Palin likely to keep fans happy

GOING ROGUE: An American Life. By Sarah Palin. HarperCollins. 413 pages. $28.99.

On May 9, 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a special stop in Columbia. Before the visit's main event, a small by-invitation-only reception was hosted to honor the candidate. During this reception, one of the higher profile attendees asked McCain who his running mate would most resemble.

"Anybody but Lindsey Graham," he replied, jocularly jabbing at the event's honorary host while smiling in the direction of Jenny Sanford, whose husband, an old friend of Graham's, was then thought to be a prospective "veep" pick.

Four months later, a high-heeled, lip-glossed, children-in-tow star was born at the 2008 National Republican Convention.

"Going Rogue" is former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's highly anticipated opus. Penned with assistance from ghostwriter Lynn Vincent, the book obviously is intended to augment Palin's brand-equity cultivation efforts of late.

Oddly, its writer(s) did not seize this as an opportunity to issue many unique or new policy prescriptions. Then again, the dearth of gravitas inherent in the work's politically focused commentary is rather fitting for a politician who is casting herself as a folksy fixture on the new Obama-era pop-political stage. A stage upon which substance, as a function of job qualifications, clearly has taken a back seat to form.

In small part, "Going Rogue" is written to right the not-so-favorable records set about Palin by several former McCain-Palin campaign staffers.

Meanwhile, the work provides many tidbits of personal information that chronicle Palin's family life and her political career, along with (in disappointingly general terms) her "conservative" political views. Perhaps most exciting for her fans: The book's conclusion seems to signal that an end to Palin's career in politics is nowhere in sight.

"Going Rogue" is not likely to end up on lists of required reading for political science courses offered at a college or university near you. Nevertheless, with its initial print run of more than 1 million copies, the book certainly is elevating Palin's profile. The question that remains to be answered: Is this all too much, too early in the game for Palin?