Opportunity missed to sink HMS Palin

Joe McGinniss, best known for his best-selling book, "The Selling of the President 1968," has been in the journalism biz for some 40 years. But he has evidently blown an opportunity with "The Rogue," his new book about Sarah Palin, due out next week. Apparently, the tome's Achilles Heel is McGinniss' over-reliance on unnamed sources, esp. on the new revelations (i.e., she snorted cocaine, cheated on hubby Todd, neglected her kids, threatened divorce, etc). I don't doubt McGinniss' veracity. He's a solid reporter. Reviewers say he is convincing in his portrayal of Palin as a pathetic "clown in high heels." But the lack of verifiable sourcing eliminates his work as the definitive Palin book. Too bad. A grateful nation would have granted "Captain" McGinniss sainthood had he pulled his Rogue alongside the HMS Palin, fired a fully documented broadside amidships, and confined her to the briny deep forever. But that task now awaits a future seagoing historian. LA Times book critic David Ulin probably has the best take on Rogue: "I have no doubt that McGinniss' view of Palin is accurate: that she is narcissistic, undisciplined and unqualified for public life. Still, I want more than innuendo to make the point. 'Sarah Palin practices politics as lap dance,' he writes, 'and we're the suckers who pay the price.' True enough, perhaps, but like too much of 'The Rogue,' this is its own sort of come-on: titillating her detractors while allowing her supporters to disregard everything McGinniss has to say."