Sarah Palin is hitting back at California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's dig at the former Alaska governor over the issue of climate change.

Alexander Mooney
CNN Ticker Producer

Sarah Palin is hitting back at California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's dig at the former Alaska governor over the issue of climate change.

"Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment?" Palin wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday night. "Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation's only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change."

Palin's comments came hours after the California Republican questioned Palin's stance on climate change in an interview with the Financial Times at the Copenhagen climate change summit
"You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish?" said Schwarzenegger, who has backed strict new emissions controls to combat climate change. "Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the (Republican presidential) nomination? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt."

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Rachel Campos-Duffy
The Americano

If the current pace continues, Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue is on track to become perhaps the best-selling nonfiction book ever. The extraordinary, record-breaking rollout and the throngs of fans who await Sarah at every stop of her nationwide bus tour is rivaled only by the endless succession of liberal talking heads who are willing to put aside years of carefully cultivated gender sensitivity in an attempt to finish off a job they had hoped they had taken care of last year – or at least in the last two months of granting Levi Johnston full access to the most coveted media outlets.

When Tina Brown laughs and defends Newsweek’s indefensible cover photo of the former governor in running shorts to Matt Lauer on The Today Show, and Naomi Wolfe on Larry King calls Palin “Evita” and a “Geisha” and accuses the fiercely independent Alaskan Governor of being the “muse” and “telegenic figurehead” of a Cheney/Rove/Haliburton cabal, you know there’s more fear than loathing in the liberal and feminist ranks.

So what exactly is the liberal feminist establishment afraid of? Back in the fall of 2008, many conservatives theorized that it all came down to abortion. That a baby-wielding, pro-life VP candidate would re-ignite a debate feminists prefer to believe is settled and that the very sight of baby Trig on the hip of the beautiful and confident Sarah Palin on the night of her pitch-perfect speech at the Republican National Convention caused an unsettling degree of national guilt and unwanted introspection for a society that aborts close to 90% of all babies diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. But I believe that the seething and obsession with all things Palin is bigger and deeper than even abortion.

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LZ Granderson
Special to CNN

Sarah Palin's book tour came through my city the other day and I scooted over to the mall, looking to get an autograph and a handshake.

Unfortunately, I got neither.

I wasn't in line at 5 a.m., so I wasn't one of the 1,000 or so people who obtained the special wristband necessary to gain access to the rogue one.

However, I did get a lot of strange looks from the line, which I guess was to be expected. After all, I'm a black man with dreadlocks and, judging by the racial makeup of most of the cities Palin has scheduled for her tour, it doesn't seem I'm her target audience.

I'm not suggesting that she should avoid going to places like Noblesville, Indiana, or Washington, Pennsylvania, both with overwhelmingly white populations. It just seems that in going to few diversely populated cities, she's purposefully steering clear of minorities. I mean, what author with a $5 million book deal avoids promoting books in large cities?

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Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Like a proverbial swarm of locusts, book buyers are descending on stores coast-to-coast to devour endless stacks of a new publication. Talk and news shows are devoting so many hours to discussing the author, even John Grisham might be jealous. And the subject of all this literary wonder: Sarah Palin.

The ubiquitous former governor of Alaska is once again blasting over the American political landscape, this time astride her super-charged snowmobile of a memoir, “Going Rogue.” The actual sales figures are changing by the hour, so let’s just say she moving more paper than Dwight Schrute. Harper Collins reportedly planned to print 1.5 million copies in the first run, and industry insiders say they’ve rarely seen such pre-release demand for a non-fiction book. Although, having done some fact-checking, I must say putting it into the non-fiction category may be a stretch.

Anyway, with her custom bus rumbling from one town to the next for these Take-Back-America tent revivals, it’s like a Shania Twain concert tour without the band.

The striking thing about Palin is the fervor she evokes from both sides of the aisle. Her fans see her as one of their own; a conservative politician who speaks plainly and without apology. She talks about complex subjects as if they are easily grasped. She barbecues public discontent with politicians like a nice moose steak, and serves it up steaming with just a hint of red meat in the middle.

And what pleases her fans infuriates her foes. Want to watch a liberal friend start breaking dishes? Just say “You know, Sarah Palin has some good points.” Never mind that she has made big-enough blunders to undermine any future run at a major political office. (Hey, just look at the polls.) Forget about the fact that she is engaged in that wacky battle with her erstwhile, sort-of-son-in-law, the Playgirl posing Levi. She still drives the opposition completely nuts.

Why? It comes down to something very simple. America is interested in her. For good or for bad. And in the modern age of celebrity politics, where popularity often trumps policy, that makes her a player. Heck, she’s raised that game to such a level you might even say she wrote the book.

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Mary Matalin
CNN Contributor

In today's publishing market, "Going Rogue" is a fat book at 432 pages, at a high price point of $28.99, with a massive (rumored 1.5 million) first printing, launched on the book world's version of a Royal Tour, where Oprah is Queen of the Universe and Barbara Walters is Duchess of the D.C.-Manhattan cognoscenti.

In today's political market, well before it was officially released, "Going Rogue" was reduced to a pinprick-sized, petty insiders squabble. How do we square these disparate perspectives?

As a person with alternating publisher and political hats, who knows the players but wasn't inside the John McCain campaign, who cares deeply about the current conservative movement and the future of the country (which are inextricably intertwined), may I offer a few thoughts to the friends on CNN.com's site?

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Richard Kim and Betsy Reed
Special to CNN

Sarah Palin begins her manipulation of the readers of her book "Going Rogue" in the title, embracing as a badge of honor the accusation leveled at her by McCain campaign staffers during the last bitter days of election 2008 - even though she's exemplified the political insider throughout her career.

In "Going Rogue," she describes the campaign as disorganized and defeatist and writes that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's aides had a "jaded aura" about them.

She's a "diva" who is "playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party," one anonymous McCain staffer alleged at the time. Now, Palin wants payback.

It's not yet clear who will emerge the victor in this Republican Party version of "Thunderdome." But it's telling that Palin intends to twist the meaning of "rogue" - an untrustworthy and unprincipled person - into its very opposite.

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Matthew Continetti
Special to CNN

Sarah Palin appears on Oprah on Monday to mark the launch of her book, "Going Rogue." She'll follow up with an extensive interview with Barbara Walters, a multicity book tour and appearances on the Fox News Channel and talk radio.

She'll grab plenty of headlines. As you read about Palin's old-media tour, it's important to remember that she's also a pioneer in the political use of new social media. Not that she gets any credit.

Sometimes the most important revolutions are the quiet ones. This is especially true in the case of technology, which has a way of sneaking up on us.

Take cell phones, for example. A decade ago, they were a luxury item. Suddenly, everyone seemed to have one. What had once been a sign of status became commonplace, all with hardly anybody noticing - and without any central direction.

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CNN Poll: Most Americans say Palin is not qualified to serve as President.

Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director

Fewer than three in 10 Americans think Sarah Palin's qualified to be president, according to a new national poll – the least of any of the five potential candidates included in the survey.

But another woman tops that list in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday: two-thirds of the public thinks that Secretary of State HIllary Clinton's qualified for the Oval Office. That's more than Vice President Joe Biden, who's currently next in line for the presidency.

According to the poll, 28 percent of Americans say Palin is qualified to run the White House, with seven in 10 saying the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee is not qualified.

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Palin wrote on her Facebook page that the AP got parts of her book wrong in their report.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Sarah Palin's memoir has leaked, but the former Alaska governor is telling supporters – and potential customers – to be cautious about the early reviews.

"As you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release," Palin wrote Friday on her Facebook page. "And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book."

"Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it!," she wrote. "Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain. We can't wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first ... "

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Palin will bypass several major cities in her upcoming book tour.

Alexander Mooney
CNN Ticker Producer

Those living in the country's biggest cities who hope to catch a glimpse of Sarah Palin while she is on her much-anticipated book tour may be disappointed: the former Alaska governor will instead hit a string of mid-size cities, many of which voted for her and John McCain last November.

According to Harper Collins, the publisher of Palin's forthcoming memoir "Going Rogue," Palin will bypass several of the major cities that are often the pillars of any big book tour, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia.

Palin's schedule instead takes the former Republican vice presidential candidate to smaller – and in many cases more conservative – cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, Washington, Pennsylvania, Roanoke, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida.

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Store owner Shannon Cullip on Sarah Palin: People either completely ... have her on a pedestal or don't like her.

John King
CNN Chief National Correspondent

At Pandemonium Booksellers, the Sarah Palin 2010 calendars are hot sellers, and since the election, the traffic in political books has been decidedly to the right.

"Glenn Beck outsells President Obama at the moment?" is our question as owner Shannon Cullip leads us on a tour of the bookstore.

"Oh yeah," she responds with a laugh. "Big time."

In the window, there is a small Wasilla Chamber of Commerce sticker and an image of the town's famous mayor-turned-governor-turned-GOP vice presidential nominee.

"Going Rogue" is shattering the presale record at Pandemonium Booksellers and reigniting the Palin political divide, even here in her hometown.

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Mark Halperin
Time

The title of Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue, is a little misleading. The gerund suggests that the woman who went from obscurity to the GOP ticket to the exit door of the Alaska governor's mansion in less than a year is still on a journey toward rogue-dom.

In fact, when Palin emerged from a self-imposed semi-exile on Nov. 6 to speak before 4,000 fans just outside Milwaukee at what organizers called the largest pro-life gathering in Wisconsin history, two things were abundantly clear: Palin is now a thoroughly professional rogue — and she is going to sell a ton of books. She has become her own reality show.

The line began forming at the state fairgrounds more than three hours before the main event and stretched longer than half a mile. The crowd wore buttons bearing her image and passed the time making jokes about the media while eagerly snatching up T-shirts a local talk-radio station was giving away that labeled Palin "America's Conservative Conscience." Once inside the cavernous exhibition hall, they chanted, "Sarah!" with growing fervor until their heroine appeared, flexing her distinctive charisma in a killer red dress, high heels and her trademark glasses. The event was closed to the press, and cameras were barred from the hall, not only to preserve the mystery and anticipation before her formal debut but also to protect against unflattering YouTube postings. I bought a public ticket for admittance, as did several other journalists.

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Program Note: Don't miss Anderson's conversation with the book's authors Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe tonight. AC360° 10 p.m. ET.

Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe
'Sarah from Alaska'

Introduction: Lights Out

IN A CONDOMINIUM SUITE at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin read over the election night victory speech that she would never have the chance to deliver. Thank you all so much. And thank you, America, for the great responsibility that you have given to President-elect John S. McCain.

It was just minutes before the stirring moment when the official results would begin to trickle in, but as the sun descended toward the desert horizon, her fatigue must have been crushing. Palin’s two months on the trail had been not just physically exhausting but mentally draining. This short, strange trip had tested her in ways that might have broken even the most hardened political pro, and she had suffered more than her fair share of setbacks and embarrassments.

Still, it was Palin’s gripping story and alluring personality that had breathed life into a once flatlining campaign. Her addition to the ticket had sparked a flood of donations, standing-room only crowds at rallies, and a surge in the polls for the Republican ticket. But along with Palin’s many positive contributions to the campaign had come as many ruinous malfunctions. In the final hours of this frenzied voyage, she would discover just how expendable she had become, as the McCain campaign was literally about to turn the lights out on her.

How had she skyrocketed so quickly into the stratosphere of American politics? Who had really been at fault for her many public stumbles? And what was it about Sarah Palin that drew such passion from both her fans and her foes? Even with the benefit of the thousands of hours of media attention that had been devoted to her candidacy, the heat of the moment did not afford the perspective for anyone to answer these questions adequately, least of all the candidate herself. On this last night of the campaign, Palin remained focused on the momentous judgment that the American people were about to deliver.

Even by presidential-campaign standards, Palin’s last two days had been borderline inhumane. She had started her Monday morning outside Cleveland, Ohio, and made her way across the Lower 48 to rallies in Missouri, Iowa, and Colorado, stopping twice in Nevada, before catching an overnight flight to Anchorage. Then she staggered to the finish line here in Phoenix. While mapping out the final days, Palin’s aides had suggested it might be more practical for the governor to vote absentee, rather than make the sixteen-hour Alaska detour, but she insisted on casting her ballot in her home state. A few paragraphs down, the victory speech became more personal, adding a touch of humor about her famously low-key husband. We were ready, in defeat, to return to a place and a life we love. And I said to my husband Todd that it’s not a step down when he’s no longer Alaska’s “First Dude.” He will now be the first guy ever to become the “Second Dude.”

Palin and more than a few of her aides had earnestly believed all fall that they could come from behind to win the thing, even though McCain’s top advisers knew the near collapse of the financial system in October likely foretold the Republican ticket’s doom. Yes, the crowds that had greeted her were enormous and passionate, and, yes, there was always hope that God would answer her prayers and grant her just one more miracle in what had been a string of unlikely successes in her short political career. But the recent polls were uniformly grim.

She turned her attention to the other set of remarks that had been penned for her, the concession speech. Like the victory address, its very existence would remain a secret after McCain and his inner circle denied her the opportunity to deliver it later in the night.

I wish Barack Obama well as the 44th president of the United States. If he governs America with the skill and grace we have often seen in him, and the greatness of which he is capable, we’re gonna be just fine. And when a black citizen prepares to fill the office of Washington and Lincoln, that is a shining moment in our history that can be lost on no one.

It was a poignant passage in the far less triumphant of the two speeches that Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, had written in advance of either outcome. A cerebral animal-protection activist, Scully was an unlikely wordsmith for the governor who could field-dress a moose. He had also penned Palin’s game-changing address at the Republican National Convention, field-dressing Obama with charges of arrogance, elitism, and inexperience. This time, however, he was exceedingly cordial in a manner appropriate for the occasion. Palin scribbled in another line with her black pen, dropping a cherry atop the hot fudge sundae: God bless you and your beautiful family, President-elect Obama.

She had first discussed her victory and concession speeches with Scully two days earlier, when they spoke in Room 719 of the Mc – Kinley Grand Hotel in Canton, Ohio. Like Scully’s former boss and many of his predecessors in the Oval Office, Palin was the kind of Christian who felt comfortable expressing her faith in public, which the speech reflected: I will remember all the people who said they were praying for me. She squeezed another handwritten line in the margin, perhaps in an attempt to get the last word in against some of the McCain aides who thought it was better for her to tone down the God talk: You prayer warriors have been my strength and my shield.

The last few weeks had been particularly trying ones for Palin, as public missteps and allegations of selfish motives had accumulated one after another and threatened to define her. But tonight’s speech was her chance to launch the next stage of her political career, and surely her fellow Republicans had seen the excitement she had inspired among the voters; surely they perceived the promise she held for the Republican Party’s future. Still, she knew how important it was to avoid any perception that her own ambitions were anywhere near the forefront of her mind. She had done most of the things she had been asked to do in order to get John McCain elected, but she had only come on board for a small piece of the ten-year odyssey he had begun when he launched his first presidential campaign in 1999. This night was about him. Palin’s antagonists in Washington, in Juneau, and especially in the media would be paying close attention to whether or not she played the good soldier in this final battle of the war…

Editor's Note: The above excerpt was taken from the book, Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe. Excerpted by arrangement with PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2009.

Palin will bypass several major cities in her upcoming book tour.

Alexander Mooney
CNN Ticker Producer

Those living in the country's biggest cities who hope to catch a glimpse of Sarah Palin while she is on her much-anticipated book tour may be disappointed: the former Alaska governor will instead hit a string of mid-size cities, many of which voted for her and John McCain last November.

According to Harper Collins, the publisher of Palin's forthcoming memoir "Going Rogue," Palin will bypass several of the major cities that are often the pillars of any big book tour, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia.

Palin's schedule instead takes the former Republican vice presidential candidate to smaller – and in many cases more conservative – cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, Washington, Pennsylvania, Roanoke, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida.

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Palin was concerned about the cost of the wardrobe that was purchased for her during the campaign, according to the new book.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Tensions within John McCain's presidential campaign boiled over on Election Night last November when Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, repeatedly ignored directions from senior staffers who told her she would not be delivering her own concession speech.

Those fresh details on the conflict between Palin and members of the McCain team come in a new book – "Sarah from Alaska" – by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, two members of the press corps that traveled with Palin during the 2008 presidential race. The pair spent much of the following year reporting on the campaign turmoil and the vice presidential nominee's difficult return to Alaska after the election.

According to a copy of the book obtained by CNN, Palin's speechwriter Matthew Scully had prepared a brief speech for the then-Alaska governor to deliver while introducing McCain, before he gave his concession speech at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. But after conferring in his suite with senior advisers Mark Salter, Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt, McCain nixed the idea of having Palin speak before him.

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Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

She was a high-voltage candidate, lighting a fire in the grass roots of Republican-land - fresh, folksy and fierce.

She famously belittled her party's presidential opponent, Barack Obama, at her coming-out party at the 2008 Republican National Convention:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sarah Palin remains a force - the most recognizable name in the Republican Party, a headline magnet.

Just over a year after the defeat of the Republican ticket, the Republican No. 2 is Amazon.com's No. 1 in nonfiction presales.

Writer of books, giver of speeches, muser of politics on an unusually active Facebook account. And robo-caller on behalf of a conservative group in this year's Virginia governor's race.

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Sarah Palin remains most recognizable name in the Republican Party.

Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

She was a high-voltage candidate, lighting a fire in the grassroots of Republican-land - fresh, folksy and fierce.

She famously belittled her party's presidential opponent, Barack Obama, at her coming-out party at the 2008 Republican National Convention: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sarah Palin remains a force - the most recognizable name in the
Republican Party, a headline magnet. Just over a year after the defeat of the Republican ticket, the Republican No. 2 is Amazon.com's No. 1 in non-fiction pre-sales. Writer of books, giver of speeches, muser of politics on an unusually active Facebook account. And robo-caller on behalf of a conservative group in this year's Virginia governor's race.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found 85 percent of Republicans say Palin agrees with them on their most important issues. But only 49 percent of independents feel that way.

It's a telling measure of her political reach - and its limits - that
the Republicans who won governor seats in Virginia and New Jersey this year politely rejected Palin's offers to campaign for them.

Both governors-elect owe their victories to huge majorities of
independent voters. Palin's clout is inside the party. In a New York congressional race, she helped push a Republican Party candidate out of the way for a more conservative one. But with that battle won, Palin lost the war - the split made way for a Democratic victory.

These days, Palin is doing selected interviews, the first this week with Oprah Winfrey, to promote her book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," which comes out next week.

Palin is a politician fueled by her celebrity, which is lucrative, but
not necessarily good. "Americans tend not to elect celebrities," said David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush. "Arnold Schwarzenegger is the exception, but more often than not, people want something in their political leaders that is more steady, stable, and predictable."

Fans and critics inevitably point to Palin's quitting as Alaska's governor, with about a year and a half left in her first term, as her biggest political problem. "Only dead fish go with the flow," she said as she was stepping down.

It's that kind of rogueness that made her a household name, but in the end may make Palin a player who helps shape the party rather than lead it. Of six Republican consultants interviewed - including four who supported the Palin nomination - all see her as playing a part in rebuilding the party. None thought she would be the next Republican presidential nominee, and only two thought she would even run.

Palin reveled details of her book tour on Facebook

Alexander Mooney
CNN

Sarah Palin says she's gearing up for her highly anticipated book tour later this month, writing on Facebook Tuesday she is "very, very excited to travel the country as she promotes her forthcoming memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life."

The former Alaska governor hinted she'd likely sit down with a string of friendly faces during the tour that begins in two weeks, a list of conservative television hosts that include Fox's Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. She also wants to appear with Fox host Greta Van Susteren.

Palin added she'll likely appear on the radio programs of conservative talkers Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Dennis Miller, and Laura Ingraham, and Tammy Bruce.

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Palin was concerned about the cost of the wardrobe that was purchased for her during the campaign, according to the new book.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Tensions within John McCain's presidential campaign boiled over on Election Night last November when Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, repeatedly ignored directions from senior staffers who told her she would not be delivering her own concession speech.

Those fresh details on the conflict between Palin and members of the McCain team come in a new book – "Sarah from Alaska" – by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, two members of the press corps that traveled with Palin during the 2008 presidential race. The pair spent much of the following year reporting on the campaign turmoil and the vice presidential nominee's difficult return to Alaska after the election.

According to a copy of the book obtained by CNN, Palin's speechwriter Matthew Scully had prepared a brief speech for the then-Alaska governor to deliver while introducing McCain, before he gave his concession speech at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. But after conferring in his suite with senior advisers Mark Salter, Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt, McCain nixed the idea of having Palin speak before him.

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Gloria Borger
CNN Senior Political Analyst

Right now, the political intelligentsia is consumed with the outcome of a congressional district in upstate New York.

After all, it's a great story: The longtime incumbent Republican leaves his safe district to become Barack Obama's army secretary. The region's GOP pooh-bahs meet behind closed doors and pick a social moderate - a longtime Republican assemblywoman - to run in the special election. She slides dramatically in the polls after conservatives pitch their tents in the district to loudly oppose her. At the last minute, she quits - and endorses the Democratic nominee.

She has been driven out of the race by the purists.

Sure, there's a lesson here for the political establishment: It's never a good idea to pick your candidate in a deal made behind closed doors.

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