Betsy Reed

I first heard about Going Rouge here and was immediately sold. Unfortunately, it is not available on Amazon, and one needs an American address and a credit card to order it. Being lucky enough to have friends in possession of both, I have now read the book from cover to cover.

Or rather, read it twice, because there is precious little in Going Rouge that isn't already available for free online and there's a good chance that any reader who followed the 2008 elections will have already read show more most of it. That said, the volume's contributors are a who's who of the liberal journalism/blogging elite and the majority of Going Rouge's content is well-written and holds up well to the test of time, although what were once shocking revelations when the individual pieces were published are now old news. Perhaps this is why the volume's editors have organized the articles by theme instead of chronology--a decision I consider to be one of the book's weaknesses, as no effort has been made to clarify when individual pieces were written. This results in jarring jumps backward and forward in time, especially when "Author A's piece, published on Blog Q last month" appears dozens of chapters after the article in which it was referenced.

Nevertheless, the political wonk in me likes having all of these articles in one easy-to-grab volume, and even were that not the case, Hart Seely's "anthology" of Palin's "poetry" pretty much justifies the cover price all on its own. Although I don't recommend purchasing Going Rouge to anyone without a strong interest in 21st century American politics, those with an interest will definitely want to take a look. show less

Created and published with the self-identified purpose of capitalizing on the success of Sarah Palin’s book, this is a hastily compiled collection of essays published in the wake of John McCain’s addition of Palin to the GOP ticket. Some essays (notably Matt Taibbi’s “Mad Dog Palin”) are worth reading a second time, but most of the work in this collection comes off as dated, partisan grumbling. Some essays are so poorly rendered that one wonders if they were written on deadline show more over half a bottle of Chardonnay at 4:00 a.m.; excusable for newspaper or blog pabulum, but not altogether worthy of being published in a book.

The contributors, editors and publisher of “Going Rouge” are committed progressives with a genuine interest in political matters; which is what makes the book itself such an oddity. There is very little political savvy in its pages. There is plenty of scoffing, loads of eye-rolling, some haughty indignation, and occasionally some well-crafted zingers… but almost no serious political acumen. There is also nothing new or noteworthy. On any given day, a red-blooded lefty can revel in a limitless supply of pithy and intelligent commentary on Sarah Palin online – this book is not merely underwhelming, it’s unnecessary. show less

This collection about all facets of Sarah Palin, simply reinforces my belief that she is one scary kook. The sooner she is prevented from EVER influencing public policy again, the safer America will be.

This collection about all facets of Sarah Palin, simply reinforces my belief that she is one scary kook. The sooner she is prevented from EVER influencing public policy again, the safer America will be.