about everything. As I say in the book, it’s a pathology.

Gryphen: When did you first decide to write a book about her, and what was the impetus of that idea?

Dunn: I had no intention of ever writing a book about Palin when I first started writing about her for the Huffington Post. None. Nada. I assumed that someone would grab a book deal about her and run with it. Plus, I didn’t want to spend a couple of years working on a book about her. But then several people started encouraging me to write a book – this was near the end of the 2008 campaign – and remember, she was coming back to Alaska to finish out her term for governor —and so the first idea for a book was that it would be a reflection on the interface between Alaska politics and the Outside. That has always fascinated me since my first trip to Alaska in 1974. Most people Outside have no clue about what is going on in Alaska. And then of course, she came back to Alaska and clearly had no interest in being governor anymore – none – she absolutely hated it. She’d seen the lights of the big city and wasn’t going to be kept down on the farm. So the book changed because her position in American political discourse changed. She became a national icon and she has stayed a national icon.

Gryphen: Did you find it easy to locate people in Alaska who were willing to go on the record about Sarah Palin?

Dunn: Nothing was “easy” about this book. Nothing. You know, Michael Paul Gross came to Alaska and said that no one would speak to him on the record. Ditto with several other reporters. I built up trust over two years with several people and the vast majority went on-the-record with their comments. But nothing was easy. And the Palin supporters have always attacked anyone who goes on the record. Viciously.

Gryphen: Did you make contact with any of the Palins close friends or associates? If you did what were your impressions?

Dunn: Yes, of course I made contact with several people who were at one time close to the Palins, and some who still claimed to be close. All good people. But it’s a fascinating river of human carnage that have been thrown under the bus by Palin—from Wasilla to Juneau to the McCain campaign, and now, even to SarahPAC. And they all draw the same portrait of Sarah Palin – and a pretty portrait it is not. Next week there will be another book out by one of her closest supporters – someone who was one of her closest confidantes, Frank Bailey. And he draws the same portrait.

Gryphen: What shocking bit of information about Sarah most surprised you while researching this book?

Dunn: The fact that she clearly and openly betrayed John McCain during the 2008 campaign. Now you can say, well, of course, everyone knew that. But when I stepped back from my book and looked at the whole story, that really hit me: she openly and willfully betrayed John McCain in the middle of the campaign. Wow. Think about it.

Gryphen: There have been some allegations from a few readers who claim that your sources were lying. How do you answer such charges?

Dunn: I checked up on the stories that were told and got confirmation from others. And I will forever stand by my sources. But look, one doesn’t need to question their rendition of events. The most devastating revelations in my book are those that are unchallenged, for which Sarah Palin is herself the source. And the most ringing is Palin’s tone-deaf and morally bereft response to the shooting of Gabby Giffords and the killing of six innocent bystanders in Tucson. Watch that tape again. It’s a shameful moment in American history. Appalling. And the commentators I cite in response to Palin’s speech are Republican and conservative commentators, not liberal ones. Watching Palin’s response made me sick to my stomach. It still does. That’s why I call the Epilogue to my book, “Crosshairs.”

Let me also add this—whenever someone attacks Palin, the minions circle the wagons and attack the messenger. They’ve done it every time. It’s soooo predictable. And when you watch it enough, the Palin inner-circle takes on all the qualities of a cult. And these people are cultish in their behavior. If you read the Bailey book, one reading is that those in the inner-circle were like cult members. It required an unquestioning dedication to Palin. The all drank the Koo-Aid.

Gryphen: Did you have to pay anybody to get them to speak with you?

Dunn: That’s a joke. No one was paid. The fact that anyone would claim that is another Palin scam and lie. Add it to the list. And it’s a very long list. The only one who has ever made money off the Palin scam is Palin herself.

Gryphen: Did anybody you interviewed have only positive things to say about Sarah Palin? And if so did they appear impaired in some way?

Dunn: Two people I interviewed only had positive things to say about Palin. And I included their comments in the book. I would like to spend more time with each and push them on their perceptions. But I like them both very much. They like me. Or they did. And they probably think my book is too hard on her. Which is funny, because a few people have thought I was too easy on her. Which proves, for anyone considering writing yet another book on her, that you need to be true to yourself in the portrait you draw. You can’t worry what anyone else thinks. And I don’t.

Gryphen: Have you had any bad experiences with Palin supporters?

Dunn: Yes, plenty. They’re entitled to their opinions. But I don’t really give them any juice and I refuse to engage it. And I’m not going to here.

Gryphen: Joe McGinniss is also writing a book about Sarah Palin, are you friends or mortal foes?

Dunn: I have to chuckle at that. It was you and other Alaska bloggers who informally introduced me to Joe last summer, through mutual emails and the like. And we have struck up a friendship that has become very important in my life. We have many things in common and he has been a mentor to me. One thing is that I’m Italian (on my mother’s side) and I lived in Italy during the mid-1980s. And he wrote a great book about Italian soccer, The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. He speaks Italian and has an Italian sensibility. Who would have thought? Two writers with Irish names speaking Italian to one another. He is il mio fratello negro. I’ll let you figure out what it means. And I think in the end, our books will complement one another. And I am really looking forward to reading his book— though I simply will never embrace his passion for soccer. But the Palin sand box is big enough for plenty of shovels and pails. And I am sure there will be more.

Gryphen: Do you think Sarah Palin will run for President in 2012? If not, why not?

Dunn: You know, several of my friends in Alaska, from across the political spectrum, made bets with me that Palin would win the presidency in 2012. Well her response to Tucson put a major damper on that dream. And I still think I will collect on that bet. Because let me say this to all her supporters: Sarah Palin cannot win the American presidency. Ever. She’s hated now Outside as much as she is hated in Alaska. Here’s my favorite graph about Palin:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/fav-palin_n_725513.html

The numbers tell the tale. And what’s fascinating is that ever since the Katie Couric interview, her favorability rating has been in steady descent. It has never moved the other direction once. And since Tucson it has been in even sharper decline. So the question is, even with those numbers will she run?

All of a sudden the planets have once again aligned in her favor. Trump got thrown out of the race. Huckabee dropped out, which creates a huge hole for Palin. Gingrich has self-immolated. Romney is made of cardboard. Pawlenty of recycled cardboard. Palin is the only one with any charisma or juice.

 The Gallup poll indicated that she has the most name recognition of any candidate. I mean, how many people know who Mitch Daniels is? She will no doubt see this as a sign from God that a door has opened. Also.

The fact that she just sent out 400,000 letters to South Carolina this week indicates that she is still positioning herself for a run. She can’t win Iowa—she has no organization there—and she can’t win New Hampshire –where she is disliked by Republicans (see my book, wink)—but she can win in South Carolina, so if she enters the race there, well it’s a free for all, and with Huckabee out, well she can roll in the South…she plays to the Southern conservative evangelicals who have a real problem with a black president. And she is dynamic on the stump where she has a well-scripted speech that she can deliver to the throngs. So that’s a possible scenario where she winds up running. She is the anti-Obama. And she has a shot, albeit a long one, to win the Republican nomination. But the presidency? Never.

Gryphen: Do you intend to write more about Palin?

Dunn: Right now, like most Alaskans, I am suffering from Palin fatigue. She may be suffering from Palin fatigue, too. So I may or may not. I was at work on a book about Bohemian culture in American history when I started the Palin book and I have already returned to working on it. But I am also considering writing a similar book about Palin’s buddy Glen Beck called “Snake Oil Man.” A couple of people have come to me with stories about him and I view him as a malignancy in American political discourse. So, too, do most credible Republican operatives. They can’t stand him. He and Palin tap into the same dark American sinister underbelly of fear and hatred and racism that fuels their huckster politics. And, of course, they snicker all the way to the bank. Theirs is really a disgusting presence in American political history.

Thanks for your time Geoffrey.  You are a true journalist in the best sense of the word, and you have done a great service to your country with this book.  The more light we shine on Sarah Palin the easier it will be for people to see her for what she really is, a very dangerous fraud.

Oh, and before I forget, thank you for the kind words that you wrote about me in "The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power."  I felt truly honored to be included among such an impressive cast of characters.

And folks, if you have not ordered Geoffrey's book, what are you waiting for?

As of this writing it is number two on the Amazon "Hot New Releases in Political People Biographies" section. But with your help we can make it number one, as well as in a number of other categories too.