Fact-Checking Palin's New Book

Sarah Palin’s long-awaited memoir may have gone rogue from the facts, according to the Associated Press’ advance look at her book. The former vice-presidential candidate depicts herself as someone who is frugal with taxpayer money when traveling and who rejected donations from powerful corporations, the AP says, but her record indicates otherwise. The former Alaskan governor stayed at a luxurious New York City hotel with her daughter in 2007. She says her gubernatorial campaign took mostly small donations from first-time givers, but more than half her war chest came from people and PACs who gave at least $500. And she blurs the lines between the Obama stimulus plan and the federal bailout that President George W. Bush signed. She implies that Ronald Reagan repealed the “death tax” (he didn’t). She says she stood against conflicts of interest, but pushed for a special zoning exception so she could sell her family’s $327,000 house. The book “has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto.”