10 Palin Hits the Leakers Missed

Mark Hirsch / Getty Images Yes, details have leaked. But as Going Rogue hits stores today, plenty of surprises remain. From Sarah Palin’s first kiss with Todd to her enemies list, The Daily Beast digs up the juicy tidbits.

After weeks of hype, the baby finally arrived, weighing in at 413 pages with six chapters and one photo of a skinned harbor seal. No sooner had it appeared in bookstores Tuesday than Going Rogue jumped to the No. 1 sales rank on Amazon—and threatened to eclipse coverage of President Obama’s Asia trip. While bits and pieces leaked out during the days before the book’s official release, The Daily Beast dug up some of the juiciest new tidbits overlooked by the leakers.

Todd Kisses and Tells

Sarah Palin describes her first kiss with Todd, riding shotgun in his Mustang during her senior year of high school:

“On the drive home in his Mustang, he tried to kiss me for the first time. But the truth was, I was a never-really-been-kissed nerd. As soon as Todd hit my driveway, I jumped out of the car, scared to death that this suave worldly guy that I was crazy about would find out what a wallflower I was. The next day, my sheltered world felt shattered when he told the boys in the locker room… that I didn’t even know how to kiss….My young, crushed spirit learned a lesson about guys that day: Even the good ones can act like jerks.”

Enemies Big and Small

Palin has harsh words for many national figures, named and unnamed. John Kerry is an “elitist loon.” Actress Ashley Judd, who campaigned against the aerial slaughter of wolves, is “a perky, pretty celebrity” with “asinine plans.” Todd Purdum, who wrote a long profile of Palin for Vanity Fair, is “hostile.”

But what’s more surprising than Palin’s attacks on journalist bigfoots and Hollywood celebrities is the disdain she felt for local officials from her earliest days in Alaska politics. Her first legislative director when she was elected governor of Alaska was a “doozy.” She writes:

“He turned out to be a BlackBerry games addict who couldn’t seem to keep his lunch off his tie. He relished the perception that he was a ‘player’ in Juneau politics, but we were never sure which team he was on.”

Palin slams a onetime Republican rival as “a wealthy, effete young chap” whose local radio show and blogging were “major steps up from a previous job as our limo driver at Todd’s cousin’s wedding.”

Palin’s Campaign Soundtrack

Palin passed the time on long campaign road trips listening to Big & Rich, Martina McBride, and Travis Tritt. She calls Hank Williams Jr., the rocker of Monday Night Football fame, a “well-known patriot.” Kid Rock, a former drug dealer who introduced the world to the phrase, “Bawitdaba da dang diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy,” is described as “very pro-America and has common-sense ideas.” On one Alaska road trip, Palin remembers driving “to the sound of the Black Eyed Peas and an old LL Cool J remix we found in the glove box.” A few years later, Will.I.Am of Black Eyed Peas would record a hit song for Obama, “Yes We Can,” viewed by millions. LL Cool J played at an inauguration ball, celebrating Palin’s opponent.

Bristol’s Maternal Instincts

Palin describes the news of her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy as “shocking.” Nonetheless, she saw years earlier that her eldest daughter had the motherly itch.

“As she grew she manifested her little mama’s heart by nurturing her siblings and cousins and always begging to babysit,” Palin writes. “One evening just before she turned eight… I was lying next to her reading when she rolled over and screwed her eyes down into a commanding state. ‘You,’ she decreed, ‘are going to rent me a baby for my birthday!’”

Early SNL Fan

Palin’s appearance on Saturday Night Live may have been one of the most surreal moments of the campaign. And Tina Fey’s impersonation of Palin was the breakout hit of the show’s 2008 season. But Palin has been a longtime fan of the program, weathering the freezing cold of her childhood TV den—it was built over the garage—to watch the show:

“In our teen years, if we stayed awake long enough, we’d sneak upstairs and watch Saturday Night Live. Having grown up in a house where ‘butt’ was a bad word and we had to say ‘bottom,’ we assumed we had to sneak. It wasn’t until years later that we learned our parents got a kick out of SNL’s political humor, too.”

Palin’s Joementum

It leaked early that Palin praised the independent senator in her book, but she lays it on pretty thick right at a moment when Lieberman is drifting away from Democrats yet again:

“There was a bright spot in Philly and his name was Joe Lieberman.”

Later she writes, recounting his advice:

“'God is going to see you through this,’ Senator Lieberman said. ‘Just put your faith in Him and let Him take care of it.’ Then he repeated our mutual friend John's words of wisdom: 'Just have fun!' It was so heartfelt, so genuine, so sincere.”