Let’s not get into how I got this book. Last year, I put a copy on my iPad, and in the middle of reading it I wrote the first draft of this review. I’ve already read two blistering reviews of this hot mess and I have to say that both reviewers are right on the money (the first is at the New Ledger and the other is at News Real).
As one reviewer mentioned, the grammar and punctuation is awful. She does indeed use commas way too much and does not use other forms of punctuation where she should (such as semi colons, colons, and dashes) and on a couple of occasions she used a dash where it was not needed.
Secondly, it’s riddled with contradictions. I noticed one snarky aside in the introduction about how her decidedly slim book would NOT be written as a political axe to grind, unlike some other female politicians. That was so obviously targeted at Sarah Palin. I agree that some political memoirs are indeed meant to get back at someone, but I’ve read Going Rogue (has she?) and it was NOT meant as a “political axe to grind”. That book was no different than her own – both were meant to tell the story of the 2008 election from their points of view. She’s a hypocrite because in a later chapter she goes after former President Bush and Karl Rove, who (according to her) secured their victory for the 2000 South Carolina primary by accusing her father of having a black child out of wedlock (proof of this was a picture of her adopted sister from Bangladesh). Of course, she does not provide any resources or citations for this, so we’re just supposed to go by her word.
Yeah, I can’t blame her for being upset over the whole “black lovechild” thing as that was a really crappy thing to do. But she’s a hypocrite for accusing Bush and Rove of being responsible for this. Not only that, she complains about various members of her father’s campaign, some of whom she refuses to mention by name (using asinine nicknames instead). So far, her whole book as been nothing but a political axe to grind – against all those big huge MEANIES who wouldn’t let her be an official part of her daddy’s (completely and utterly failed) campaign.
That’s another thing – she doesn’t do anything to back up her various claims – no references, no footnotes, no citations and no mentions of where she actually got her “facts” from. Like for example she claims that Mike Huckabee had a plan in 1992 to have all HIV-positive people sent to live in some small part of the country in isolation, but offers no actual proof that he had such a plan. She also doesn’t say where she got this information from. And by the way, people wouldn’t vote for Huckabee because of his spotty fiscal record, NOT because he thinks being gay is “immoral” and “equivalent to bestiality” (and she doesn’t offer any proof for those allegations either).
She mentions her two friends in the first couple of chapters, then waits until chapter six to introduce these two friends. Then she spends the rest of this chapter talking about her blog…of which was introduced in chapter 4. Then she whines about what those asshats at Wonkette had to say about her blog, and yet these are the people she wants so desperately to be friends with. Someone ought to tell her that these people don’t care if you’re pro gay marriage and pro abortion – you have to be pro big government too or you’re out. You have to adhere to ALL their positions or you aren’t good enough. She accuses the Republicans of being like this but the Democrats are just as bad, and yet she NEVER acknowledges this.
I hope she didn’t really blow her entire inheritance on that blog of hers. It doesn’t cost too much to run your own blog, and if she was as Internet savvy as she thinks she is, she’d know that.
Oh, and she says Iowa smells like shit! But she just LOVES the heartland, as long as it smells like honeydew and roses! Typical big city brat.
She also has a major thing against the Romneys and their “damn camper”. I guess she was just jealous that her daddy didn’t get HER a fancy camper and instead had her stupid ridiculous ass relegated to the third bus. Oh, and someone should also tell her that not all Republicans were as out of touch regarding the Internet as her dad’s campaign was. The Romney campaign had a pretty good web site and all five of his sons had their own blogs (the blogs were probably dorky but were also probably way better written than hers – all five of Mitt Romney’s sons are capable of using commas properly).
The book is quite dishy when you get past the punctuation problems and her hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness.
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