Going Rogue: An American Life (68 page)

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Going Rogue

shoes. Ever the practical and frugal one, he, too, asked who paying for ir all and was told the same thing: “It’s taken care of. It’s part of the convention.”

No one had a good answer, either, to a more general question: why was the Palin family being made over for rhe two days of the convention anyway? With smiles. on our faces, we asked, Do we really look that bad?

We felt like we were starring in an episode of
What Not to
Wear.

I was told that Nicolle had worked with the stylists at CBS. She also assured me that all candidates traveled with hair and makeup artists, and

introduced me to Amy and Angela, the talented hair and makeup girls. I told them I was comfortable doing my own makeup, but I did look forward to someone else trying to do something with my hair, which I had worn in the sarne boring style forever. (I later heard that people thought I wore my hair in an “up-do” so I could look “chic.” Nab, it just saves me a few minutes every morning to plop it on top of my head.) I didn’t see how I was going to get used to sitting still while someone primped me. I had five kids; I was used to
doing
the primping. Like any mom, that usually just meant making sure the kids were warmly dressed and relatively wrinkle-free, then we were good to go. Throughout the campaign, though, Amy and Angela worked their magic, repeatedly rescuing my hair and mess of a face after too many days of fast food, snatched sleep, and stale, indoor air.

As the stylists buzzed around me like helpful bees, I began briefings and speechwriting sessions. I’m sure they got a bit annoyed with me, They wanted to turn me slowly in front of mirrors to make sure the clothes fit perfectly , .. but I had convention events to attend, as well as opportunities for meetings with various people and gtoups. Also, I wanted to study

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SARAH

PALIN

John’s foreign policy posirions wirh Randy and Sreve. So, while being railored to wirhin a millimerer, 1 ralked over my shoulder wirh rhem and orher advisers.
lr
was all very differenr from my inaugural ball in Alaska, when 1 had run out in the final two hours, literally, to buy a pair of shoes for the grand eveot. 1 felt all the fuss over clothes was a colossal waste of rime, and 1 was usually ready to bolt during fittings, thinking,
Okay. Yep.
fine, golla go.

1 wondered who had strategized this part of the campaign. 1

knew it wasn’t John. Never before had 1 been involved in a campaign that placed such an emphasis on packaging. When 1 ran for office in Alaska, r d written my own sctipt, usually traveled by myself, and, obviously, had worn my own clothes. 1 presented myself as 1 was and told people what 1 believed in. Now 1 was in the hands of “campaign professionals,” and it was my first encounter with the unique way of thinking that charactetizes this elite and highly specialized guild.
ln
Alaska, we don’t really have these kinds of people-they are a feature of national politics. Narurally enough, as the experts, they are used to being in charge. But no mattet how “expert” any of them was, nothing had apparently prepared them for the unprecedented onslaught of rumots, lies, and innuendo that “packaging” would have on my candidacy. 1 also wasn’t used to the beautiful hotels we enjoyed on the campaign trail.
ln
Wasilla, we have the Best Western
lnn
on Lake Lucille. We’ve used it for years, for everything from town hall meetings to the Wasilla Warriors high school prom.
lt
has a gorgeous view of the lake backed by thick, forested parklands and jagged peaks, and it’s only a few doors down from my home. But it’s not what you would call fancy. As governor, when 1

traveled on state business, 1 made frugality a point, asking for only reasonably priced rooms. So it wasn’t often that we had the

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Going Rogue

whole

robe-and-slippers horel rrearment. The convention accommodations were different from rhe place we had stayed to hide out rhe nighr before I was announced as the VP candidate, which Jearured pink carpet and at leasr one huge cockroach, the first one Alaska-born Piper had ever seen.

I especially wasn’t used to over-rhe-top perks, such as the f1atscreen TV

the barhroom mirror, an innovation rhat drew

cries of “Way cooH” from my girls,
Cool
was not what I rhought, though, on the morning of September 1. I was standing in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, enjoying the novelty of watching the news at the same time, when a crawl scrolled across the bottom of the screen: “Breaking: Vice presidential candidate Gov, Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter, Bristol, is pregnant.” I nearly gagged on my toothbrush.
Dh, God,
I thought.
we go.

The news, of course, wasn’t a surprise to our family and friends. And certainly it wasn’t a surprise to the campaign, nor were we going to tty to hide it, even

we could have, But we

would have liked to announce rhe news in our own way. I knew now we would be playing defense on an issue that I would rather have been out front on, It surprised me thar rhe campaign, which had the information in rhe first place, had had no plans to raise it in a constructive way, After all, it is an issue that affects far too many American teenagers.