Click Here To Purchase Wild Card: The Promise and Peril of Sarah Palin

Author: Mark Joseph
Publisher: Bully! Pulpit Books
ISBN: 978-0982776131


Expectations – there are always expectations when a new book is first opened be that for fiction or non-fiction.  Some expectations for non-fiction books might include: “Is the book informative?  Is it challenging?  Does it offer new insights?”

When Republican Presidential candidate John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential running mate, a fascination with the devout evangelical Christian forty four year old mother of five who would make history as the second woman ever to be a U.S. Vice-Presidential nominee began.  Simultaneously, there was a full-blown nationwide examination of her background, credentials, image, morals, values, hopes, fears, parents, faith, family and experience as she exploded on the American political scene.

Previously serving as the state of Alaska’s chief regulator of the oil industry, mayor of Wasilla (Alaska), and state Governor, author Mark Joseph notes that Palin frequently encountered critics who said that “she wasn’t what she appeared” - that her ‘barracuda’ high school nickname accompanied her decisions of those she didn’t agree with/like, and that she was “but another example of a power hungry woman who slashed and burned her way through a mayoralty and governorship, hiring, firing and remaking the government to suit her personal whims.” To substantiate his view, Joseph quoted both Fred Barnes “In the roughly three years since she quit as the state’s chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every foe or critic” and pollster Dave Dittman “Political analysts in Alaska refer to the ‘body count’ of Palin’s rivals.  The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah.”

Author Joseph has done his research, so in response to the first question – “Is the book informative” – there would an unequivocal ‘yes.’  However, rather than use the research as a resource on which to base an investigative-journalism type book, he uses the research as the core of the book and entire political speeches by Sarah Palin and full articles about her are quoted, leaving the reader to wonder “What point is the author trying to make in this book?”

The book is partly an introduction to Palin’s value system (past and present), and partly a verbatim recounting of her speeches and articles written by and about her, with the author of Wild Card offering nothing new.  Thus, in response to the second and third questions: ‘no’, the book is not challenging and ‘no’ it didn’t offer any new insights to this reviewer. 

In this book, the author brings little to the table that could contribute something new about Sarah Palin.  “Jumping on the bandwagon of Sarah Palin” is a phrase that seems applicable in this instance especially when considering the highly dramatic sub-title – “The Promise and Peril of Sarah Palin” and the fact that the author has been both journalist and media political commentator.  Sadly, there is little evidence of either investigative journalism or political commentator skills in the book.  

 

Click Here To Purchase Wild Card: The Promise and Peril of Sarah Palin