Palin's Going Rogue

Honestly, I don't even know where to go with this. It just seems to write itself:

The book now has a title, one fitting for a public figure known for the unexpected – "Going Rogue: An American Life."

From what the article reports, a person named Lynn Vincent wrote the book in under four months. Then

Palin, 45, spent weeks in San Diego shortly after leaving office and worked on the manuscript with collaborator Lynn Vincent, a person close to her said. She was joined in San Diego by her family and her top aide, Meghan Stapleton, then spent several days in New York working around the clock with editors at Harper.

A few weeks? You know what they say, garbage in, garbage out. I suppose that not all garbage in is then converted to a first run of 1.5 million copies, of 400 pages a piece.

Before, however, you note that I should still be worried because she is a top contender for 2012, the much saner sounding Mike Huckabee beat Palin in a straw poll at the Value Voters summit in Washington. This should not be surprising because Huckabee was involved in the Republican primary process in 2007-2008, so instead of being promoted from Alaska to vice-president contender, he had to go out and network, giving him a historical base for another run (like placing second in Iowa, etc.). So, while my comment is non-scientific, I would guess that Huckabee is well-liked amongst, and connected with, party (or potential party) activists. That's really the only reason to have straw polls, because they don't follow any of the usual rules of random sample based polling.

Update: Uh, the word 'saner' is relative in the case of conservatives. I thought about the word 'more coherent' but, still, read on to see what I mean. Maybe I meant 'menacingly down home bigot.' Who knows? In front of a conference about taking back 'America' Huckabee let loose about the United Nations:

“It’s time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip off that part of New York City,” said Huckabee, “and let it float into the East River, never to be seen again!” That remark got him a standing ovation, and Huckabee went on to suggest de-funding the U.N. entirely.

“It’s time to say enough of the American taxpayer’s dollar being spent on something that may have been a noble idea, but has become a disgrace!” said Huckabee. “It has become the international equivalent of ACORN and it’s time to say enough!”