I have often wondered, would this woman be so popular and worshipped by so many in the GOP if she was an average plain Jane, maybe even unnattractive

The most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the news media, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign that plucked her out of Alaska, anointed her the Republican vice-presidential nominee and made her one of the most talked about women on the planet — someone who could command a reported $5 million advance for writing this book.
* * *
... She pretends no particular familiarity with the Middle East, the Iraq war or Islamic politics — "I knew the history of the conflict," she writes, "to the extent that most Americans did." And she argues that “there’s no better training ground for politics than motherhood.”
* * *
Ms. Palin suggests that she and her husband, Todd, are ideally qualified to represent the Joe Six-Packs of the world because they are Joe Six-Packs themselves. "We know what it’s like to be on a tight budget and wonder how we’re going to pay for our own health care, let alone college tuition," she writes in "Going Rogue." "We know what it’s like to work union jobs, to be blue-collar, white-collar, to have our kids in public schools. We felt our very normalcy, our status as ordinary Americans, could be a much-needed fresh breeze blowing into Washington, D.C."
* * *
Elsewhere in this volume she talks about creationism, saying she "didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea" or from "monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees." In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: "My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over."

I don't know what this world is coming to, but if Sarah Palin and Lou Dobbs end up as the leading Republican candidates for the presidency of the United States--oy!

Apparently there are some real gems in Palin's book, like: "If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?"

One person who has been a frequent houseguest of the Palins’ says that the couple began many mornings with screaming fights, a fusillade of curses: “ ‘f**k you,’ ‘f**k this,’ ‘You lazy piece of shit.’ ‘You’re f**kin’ lucky to have me,’ Sarah would always say.” (This person never saw Todd and Sarah sleep in the same bed, and recalls that Todd would often joke, “I don’t know how she ever gets pregnant.”)

Sarah Palin is putting her passport to good use and visiting India and Israel.

She's giving the keynote speech (My Vision of America) at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi. Other Western speakers at this conference include feminist Germaine Greer, historian Niall Ferguson and Tim Berners Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web). The Prime Minister of India will also be speaking.

She said India’s economic growth from market reforms in the 1990s was a lesson for the United States.

“You unleashed the creativity and the hard work of the Indian people. You turned away from a system where the central government sets targets for all sectors of the economy to a system that lets the market set its own targets. And that works,” she said.

(We wonder what Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India’s planning commission, which makes five-year plans that sets targets for all sectors of the economy, made of that.)
* * *
After her half-hour address, Ms. Palin took questions from Mr. Purie for the next half hour.

The moment with the most laughs?

When Mr. Purie asked why the Republican ticket lost the 2008 elections.

“Cos of the media,” she said, “No, just kidding, no. Candidate Obama he had a strong campaign, he was the agent of change, and though he was inexperienced and relatively unknown in the U.S., people still desired that change.”

“But you could have been that change too, your ticket?” said Mr. Purie.

“I wasn’t the top of the ticket, remember?,” said Ms. Palin. “I’m not saying I should’ve been, I’m just saying.”