Joe McGinniss, Palin Neighbor & Author, Leaving Wasilla To Write Book

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Joe McGinniss, Palin Neighbor & Author, Leaving Wasilla To Write Book

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/04/joe-mcginniss-palin-neigh_n_705905.html

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Sarah Palin can take down the fence. Palin's neighbor of three months on Wasilla's Lake Lucille, author Joe McGinniss, is packing his bags and notebooks and leaving Sunday for his home in Massachusetts to write the book he has been researching on the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate.

His arrival in May made headlines and drew an indignant reaction from Palin and a visit from her husband, Todd. The Palins even tacked an extension onto an 8-foot board fence between the homes, leaving only a part of their second-story home visible from McGinniss' driveway.

Peeping into windows or peering through knotholes was never part of his research, McGinniss said.

"I've been very busy but on Lake Lucille it's been very quiet," he said. "As I told Todd back in May – he came over to get in my face about moving in there – I said, 'You're not even going to know I'm there. A lot of the time, I'm not going to be here. And when I am, I mind my own business. I don't care what happens on your side of the fence. That's not why I'm here.'"

And that's how it has played out, McGinniss said.

A Palin spokesman didn't immediately respond to an e-mail Saturday seeking any comments from the governor on the author's departure.

McGinniss has written best-selling books, including "The Selling of the President," on the marketing of Richard Nixon, "Fatal Vision," an account of the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, and "Blind Faith," about a businessman's contract killing of his wife.

He's no newcomer to Alaska. Thirty-five years ago, McGinniss moved to the state to see how new oil money would affect Alaskans. He wrote a draft, returned for three months in 1977, and two years later completed "Going To Extremes." The book has recently been reissued.

McGinniss had been gone from Alaska for 28 years when he returned in 2008 to research a magazine article on Palin's natural gas pipeline initiative, which she had heralded in the presidential campaign. McGinniss' critical story in the now defunct Conde Nast publication Portfolio was titled "Pipe Dreams." He concluded that for all of Palin's posturing, her only accomplishment in two years of work on the pipeline project had been to award $500 million from Alaska's budget to a Canadian company and to leave Alaska again at the mercy of Big Oil.

"She said it was a hit piece," McGinniss said. "For a day she was upset. I said it was a hit piece: It hit the bulls-eye."

[gophates]

1. He should make a version with lots of cartoon pictures

So Caribou Barbie can read it.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Or put it on a Palm Pilot so she can read it off of her palm

*********RIMSHOT*********

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be here all week. Don;t forget to try the jalapeno poppers!

:rofl:

:toast:

[livetohike]

3. Ha! Good one

:rofl:

[gordianot]

4. Anyone who has ever lived in a small town knows knows one fact.

"The neighbors know" No need to spy, strike up a casual conversation they are usually very accurate. I am sure there is plenty of wreckage left by the Palin clan and their ambitions in Wasilla.