Book Wars: Who Will Win?

In the publishing world, books are, naturally, money. Politicians have followers. Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Gore, and so on.

Sarah Palin is among the most influential in that those who hate her pay special attention to her. They hate her despite the fact that she has had less of a world stage than Michael Dukakis, also a governor who ran as Vice President for a Presidential Candidate who failed. She was governor of a state whose population was among our nation's smallest (683,478). He led a much bigger state - Massachusetts - with 6.4 million people, 10 times the size. He was in the land of Ted Kennedy, and she was in the land of Seward's Folly. Yet, Palin is getting attention by her enemies. They name call, question her family's decisions (invading her family's bedroom seems to be a favorite affair).

Her daughter's ex-boyfriend and father of her baby is making a fortune off of this. Not a Bill Gates fortune, but for an uneducated kid, he is cleaning up by playing dirty.

So then comes her book. She needs money to fend off lawsuits, so she quits the job of governor. Strangely, her enemies, who...
 long to see her out of public office, are mad because she has not gone gently into that good night. She's decided to fight, fight, but there is no dying of the light yet.

Her book hits Amazon at number one. It won't last. This is one book ghostwritten on behalf of a politician, now private citizen who has never written a book. She's untried, and most of her fame comes from her enemies vitriol and her fans overly eager embracing. This will balance out, but not before she herself makes a tidy sum from the book and related products, and a speaking tour.

Everyone agrees she is a fine speaker. This vaulted her into the public eye in the first place. She is no Ronald Reagan, but, and even the Democrats are thankful here, she is no Al Gore or Michael Dukakis.

How will her speaking skills translate to book form? She has a ghostwriting. That is good in that whomever is doing the deed is tried and true. Memoirs are a certain kind of book. No doubt the ghost knows the market. It is bad in that her voice will be limited at best to using phrases she might use, like her famous "You betcha," as heard through America's northwest and Canada.

Which will king of the political books? I contend it will remain Barack Obama or Bill Clinton since both have been president. Obama hadn't yet been officially elected, but it was clear he was looking at the job when his book came out. Clinton had left office, but he had eight years to build relationships with America, with a few scandals that allowed readers to peer into his bedroom as well.

Kennedy's book? No. I don't think many will really remember him. Now, whether Palin is remembered or not is too early to call. Her national spotlighted career has barely begun. Kennedy's is over. If hers ended with this book, then no. There's nothing to remember. Kennedy's trouble was that he was just another Kennedy. His brother was president, not him. He was a long-time senator, but never president. Though hardly insignificant, when it all boils down to it, he was just an influential senator.

Obama has yet to prove himself. The world likes us is not a legacy. If all he ends up being is our first black president, but otherwise just another guy making unmet promises, then not so much. Sure, he won a Nobel Peace Prize, but no one believes he earned it. He might. But he hasn't yet.

Palin will not be an attractive 40-something woman forever. That helps find followers and tick off detractors. They prefer androgynous politicians. Not too manly, not too feminine. Obama is definitely a man, but no one would mistake him as a blue collar, works with his hands type, like a Ronald Reagan (who himself made his fortune in the movies). Look at Hillary. She has led yet was never an attractive any-something. Palin could learn from her.

Where does this leave Palin? At this point, flavor of the month. If she ends up as just another conservative mouth, like Hannity or Limbaugh, then that's it. She will influence, as a result, flavor of the month politics. If she studies up, calms down, starts getting seriously involved in national policy, then all bets are off.