Palin on the BP disaster

Sarah Palin at her Facebook page responds to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a subject she can address with particular authority because of the Exxon-Valdez disaster which was a huge event for Alaskans and is treated feelingly in her book. The piece is well reasoned, and very well written. Does she write these columns without assistance? Her book, of course, was written by a ghost writer, or by what might be called an “as told to” writer. Very oddly, however, that writer (whose name I forget at the moment), though her role is generally known and is not denied, is not mentioned in the book itself.

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May 7

A. Zarkov writes:

I agree that Palin’s Facebook essay is well written stylistically, but it’s devoid of any useful information or insight. I also doubt she wrote it because she’s pretty busy these days giving lectures at $100,000 a pop. Highly competent ghostwriters are both cheap and plentiful these days. Virtually everyone with name recognition these days uses a ghostwriter according to Richard Posner. See here. He says he doesn’t. For example Tom Clancy no longer writes his books, but he does put the actual author’s name on the book—in small print of course.

I don’t understand who would pay Palin $100,000 for a 40 minute talk. You would have to pay me to sit through it, and I would charge a lot.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 06, 2010 07:06 PM | Send