America By Heart: The Joke is on Sarah Palin!

Is it possible that America by Heart is a satirical revelation of the fraud that Sarah Palin has become? Is it possible that Sarah Palin never read the book that she supposedly wrote? Since the Katie Couric interview when Palin was asked what she reads, everyone in America, fans and critics, wondered if she really reads anything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkWebP2Q0Y. Certainly Levi Johnston indicated he “never saw her reading much at all.” http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/levi-johnston200910. It seemed hypocritical that a person who doesn’t read books, would write two. We knew Lynn Vincent was the “ghost writer” for Going Rogue, so there was no thought that Palin actually wrote her first book. With regard to the second book, America by Heart, it’s undisputed that she is not responsible for a substantial portion of the book. At least half of the book is quotations from other works, written by other people. Four pages at the end of the book is a list of a multitude of quotes used in the book. Immediately before that list is a section entitled “Acknowledgments.” Palin states:

“…with a special thanks to the brilliant, independent, self-starter who got her start in Alaska, Jessica Gavora. Thank you for your most important work on America by Heart”. Palin, America by Heart, at 272.

So who is Jessica Gavora, and is her use of satire something Palin simply never read, or simply didn’t understand it when she read it?

1. Who is Jessica Gavora? Ms. Gavora graduated from Marquette University and received a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her parents live in Fairbanks, Alaska, where they own a number of shopping centers, beverage stores and other businesses. Certainly Ms. Gavora, and her parents, would qualify as members of the “ELITE”. Ms. Gavora is married to Mr. Jonah Goldberg, a contributing editor for the print edition of National Review. He graduated from Goucher College. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E1DA1331F935A1575BC0A9679C8B63. Mr. Goldberg has written several articles regarding Sarah Palin. In the first of these articles, he said:

“…Downside: She(Palin) may not be ready for primetime. The heartbeat-from-the-presidency issue is a real one.

Trivia Bonus: My wife used to play basketball against her!”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/168443/palin/jonah-goldberg. Certainly this would give us a clue that (a.) Ms. Gavora was previously Palin’s opponent, and (b.) Ms. Gavora’s husband recognized Palin’s limitations even before Palin wrote on her hand before criticizing the President for using a teleprompter, resigned her position as Governor, made up words like “refudiate,” suggested that we should build dikes to solve the Gulf Oil Crisis, endorsed candidates like Christine O’Donnell, attacked Michelle Obama for trying to address the national problem of childhood obesity, and before she made reference in a nationally broadcast show to our “North Korean allies.”

2. Palin suggests that she “came across a book written …in 1782, by an emigrant Frenchman turned American farmer with the impressive name of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur.” America by Heart Id. At 108. Even if Palin read current magazines or newspapers it seems highly unlikely that she simply “came across” this book written by this foreigner. This writer lived from 1735-1813, was of French ancestry, was imprisoned, had a mental breakdown, and was born and died in France. http://www.amazon.com/Letters-American-Sketches-Eighteenth-Century-Classics/dp/0140390065/ref=pd_rhf_p_img_2#reader_0140390065. This author although perhaps well known by “elitist” is not someone we would expect Sarah Palin to know. If she couldn’t tell Katie Couric any magazines or newspapers she reads, and if she couldn’t list any favorite founding father when being interviewed by Glenn Beck, http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/beck-calls-bullcrap-on-palins-non-answer-about-favorite-founding-father.php we would not anticipate that she would know of this author. More significantly this author, Mr. St. John de Crevecoeur is:

“…a voice deliberately but deceptively self-mocking, a manner slyly satiric…” Ibib.

3. Palin describes Dancing with the Stars as “…an uplifting, family-oriented show…(so Bristol could) “…challenge herself in a new, fun way.” America by Heart at 122. I might describe Little House on the Prarie as “an uplifting family-oriented show,” but those are not the first words that come to mind when I think of Dancing With the Stars. If I were writing a satiric post about the experience of Bristol Palin, virtually having sex on the dance floor with Marc Ballas, I might describe the show sarcastically as “family-oriented.” I might say that it was an “uplifting experience to see Bristol, prostrate on the dance floor, before starting one of her dances, or ripping the shirt off of her male partner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89yiGsd2ARA. However “uplifting” and “family-oriented” are words that would only be used sarcastically. It would be like describing Pulp Fiction as a movie about a “religious awakening.”

4. Palin describes the importance of spending QUANTITY of time with her children, instead of QUALITY of time. https://malialitman.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/america-by-heart-proves-that-palin-thinks-her-fans-are-stupid. Whatever you know about Sarah Palin, you know that she has not spent any significant quantity of time with her children. Whether you believe her absence from home is justified, or a good thing for the country, certainly everyone would agree that in the last two years Sarah Palin has not spent any significant QUANTITY OF TIME with her children.

5. Palin explains that to avoid poverty people should follow three simple rules. Palin explains that:

“ William Galston …put the matter simply. To avoid poverty, do three things: finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after you are twenty years old. …of thos who fail to do the, 79% will be poor.” America by Heart at 119.

How could Sarah Palin write this? Either she didn’t even read it, or she didn’t understand it when it was written. Surely she isn’t that ignorant! In writing a book where she controls what is written and discussed, why would she point out the very failure of herself as a mother, and that of her daughter? Bristol did finish high school. However her graduation was delayed because she had a child, before being married, and before she turned twenty. If Bristol was a “real” American we would not expect to see her dancing with the stars, and the most she could hope for would be to watch the show on someone else’s television. Instead of driving her new car, we would expect to see Bristol and her baby on a street corner begging for a dollar to pay for formula from the driver of that new car.

The only logical conclusion is that not only did Sarah Palin was not the real author of America by Heart, but that she was too busy to find time to read it. She must have thought it was funny to take credit for the work of others, and to make millions of dollars quoting what other people had already written. Maybe Jessica Gavora thought it was funny too that either Palin never read what Ms. Gavora wrote, or that Palin was so clueless that Palin didn’t understand it. Either way the joke is on Sarah Palin, and on all of her fans who have bought the book.