Going Rogue: An American Life (87 page)
Read Going Rogue: An American Life Online
Authors: Sarah Palin,Lynn Vincent
Tags: #General, #Autobiography, #Political, #Political Science, #Biography And Autobiography, #Biography, #Science, #Contemporary, #History, #Non-Fiction, #Politics, #Sarah, #USA, #Vice-Presidential candidates - United States, #Women politicians, #Women governors, #21st century history: from c 2000 -, #Women, #Autobiography: General, #History of the Americas, #Women politicians - United States, #Palin, #Alaska, #Personal Memoirs, #Vice-Presidential candidates, #Memoirs, #Central government, #Republican Party (U.S.: 1854- ), #Governors - Alaska, #Alaska - Politics and government, #Biography & Autobiography, #Conservatives - Women - United States, #U.S. - Contemporary Politics
jason was looking at his watch, counting down to go He didn’t tell me then, but his plan
me out five seconds
so that I c[)uld
more than half the stage and meet
Biden, symbolically, on “his”tutf.
later, jason gave me a gentle ·nudge. “Go!” he said. remember, think ‘hait
I hustled out onstage, where I shook hands with Senator Biden and asked, “Hey, can! call you Joe?”
The debate
my perspective, anyway. It was
a
and comforrableatmosphere, and the time zipped by
much
quickly. Gwen’was
as moderator. I wrapped it up
by stating that I had always been proud to be an American, and closed with. a quote from Ronald Reagan, who once said that freedom is always just one generation away
extinction: “We
don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and proteCt it and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, ot we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years rellingour children and.
children’s children about a time
in America back in the day
men and women were free.”
That’s what {wanted Americans
remember.
After the debate,. my family and Joe’s family joined us onstage. He has the most beautiful wife and daughtets and granddaughters. We all hit it off for those few minutes, and it was nice to unwind with a casual chat. Senator Biden and I reflected on the debate and laughed about a couple of the lighter moments. After a few minutes, I looked up to see that Dad had wandered down to Gwen’s moderator chait. They seemed engrossed in earnest discussion. Was he thanking het fot her fair handling of the debate?
I walked over in time to hear Dad, always a coach at heart, advising on how to ice and elevate her ankle. She had broken it the day before and shown up for the evening in a wheelchair. Now,
my kind of tough.
•
29J
PALIN
For a few momenrs, we shared old war-wound srories about . bum ankles and sprained
ingers, and Dad spoke for me when he wished Gwen well.p>
13
We kicked the next morning off with a lot of prep for the day’s events, including an on-camera inrerview atop the hotel with Fox News reporter Carl Cameron, with the St. Louis Gateway Arch framed in the shot behind me. Among his other questions, he asked what I thought of the campaign pulling out of Michigan.
