When former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s autobiography, Going Rogue: An American Life, comes out on November 17th, it won’t go unanswered. Two of The Nation‘s top editors, Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, are co-editors of Going Rouge: An American Nightmare, published by OR Books for release the same day.
The cover may be tongue in cheek, but the anthology is no parody. Featuring essays from some of The Nation‘s standout writers (Katha Pollitt, Max Blumenthal, John Nichols, Chris Hayes, Naomi Klein, Pat Williams, Gary Younge and JoAnn Wypijewski) and from some of the leading thinkers on the left (Matt Taibbi, Jessica Valenti, Eve Ensler, Michelle Goldberg, Dahlia Lithwick, Frank Rich and others), Going Rouge is a serious look at former Governor Palin’s record, her politics and her rise to power. (Disclosure: I have a piece in the book as well.) Going Rogue also includes commentary from Alaskan journalists and bloggers who have covered Palin first-hand.
In Going Rogue, Palin is expected to launch a broadside on progressive policy and values. In a year where a Facebook post by the former Governor parroting discredited myths about healthcare is treated by the mainstream media as something to be debated, not completely called out as a lie, we felt it was important to give readers a choice. Governor Palin will have her moment and present her case, but Going Rouge offers a smart, lively counterpoint, and a look at how "Palinism" is impacting the current political debate.
To see the cover, here’s a clip from Thursday night’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
It’s available only online – not in stores – so in reality it won’t confuse any shoppers eager to buy Going Rogue. We’ll be excerpting some of the introduction in our November 11th print edition of The Nation, and featuring some new pieces from the book as we get closer to book release. You can pre-order Going Rouge here.
A few other items of note this week: – Speaking of the healthcare debate, few elected officials on the left have been as bold and outspoken as Arizona Congressman and Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Raul Grijalva in demanding a robust public option, and holding the White House to its promises. We’re proud to have a comment running this weekend from Rep. Grijalva, calling for a united front on healthcare in the House of Representatives. In his op-ed, Grijalva corrects some of the myths about the political fortunes of the public option, and argues for the strongest possible public option in the house bill, "Medicare-plus-five." A must read.
– With the November 7th run-off in Afghanistan, President Obama’s decision on Afghanistan may take a little longer. That means more time to pressure The White House for a responsible withdrawl. Here’s how.
– Two appearances I’ll be making early this week. On Monday I’m at J-Street’s "Driving Change, Securing Peace" conference moderating a panel, "American Progressives and Israel: Friends, Enemies, or ‘It’s Complicated’?" with Michelle Goldberg, J.J. Goldberg and Ezra Klein. If you’re in DC I hope you can make it.
– On Tuesday I’m part of an interesting debate series, "Intelligence Squared," at New York University. The style is decidedly "old-school:" A moderator; a motion; then an Oxford-style debate about the issue at hand. Our topic: "Good Riddance to Mainstream Media." Oddly enough I’m arguing against the motion, with David Carr of the New York Times and former San Francisco Chronicle Publisher Phil Bronstein. We’re debating NPR’s John Hockenberry, Politico‘s Jim VanderHei, and Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff. If you’re in New York come check it out. If not, the debate will air on NPR and Bloomberg Television, and at the Intelligence Squared website. I’ll post the schedule next week.
As always, thanks for reading. Comments are welcome below. I’m on Twitter at Twitter.com/KatrinaNation.
