一般来说，美国选战结束之后，落败的候选人都会慢慢地失去民众的注意力。因为随着新内阁的提名和任命，政坛的后起之秀层出不穷，再加上新的法案，新的政策，新的议题，不断地在转移媒体的焦点和视线，所以无论是政坛还是媒体，都不可能为了一个过气了的，失败的候选人留太多的政治空间。
可是，莎拉·佩林（Sarah Palin）却是一个例外。这位曾经的副总统候选人，在选战结束一年之后，依然在网络上，媒体界，美国政坛，爆红抢眼，依然是美国民间的话题主要人物之一。佩林辞去州长职务的事情，登上个报刊头条，佩林批评奥巴马医改中的临终咨询是死亡判定小组（Death Panels），让民众对国营医改支持率大幅下降。
莎拉·佩林的自传《我行我素》（Going Rogue: An American Life 或译作《单打独斗》或《耍无赖》）还没有上市，在美国最大的连锁书店Barnes & Noble以及亚马逊网络书店，预购册数排名第一，上市首日30万本售罄。出版社HarperCollins 发言人说，《Going Rogue》上市两周销量就突破一百万！
在亚马逊网络书店最热销的排行榜上，《Going Rogue》硬生生地把全球热门小说家丹·布朗(Dan Brown )的新作《The Lost Symbol》从榜首的位置挤下来。在《纽约时报》最畅销书排行榜上，《Going Rogue》已经蝉联了三周冠军，至今还在榜首挂着。据美联社报道，原本印150万册的《Going Rogue》, 后来追加至250万。而且现在，出版社还要再加印30万册。
在全国巡回签售的活动中，无论佩林走到哪里，各地的民众趋之若骛，有些粉丝为了得到她的签名甘愿排上24小时的长队，据说在阿拉巴马州，有的粉丝竟然排了40个小时，在弗吉尼亚的Roanoke，多达1,750人排队等待佩林的签名。
自《Going Rogue》发表以来，媒体报刊以佩林为话题谈论了好几个周，在全美犹如刮了一场“佩琳热”的大旋风，各大新闻网的谈话节目主持人争相邀约佩林做专访，甚至连奥巴马的忠实的拥趸者，美国脱口秀的一姐，奥普拉·温弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey)，也不得不迁就广大观众的热情，请来这位奥巴马的政敌上自己的节目，结果，当天的节目收视率破了历史记录。
最新的CNN民调显示，莎拉·佩林的受欢迎程度高达百分之四十六，只比媒体宠儿奥巴马落后一个百分点。要知道，佩林如今已是一介平民，而奥巴马是万众瞩目，高票当选的大总统，而且在这段时间，奥巴马捷报频传，频繁上镜，什么获得诺贝尔和平奖了，什么开拓亚洲之行了，什么出席哥本哈根的拯救地球大会了，等等，但所有这一切加起来，都无法掩盖的“佩林热”旋风的锋芒，更无法冲淡佩林对政坛和美国社会的巨大影响。
你能想象得到一个竞选失败的副总统候选人能吸引来这么多人的关注吗？佩林这位普通的“冰球妈妈”到底有什么魔力？大家可以参考著名时评家曹长青的文章《佩林-被两极评价的美国女人》。
到底佩林到底怎么看待奥巴马，她又如何看待美国的内政和外交，我们下次再接着聊。
下面是登载在Drudge Report网站上《Going Rogue》独家节选，佩林在书中透露了麦凯恩（John McCain）阵营惊人的无能，左倾和对她的敌意。（翻译随后附出）敬请读者关注。
HER TURN!
Fri Nov 13 2009 07:27:12 ET
Going Rogue: An American Life
by Sarah Palin
Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257
By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate.
From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well on the trail thus far. My suggestion was that we be consistent with that strategy and start talking to outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal. I really didn’t have a say in which press I was going to talk to, but for some reason Nicolle seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon.
“Katie really likes you,” she said to me one day. “she’s a working mom and admires you as a working mom. She has teenage daughter like you. She just relates to you,” Nicolle said. “believe me, I know her very well. I’ve worked with her.” Nicolle had left her gig at CBS just a few months earlier to hook up with the McCain campaign. I had to trust her experience, as she had dealt with national politics more than I had. But something always struck me as peculiar about the way she recalled her days in the White House, when she was speaking on behalf of President George W. Bush. She didn’t have much to say that was positive about her former boss or the job in general. Whenever I wanted to give a shout-out to the White House’s homeland security efforts after 9/11, we were told we couldn’t do it. I didn’t know if that was Nicolle’s call.
Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. “She just has such low self-esteem,” Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. “She just feels she can’t trust anybody.”
I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain’s campaign how?
Nicolle said. “She wants you to like her.”
Hearing all that, I almost started to feel sorry for her. Katie had tried to make a bold move from lively morning gal to serious anchor, but the new assignment wasn’t going very well.
“You know what? We’ll schedule a segment with her,” Nicolle said. “If it doesn’t go well, if there’s no chemistry, we won’t do any others.”
Meanwhile, the media blackout continued. It got so bad that a couple of times I had a friend in Anchorage track down phone numbers for me, and then I snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and someone I thought was Larry Kudlow but turned out to be Neil Cavuto’s producer. I had a friend call Bill O’Reilly after I was inundated with supporters in Alaska asking why the campaign was “ignoring” his on-air requests for a McCain campaign interview. I had another friend scrambling to find Mark Levin’s number. Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters’ strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press. At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, Tracey or Tucker would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, “No! Absolutely not- block her if she tries to go back.”
