Last month, I read Lorenzo Benet’s unauthorized biography of Sarah Palin, "Trailblazer," and this week I watched John Ziegler’s complete interview with Sarah Palin. The question I asked myself after finishing both is the same question I’ve been asking myself since August 29, 2008: Who is Sarah Palin? Many who know her say that she is exactly the person that she appears to be. And, yet, no one is ever quite as they appear because they appear to be many things to many people. A person as complex and intriguing as Sarah Palin is certainly not that simple. However, complexity does not imply cunning or deceptive manipulation. A person can be honest, straightforward, and completely without guile and yet still be complex. I’ve been fascinated by biographies and biography writing my entire life. One of my favorite books on the topic is Janet Malcolm’s "The Silent Woman." Malcolm tries to get to the truth about the poet Sylvia Plath, and in my opinion comes closer than anyone else, by revealing the agendas of the biographers writing about Plath. Every biographer molds the biographical subject to fit a vision or agenda. Recognizing that is key to reading a biography objectively. We sign on to the biographer’s vision, and we allow ourselves to either agree or disagree with that vision. Lorenzo Benet’s "Trailblazer" was compelling, but no thanks to any talent on his part. It was compelling because Palin is compelling. Benet is not a particularly gifted or imaginative writer. The book is little more than a compilation of various news stories supplemented by interviews. That’s certainly not a bad thing. Most modern mass market biographies are little more than LexisNexis compilations. Benet is at his best writing about Palin’s years as a mayor because he can understand "mayor stuff." He clearly doesn’t understand Palin’s work at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) or the issues that propelled her gubernatorial bid and her work as governor. He is a People Magazine writer after all. I find this weakness amusing because the very people who criticize Palin for being an intellectual light-weight would probably have a hard time navigating the complexities of her job as the governor of our largest energy producing state. It’s clear that "Trailblazer" was not written by an Alaskan, just as it’s clear that Kaylene Johnson’s Palin biography was. Johnson is at her finest in the chapters beginning with Palin’s chairmanship at the AOGCC and ending with her gubernatorial victory because those chapters describe the events that defined Palin as Alaska’s Joan of Arc. Johnson’s biography, like all biographies, constructs a vision of the biographical subject; and Johnson’s vision effectively evokes the sense of excitement and optimism that Palin inspired in ordinary Alaskans. Benet doesn’t really get that far, but "Trailblazer" isn’t a complete waste. The supplemental interviews he conducted with key figures in Palin’s life are worth the cover price. His best interviewee, in my opinion, is Judy Patrick. She provides crucial insight into Palin’s years as a mayor. Many stories and rumors which were only partially understood are given clear context. All of this is well and good. We could learn all of it from the articles currently in print. But who is Sarah Palin? Neither Johnson nor Benet’s biographies satisfied me, and Ziegler’s extensive interview only intrigued me more. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to take my stab at a biographical sketch of the good Guv. It won’t be exhaustive. I will no doubt return to various themes over time. But here’s a first draft. And it is really only a draft. I haven’t resolved the mystery of her entirely — no one can or perhaps should — but here’s what I think. Let’s start with her childhood, which is the most crucial section of any biography, and with Sarah Louise Heath Palin we see a childhood that would be quite foreign to most of us. I must commend Benet on his chapter dealing with her early years in Skagway and Wasilla. He really does paint a portrait of Little House on the Tundra. When Michelle Obama spoke of her childhood in her DNC convention speech, she recalled watching "The Brady Bunch." Sarah Palin isn’t big on watching television because she never was. Her parents didn’t encourage it. She grew up as an outdoorsy girl in a world where the outdoors was vast and wild. It’s difficult for those of us in the Lower 48 to imagine the vastness of Alaska. The Mat-Su Valley, where Palin spent most of her childhood, is the size of West Virginia. And there were only 400 people living in Wasilla when her family moved there in 1969. Subsistence really was a part of their lifestyle then. That’s how they ate. They had a garden for vegetables, and they hunted and fished. If there is one figure in Sarah Palin’s life who I think had the most formative influence on her, it’s her father, though he balks at any suggestion that he still has influence on her today. Johnson noted: When his daughter became governor, Chuck [Heath] found it immensely amusing that acquaintances asked him to sway Sarah on particular issues. He says he lost that leverage before she was two. Chuck Heath is everyone’s favorite middle school science teacher. His home is an amateur natural history museum filled with fossils and skulls and antlers. Far from being "anti-intellectual," Sarah Palin was raised in a home where science was valued and children were expected to bring home good grades and go to college after high school. Chuck taught his daughter discipline and fortitude, as well as a love of the outdoors. He treated his son and his daughters the same, and taught them all to be self-reliant — in hunting, fishing, and sports. He was her high school track coach, and he pushed her harder than the other kids because he didn’t want to be perceived as showing favoritism. He was so hard on her that another...
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