Comments on: Re: John Mark on Going Rogue . . .

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:00:08 +0000

Mr. Reynolds – thank you, in your “live” review, for criticizing the writing in “Going Rogue.” The reviews I have read thus far have been long on synopsis, and short on (literary) criticism. I can not support someone for president who, under her own name (with nary a nod to her ghost writer), lets be published such dreck. As for whoever was assigned as editor, I imagine some wizened, gray man sitting alone in a dark office, with a nearly-empty bottle of cheap scotch on his desk, remembering the love he once had for his job. “What the hell,” he thinks, “those slobs don’t give a damn about prose anyway.”

By: John Mark Reynolds

John Mark Reynolds — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:32:46 +0000

Losing hope is not losing all hope. I have little real hope left that Palin will change, but have some!

By: Terri

Terri — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:22:12 +0000

John Mark – I’m curious. What happened between your Nov. 30 1:03am quote, “I lost a lot of hope reading this book” and your Nov. 30 3:53am quote, “I have not lost hope.”

What happened in the space of just under three hours?

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:24:45 +0000

I’m a Canadian, so my interest in US politics is somewhat indifferent, but I have been watching with some amusement the reactions to both Sarah Palin and Barack Obama. Generally speaking Pres. Obama is, of course, “the most powerful writer since Julius Ceasar” brilliant, yada, yada, etc. and Sarah Palin is a rube who just fell off the turnip truck on the way to market. Obama is a trained orator with excellent diction and Palin is a great talker but doesn’t use pronouns and drops her “R”s most of the time.

Both are charismatic and attractive. Obama is the voice (and doctrine) of the “educated” left. I place educated in quotes because I think modern leftest education leaves a lot to be desired pedagogically. Palin is the voice of middle America, those who haven’t had the (benefit?) of an Ivy League indoctrination or the connections to survive as a professional intellectual. She represents the great mass of voters who must deal with the realities of day to day life, finding and keeping employment, feeding the kids, putting up with bureaucrats and regulators, etc. She may not be particularly articulate, but don’t count out her native intelligence and her capacity to make a sensible decision.

We are too often mesmerized by a little alphabet soup behind a name and the right accent in a voice. The truth is that most of the “intelligentsia” are intellectual dilettantes with a proclivity for making the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time… if the are capable of making a decision at all. There is almost an inverse correlation between (modern) education and functional wisdom… just look at your last few presidents and your public intellectuals.

By: narciso

narciso — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:46:04 +0000

This was an embarassingly amateurish effort, the review, not the book. It’s a memoir based on her own journals, she didn’t intend it to be a policy tract. She cited some quotes that come to mind, but since they don’t accord with
the caricature painted last fall they are dismiss ed. Her efforts in fighting corrupt officials in balancing the budget, in pushing for the pipeline don’t count anything for this journal. It is curious that Andrew Sullivan has linked this review, that really is FEMA level moment of missing the point utterly. It illustrates exactly why she has been willing to challenge the system, to put a stop to these ‘death panels’, to stall the disastrous cap n trade regime, to speak up for the mission of the American soldier.

By: yo

yo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:19:25 +0000

Although she has more going for her than anyone else out there right now, it still isn’t enough.

What’s lacking is the decision to be the “interested person” that is required to file a quo warranto suit in dc district court to make obama and the courts certify obama’s eligibility.

If she isn’t willing to do that, I’m looking for someone else.

By: John Mark Reynolds

John Mark Reynolds — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:53:14 +0000

I have not lost hope. Governor Palin: we would do what we could to help. Call Evangel!

By: John Mark Reynolds

John Mark Reynolds — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:08:51 +0000

Yes, I am with you Hunter.

I lost a lot of hope reading this book, but she can still do better.

John Mark