Going Rogue: An American Life (61 page)

Chapter Four

Going Rogue

I am

that

is 10 percent what happens to me

andgo

I react to it.

so it is with you
…

we are

charge ofour attitudes.

-CHARLBS SWINDOLL

I t waspitchblackwhenwetoucheddowninArizona,the

home state ofSenatorJohn McCain. Late on August 27,2008, wirh the help of a McCain staffer, Davis Whire, my assisrant and friend, Kris Perry and I had managed to slip out of Anchorage on a private jet.
It
was no small feat as the entire media world was on veep watch and we were attempting to duck of a place

where most everyone at our local airstrips knew us.
But
it seemed we’d pulled it off In Arizona, we emerged from the plane into a warm, dry darkness, and a small knot of men whisked us into a tinted-window Suburban.

We drove to the private home of Bob Delgado, John’s ftiend and the CEO of Hensley & Co., Cindy McCain’s beet distributorship. As the dark streets and green foothills ofFlagsraffBashed by, I alternated between tapping out state business on my BlackBerry and marveling at the way doors sometimes open before

SARAH

PALIN

that we have neither anticipated nor sought.

when God presents those doors, we rhink,
Yes. This is right. This fits.
There had been rumors that John was considering me along with many others as his VP pick, and a nice guy named Adam Brickley had started a Web site trying to rally ordinary folks to draft me for the job. Several national reponers who interviewed me about AGIA that summer had dropped off-camera hints to that effect. But I was very busy with state business and the whole veep thing was such a long shot that I hadn’t even considered it a real possibility.

I had met the McCains in Februaty 2008 at the National Governots Association winrer meeting in D.c. During a reception at the ].W. Marriott Hotel, Todd and I had spoken with the senator and Cindy, and the four of us really connected over our families, especially when rhe McCains talked about their sons, Jack, who was set to graduate from the Naval Academy in 2009, and Jimmy, who had been serving in Iraq. As Cindy and I talked, I was pleased to find thar this elegant, beautiful woman was really a down-to-eatth mom who is as crazy about her kids as every other mom.

When the conversation tUtned ro us watching our own son go off to war, Cindy said, “You’re teally going to be on your knees in prayer more than you’ll ever expect.”

Senator McCain insisted we call him John. I had always admired the Republican senator fot his independent spirit and his passion fot keeping our homeland safe. I sincerely respected him. Both Todd and I found him a kind, respectful man, not at a.1I worn down either by decades in Washington Ot, miraculously, by his five and a half years as a POW in Vietnam. Instead, he seemed full of an inspiring inner joy. Later in the campaign, I would see this joy again and again. I’ll nevet forget it: we’d be at these huge, potentially history-making events, and John would clap me on
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Going Rogue

the shoulder, rub his hands cogether with a grin, and say, “Let’s just go have fun!” It seemed to me a perspective furged in the kind of

that make even the pressure cooker of a presidential campaign seem quaint by comparison.

As we rolled through the Arizona darkness, with Davis up front and Kris tapping

her BlackBerry beside me, I was excited

CO have another opporrunity to meer wirh John.

For some reason, when the caii came at the State Fair, it didn’t come as a huge shock. (Perhaps after the year I’d had, nothing could shock me.) I certainly didn’t think,
Well, ofcourse this would
But neither did I think,
What

astonishing

It seemed

more comfortable than that, like a natural progression. I’d known it was only a matter oftime befure orhers saw Alaska’s potential co contribute to America’s future. Now the time was right. After that cell phone chat at the fair, I took Piper on the next carnival ride as promised. Then I called Todd on rhe Slope, and Kris, and they both began working to make rhe Arizona meet-‘

ing happen without alerting the press. It was a big deal to try to pull it off. Infurmarion security was a huge concern. By that time, just five days before the Republican National Convention, the veepstakes ran end-co-end through daily news coverage. Bureau reporters had staked out the homes and offices of the major contenders, eyes peeled for rhe slightest clue. I remembered that during the Democrat veepstakes, they’d even put surveillance on Joe Biden’s mom.

But Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska? That was coo far out of the box.

We did have our local reporters, though. Gerting past them would be a crick. And how would we keep this a secret from my staff, especially if I gOt the nod and went straight to the convention in Minnesota? I was always at work. When I served as mayor, I had Piper on a Monday and was back at work on Tuesday, stopI
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