一般來說，美國選戰結束之後，落敗的候選人都會慢慢地失去民眾的注意力。因為隨着新內閣的提名和任命，政壇的後起之秀層出不窮，再加上新的法案，新的政策，新的議題，不斷地在轉移媒體的焦點和視線，所以無論是政壇還是媒體，都不可能為了一個過氣了的，失敗的候選人留太多的政治空間。
可是，莎拉·佩林（Sarah Palin）卻是一個例外。這位曾經的副總統候選人，在選戰結束一年之後，依然在網絡上，媒體界，美國政壇，爆紅搶眼，依然是美國民間的話題主要人物之一。佩林辭去州長職務的事情，登上個報刊頭條，佩林批評奧巴馬醫改中的臨終諮詢是死亡判定小組（Death Panels），讓民眾對國營醫改支持率大幅下降。
莎拉·佩林的自傳《我行我素》（Going Rogue: An American Life 或譯作《單打獨鬥》或《耍無賴》）還沒有上市，在美國最大的連鎖書店Barnes & Noble以及亞馬遜網絡書店，預購冊數排名第一，上市首日30萬本售罄。出版社HarperCollins 發言人說，《Going Rogue》上市兩周銷量就突破一百萬！
在亞馬遜網絡書店最熱銷的排行榜上，《Going Rogue》硬生生地把全球熱門小說家丹·布朗(Dan Brown )的新作《The Lost Symbol》從榜首的位置擠下來。在《紐約時報》最暢銷書排行榜上，《Going Rogue》已經蟬聯了三周冠軍，至今還在榜首掛着。據美聯社報道，原本印150萬冊的《Going Rogue》, 後來追加至250萬。而且現在，出版社還要再加印30萬冊。
在全國巡迴簽售的活動中，無論佩林走到哪裡，各地的民眾趨之若騖，有些粉絲為了得到她的簽名甘願排上24小時的長隊，據說在阿拉巴馬州，有的粉絲竟然排了40個小時，在弗吉尼亞的Roanoke，多達1,750人排隊等待佩林的簽名。
自《Going Rogue》發表以來，媒體報刊以佩林為話題談論了好幾個周，在全美猶如刮了一場“佩琳熱”的大旋風，各大新聞網的談話節目主持人爭相邀約佩林做專訪，甚至連奧巴馬的忠實的擁躉者，美國脫口秀的一姐，奧普拉·溫弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey)，也不得不遷就廣大觀眾的熱情，請來這位奧巴馬的政敵上自己的節目，結果，當天的節目收視率破了歷史記錄。
最新的CNN民調顯示，莎拉·佩林的受歡迎程度高達百分之四十六，只比媒體寵兒奧巴馬落後一個百分點。要知道，佩林如今已是一介平民，而奧巴馬是萬眾矚目，高票當選的大總統，而且在這段時間，奧巴馬捷報頻傳，頻繁上鏡，什麼獲得諾貝爾和平獎了，什麼開拓亞洲之行了，什麼出席哥本哈根的拯救地球大會了，等等，但所有這一切加起來，都無法掩蓋的“佩林熱”旋風的鋒芒，更無法沖淡佩林對政壇和美國社會的巨大影響。
你能想象得到一個競選失敗的副總統候選人能吸引來這麼多人的關注嗎？佩林這位普通的“冰球媽媽”到底有什麼魔力？大家可以參考著名時評家曹長青的文章《佩林-被兩極評價的美國女人》。
到底佩林到底怎麼看待奧巴馬，她又如何看待美國的內政和外交，我們下次再接着聊。
下面是登載在Drudge Report網站上《Going Rogue》獨家節選，佩林在書中透露了麥凱恩（John McCain）陣營驚人的無能，左傾和對她的敵意。（翻譯隨後附出）敬請讀者關注。
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.”
