She’s run for vice president, inspired Saturday Night Live skits and now she’s “Going Rogue.” Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s highly anticipated book hit shelves Nov. 17, but University students aren’t exactly lining up to read the political memoir. “She’s a politician trying to get votes,” Evan Hull, accounting senior, said of Palin’s motives for her book, “Going Rogue: An American Life” and her nationwide book tour. Even before her abrupt resignation as governor in July, many have speculated Palin could be eyeing a 2012 presidential run. She said she decided to resign to protect her family members — who faced harsh criticism during and after the 2008 election — and to escape unsubstantiated legal probes, which were draining her family’s finances. But Palin has kept relatively quiet about her political future. According to a Nov. 13 Gallup Poll, a majority of Republicans — 76 percent — said they would like to see Palin as a major national political figure, but only 45 percent of all Americans said the same. And “Going Rogue” — which chronicles Palin’s journey from Wasilla City Council member to GOP starlet — won’t likely change anybody’s mind, political science professor Johanna Dunaway said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille. “I doubt it will persuade people,” she said. “I think that people who read it that already like her will find their position reinforced. I think people who hate her will read it through those biases and remain unconvinced.” Roben West, political science freshman, said she has no plans to read Palin’s book or to support her in any future political endeavors. “I don’t feel like she’s been qualified for any of the positions she’s held,” West said. “She really doesn’t have anything to write a book about.” Other students, like Spanish sophomore Emilia Kipf, support the grassroots populist. “In the [2008] presidential election, I was voting for her more than anybody else,” she said.Kipf said she likes Palin’s strong family values and no-nonsense approach to politics. “That’s what we need right now,” she said. Kipf said she will read Palin’s book if she finds the time. Palin used a ghostwriter for her book like other politicians, including Hillary Clinton, have in the past. “Going Rogue” is already a best-seller, and the media coverage — specifically about a 2012 presidential run for Palin — hasn’t stopped yet. “I’d be surprised if she runs,” Dunaway said. “I’d be even more surprised if she is taken seriously. Even several conservative pundits refer to her as extreme or ‘a joke.'”The Associated Press assigned 11 reporters to fact-check the 432-page book.According to those AP reporters, Palin said she asked “only” for reasonably priced hotel rooms when traveling on state business as Alaska governor and not “often” going for the “high-end, robe-and-slippers” hotels. Palin’s travel records showed her claim to be true, but the AP found Palin and her daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the roughly $700-per-night Essex House hotel in New York City for a five-hour women’s leadership conference in October 2007. The entire trip, including airfare, cost Alaska more than $3,000. The AP also reported Palin billed Alaska more than $20,000 for her children to travel with her — often to events to which they had not been invited. But the AP didn’t report how these numbers compare to other governors’ and politicians’ travel expenses. The AP did find that half of the $1.3 million Palin raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor was from donors and political action committees giving at least $500. Palin claimed she ran her campaign for governor on small donations mostly from first-time donors, according to the AP. The maximum donation an individual could give was $1,000 and $2,000 for political action committees. When talking about her resistance to federal stimulus money, Palin described the people of Alaska as independent, Libertarian-minded individuals who don’t want “help” from government. The AP investigated the statement and found that Alaska is one of the states most dependent on government subsidies. But Palin was referring specifically to federal stimulus dollars and political ideology. Large subsidies Alaska receives for things like natural resource development don’t necessarily apply to Palin’s claim, especially when considering her language. —-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]