The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power [Paperback]

Geoffrey Dunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2012

The phenomenal rise of America's most polarizing politician

This is the first full-scale critical biography of Palin, up through her resignation as Alaska governor, and as a potential presidential candidate in 2012. The Lies of Sarah Palin exposes:

• Personal secrets about Sarah Palin’s coming of age in Wasilla and her marriage to Todd Palin

• Her extremist religious views and “End of Days” beliefs

• Lies and distortions in Troopergate and the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan

• The secrets surrounding her selection as John McCain’s running mate and her duplicities and betrayals during the 2008 presidential campaign

• Her extraordinary penchant for self-promotion and deceit

• Her failures as governor upon her return to Alaska after the campaign

• Her real reasons for quitting as governor of Alaska

• Her lies about Barack Obama’s “death panels”

• The strange inner-circle of Washington DC powerbrokers, neoconservative intellectuals and rightwing Christian evangelists who have taken control of Palin’s postgubernatorial career

• Her obsession with Barack Obama

The Lies of Sarah Palin is based on more than 100 in-depth interviews and 40,000 pages of revelatory documents. Dunn also places Palin’s life in the larger context of U.S. history, politics and culture—from the political corruption that spawned her career in Alaska to the dark underbelly of America’s Evangelical right-wing movement that fuels Palin’s relentless quest for power.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dunn’s achievement is to tie together his immense amount of research into a finely wrought work that is fair to a succession of people from all across the political spectrum, all of whom had to deal with, for better or worse, the most intensely dishonest and divisive political personality in recent American history."--Firedoglake Book Salon

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

GEOFFREY DUNN is an award-winning investigative reporter, a senior correspondent for Metro Newspapers in California and a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and Huffington Post.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1250006880
• ISBN-13: 978-1250006882
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,003,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Geoffrey Dunn is an award-winning author and documentary filmmaker with more than three decades experience as an investigative reporter. A contributor to The Huffington Post, where he has broken several national stories since the 2008 presidential campaign, Dunn has also served as a Senior Editor for Metro Newspapers in Northern California, where he has garnered awards for investigative journalism from the National Newspaper Association, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Peninsula Press Club. His books include the Amazon bestseller "The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power," "Santa Cruz Is In the Heart," and "Chinatown Dreams: The Life and Photographs of George Lee." He also contributed a significant chapter to "Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II." His documentary films include the award-winning "Calypso Dreams," "Miss...or Myth?," "Chinese Gold," and "Dollar a Day, 10¢ a Dance." Dunn received a B.A. in politics, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology, from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he has taught courses in documentary film, nonfiction writing and American political history and culture. He received an Excellence in Teaching Award there in 2000. Dunn was raised in the Santa Cruz Italian fishing community and worked in the Pacific Coast fishery industry until the mid-1980s.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

131 of 156 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent... well worth reading. May 13, 2011

By Edrice

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed.
The phenomenon that is Sarah Palin is laid bare by the painstaking research and the mighty pen of Geoffrey Dunn for the world to see...and it's a sobering picture.
I was fascinated by the details of the evolution of her particular pathology... the dysfunctional childhood that laid the groundwork for her inability to deal with reality, her persistent immaturity, her inability to admit to error, her denial of truth, her never ending vendettas, and her refusal to admit defeat even when it stares her in the face.
Winning, for Palin, seems to have taken precedence over sanity, decency, rationality and truth
The details of her haphazard rise to power, her adolescent, destructive ambition, how it was utilized and how it played out in our modern political arena are fascinating and chilling.
This is well worth reading for so many reasons. I devoured it and will now go back and read at leisure.
Thank you Mr. Dunn for a job well done.

80 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the read May 13, 2011

By J. T. Hurst

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Geoffrey Dunn's book is well worth your time and money. Though many of the events described in this book are known to most people who follow politics, the "behind the scenes" information Dunn provides further illuminates how woefully unprepared Mrs. Palin was for a national political campaign. Incurious about the world around her, uneducated, divisive, she covets power for the sake of power. There is a huge dissonance between her actions and her avowed Christianity.
What is particularly disturbing is her careless disregard for the villagers in the bush who were freezing and starving and unable to get her attention. When she finally did show up at a couple of the villages with Franklin Graham, she had the audacity to lecture the villagers and tell them they needed new leadership from their elders. There was no acknowledgement of the poor fishing season, the unusually harsh and extended winter. Instead, she lied about her husband's experiences growing up as a native. Also, when Mrs. Palin did make it to see the villagers, it was approximately five weeks after relief efforts had already been initiated by concerned citizens and bloggers. At one point within those five weeks, Mrs. Palin had been approached with requests for assistance in flying the food and fuel collected to the remote villages. That request was denied and Mrs. Palin's office again stated they were looking into things. This seemed to be their standard reply on the numerous occasions they were asked to help. She was very dismissive to a village elder who attempted to talk with her about the people in Emmonack and other villages.
So much for a servant's heart.
Throughout this book, time after time, Mrs. Palin is revealed to be dismissive to other people, petty, vengeful, and egocentric.... Her behavior the night of the presidential election is also extremely revealing. She is determined to give a concession speech. But Senator McCain and Steve Schmidt recognize the importance of the moment for our country. They recognize it is not the time for further polarizing and divisive statements. But she will not take no for an answer. She asks at least four times, the last time as they were taking the stage with Senator McCain and his wife, Cindy. After Senator McCain's speech, he and his wife, Cindy, leave the stage and Mrs. Palin gestures to her family to join her and her husband on the stage. It's at this point, Schmidt, realizing how determined she has been to give her speech, orders the microphone and lights to the stage to be cut. If only the American people could be so lucky and find a way to cut her microphone now. Read more ›

79 of 93 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done! Explaining the seemingly unexplainable in straightforward, well-written prose. May 13, 2011

By Dolores Moloney

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow! Want an in-depth peek into the complex "wiring" of Sarah Palin? "The Lies of Sarah Palin" by Geoffrey Dunn will give you just that. This book is extremely well-written. It is investigative journalism at it's best, including first-hand accounts and historical facts.

Dunn writes about the pattern of deception that has shrouded the Heath-Palin clan from the get-go, and how this pattern has been internalized by Sarah Palin, both personally and professionally. He shows how the effects of her consequent and worsening erratic behavior reverberates throughout all that she comes in contact with.

The writer is not particularly trying to "prove" anything here. He's simply offering a painstakingly-researched account of a heretofore unknown person, who has who has been in our faces every single day for the last 2.75 years. This is a hugely important book that needs to be in front of as many readers as possible! Highly recommended!

198 of 241 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a 'real journalist' points out the Quitter Queen's lack of clothes May 12, 2011

By Cynthia Quilici

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Given the amount of material covered by this book, it is very well structured, and moves along compellingly. Dunn manages to overlap many layers of events in a way that doesn't compromise overall coherency or readability.

Even though there were few novelties for the tiny minority of truly seasoned Palin-watchers, Dunn reveals many bombshells which have--inconceivably--not gotten mainstream play in the slightest, including destructive behaviors which intentionally undermined the McCain/Palin campaign (or "Palin/McCain" campaign, as Sarah would have it).

Dunn calls 'em the way he sees 'em and, refreshingly, has returned the words "lie", "lying", and "liar" to their important place in public discourse. He is not afraid to challenge Mrs. Palin on her ceaseless, virtually unpunctuated, untruths... including calling her out on her false claims of having released her youngest son's birth record. Very welcome were the expansive background context of Alaskan politics along with a closer look than we've previously had of what was happening in the McCain camp along the campaign trail.

I have a small number of criticisms: Dunn seems to take Mrs. Palin's doctor's letter--submitted at the last moment--at face value, despite knowing that Palin has composed and distributed falsified letters on her own behalf as a matter of course throughout her political career. He didn't connect the timing of her pregnancy announcement with the McCain nomination (which occurred just one day earlier).... I think he could have gone into more detail about the egregious sports complex fiasco (built on land the city of Wasilla did not own, and which left the town of 5000 or so at the time more than $20million in debt), and he did not even mention "Dairygate" (Palin's handing over of a state dairy to a group of incompetent friends, nominally privatizing it but continuing to provide them with public subsidies).

The author does give a deservedly significant amount of space to the problems of the Alaskan native villages whose dire situation during the winter of 2009 Mrs. Palin pointedly and willfully ignored, to the extent that her inaction attracted nationwide attention. Then, despite the spotlight, Palin did what she always does: she lied about the situation.

I hope this well-written book can overcome the censorship it will face (and is facing, as bookstores such as Barnes & Noble have, in some cases refused to order even a single copy, ironically opting instead to heavily promote the noted professional serial liar Andrew Breitbart, a Palin ally, perhaps not coincidentally). Furthermore, I hope people will have the opportunity to come to appreciate, not only how deeply dysfunctional Mrs. Palin is, but, how deeply dysfunctional is the political and mediatical system that allowed her to actually succeed to the extent that she has. Mr. Dunn's book is certainly an important step in this public process, which needs to happen--quickly--if the American republic is to have any hope of survival. Read more ›