A year after an ignominious vice-presidential campaign, Sarah Palin is back in the national spotlight. After months of castigation and mockery, she allows the public to rebuke her yet again in her recollection of the 2008 election, Going Rogue: An American Life.

We can all reminisce about the absurdity of Palin’s vice presidential campaign. In many ways, the downfall of Palin was a political milestone. The standards of the Vice Presidency lowered as her faux pas piled up. She constantly made political mistakes; the resulting entertainment was ubiquitous. From her embarrassing ignorance on the Bush Doctrine in an ABC interview to Saturday Night Live’s repeated ridicule of her rustic Alaskan roots, Palin symbolized all that was wrong with American politicians. Before the end of 2008, politics became humor thanks to her.

What’s more, Palin helped to sever Republican unity. While many Americas doubted the Republican policy choices of 2000 through 2008, Palin continued to alienate moderate voters. Ironically, she united Americans under Obama because she turned many away from McCain. For many, a vote for Obama was just as much a vote against Palin.

Logically, one would think that Palin would avoid having her morals, family, and opinions placed in the arena of national judgment again after her previous mishaps. The 2008 campaign wounded Palin’s political integrity. After her many mistakes, it will be difficult for her to regain credibility. In addition, the fierce media backlash against Palin and her family in part led to her abrupt resignation as governor of Alaska. So why on earth is she drawing more attention to herself?

While the memoir is a compilation of life events, the obvious focus of the book is on the past year. From Palin’s perspective, this memoir serves to justify her bizarre actions and TV blunders. It is her attempt to salvage her national image and possibly resurrect her political future. However, for the rest of America, the memoir is simply 432 pages of grievances about others’ misperceptions of her.

For starters, Palin blames the McCain campaign for stigmatizing her and claiming that McCain’s aides kept her “bottled up” from the media. It is undeniable that the media exacerbated Palin’s fall from grace. But would her image have been improved if McCain had allowed Palin to speak freely to reporters? I cringe as I think back to her Katie Couric interview…

Palin continues to assert that she was totally opposed to her $150,000 wardrobe makeover through the election even though she said nothing of it at the time. Really, Palin?

In addition, Palin blames the McCain campaign for the controversy surrounding her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy. Palin received a lot of flack for idealizing teen pregnancy and marriage. According to Palin in the memoir, her beliefs on teen pregnancy were seriously misconstrued through the media. Isn’t everything misconstrued through the media according to her?

Unfortunately, Going Rogue does little more than to underline Palin’s ineptitude. When assessing the definition of “rogue” one usually conjures thoughts of “rogue” nuclear powers (Venezuela, Iran) or “rogue” vehicles on the road (hopefully not encountering them). In short, the term “rogue” does not have a positive or assuring connotation. “Rogue” is what we want to avoid and deter, not elect to the White House. In a Presidency, Americans seeks stability and trust. Although Palin tries to point out her maverick characteristics, she also documents her unreliability. Going Rogue should serve as a deterrent for those 2012 Palin-hopefuls.

If nothing else, Palin’s memoir can reassure those who are skeptical of inadequacy of the Obama-Biden team. Knowing that Palin was almost a heartbeat away from the US Presidency is a nightmarish scenario. At least America can be assured that Biden will not be going rogue anytime soon