Sarah Palin: rouge or rogue?

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Above, on the left: the autobiography from Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, set to be released on November 17. And on the right -- and slated for release the exact same day -- a collection that looks to be critical of the high-profile Republican, subtitled, as it is, ‘Sarah Palin: An American Nightmare.’

Note that in the above paragraph, ‘left’ and ‘right’ are meant to denote image locations only, not political perspectives.

The book covers bear no small resemblance to each other. So, too, the titles: Sarah Palin’s book is ‘Going Rogue,’ a phrase taken from her deviation from John McCain’s views during the 2008 campaign. The other book is entitled ‘Going Rouge,’ a phrase that comes from nowhere except a switcheroo of the letters ‘u’ and ‘g’ from Palin’s title. (And is being used by a coloring book, too).

‘Going Rouge,’ which is being edited by two senior editors from The Nation, is being published by the young imprint OR Books. The company seems to be hoping to either catch the wave of enthusiasm greeting Palin’s book -- it’s currently the #2 bestseller on Amazon, and Palin will be a guest on Oprah the day before the book arrives in stores -- or to confuse Palin supporters into purchasing the Palin-unfriendly book.

Or maybe OR Books wasn’t thinking about the similarities at all. Maybe they were simply remembering that Palin paid a makeup artist more than $20,000 for two weeks’ work. And if anyone wants to know how she rolls, rouge-wise, the makeup artist used blushes from Mac and Chanel.

As for going rogue, she is, in some Republican circles, still a bit roguish, in the sense of being an outsider, or perhaps even mischievous. Top of the Ticket reports that her offer to assist in governors races in New Jersey and Virginia was declined.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Images: Left, Harper / Associated Press. Right, OR Books.