Joe McGinniss talks about why he moved in next to Sarah Palin
By David Weigel
When a source told Joe McGinniss that he could rent the house next to Sarah Palin's Wasilla, Alaska, home, the author was sold.
A room at the Best Western, not far away, would have been prohibitively expensive. The landlord of this house, meanwhile, offered it to McGinniss for $1,500 per month after a friend of the author recommended him as a solid alternative to the other people asking about the property.
"She was talking to this mutual friend of ours and said, 'I've got to find someone we're comfortable with,' " McGinniss said Friday evening from the deck of the house -- a deck that became famous after Palin posted a photo of it on Facebook this week. " 'My biggest concern is the Palins' privacy, especially the children.' So this mutual friend said, 'Well, you know, I think you're in luck. Joe McGinniss is going to be coming back here, and you couldn't find a better guy, just the right sort of person to move in and guarantee their privacy.'"
What happened next, said McGinniss, came as a total surprise. He had planned to keep the news off the Internet and tell the Palins himself that he'd be their neighbor as he wrapped up his biography of the former governor.
McGinniss had written a Portfolio piece about her leadership, and a critical Daily Beast piece on her book tour for her memoir, "Going Rogue," but he hoped to keep things civil and introduce himself anew to Palin and her husband, Todd.
"'I wanted to say, 'I'm writing this book, but I hope we can just get along as good neighbors, and after that, you'll never hear from me again,'" said McGinniss. "That's basically what I told Todd on Monday when he came over. He didn't really want to hear that.
"He took off on how my Portfolio piece was a bunch of lies, and a smear, and all this and all that, and he said, 'You going to be putting the microphones in now, and the surveillance cameras?
Joe McGinniss said, by being here I have learned things, and I've gotten an insight into her character, into her ability to incite hatred, that before I only knew about in the abstract." '
Sarah Palin's strange, unprofessional and paranoid grudge
By David Weigel
Sarah Palin took to her Facebook account today to inform her readers that Joe McGinniss, an award-winning reporter and author, had rented the house next door.
I saw Ben Smith flag this earlier but did not really appreciate how strange and, frankly, immature Palin's post was until I read it.
Palin informs her readers that McGinniss is "overlooking my children’s play area" and "overlooking Piper’s bedroom." Alternately sounding angry and mocking, she refers to "the family’s swimming hole," which at first reference sounds like she's accusing McGinniss of checking out the Palins in their bathing suits, until you realize the family's "swimming hole" is Lake Lucille. And she posts a photo of the space McGinniss is renting, captioning it, "Can I call you Joe?"
Can somebody explain to me how this isn't a despicable thing for Palin to do? She describes McGinniss as the author of "the bizarre anti-Palin administration oil development pieces that resulted in my Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered."
It's nice that Joe can spin the ugly vindictive behavior of the Palin's into some positive press for the book.. I think I might buy that one. Also the Geoffery Dunn 'The Many Lies of Sarah Palin'
Posted by: Syrin from Wasilla | 06/01/2010 at 12:47 PM