• Former Gov. Sarah Palin writes in her book that her son Track advised her not to quit her job as governor, Kate Snow of ABC writes today. Palin’s son told her, “Don’t let the jerks get you down.” “His view was that you don’t quit. You don’t violate your contract. There is pain, you push through it, you stick it out,” Palin wrote in the book. 

“Then he brought it home: ‘No dishonorable discharge. You only leave if it’s honorable — that means you move up to something more worthy.’’

“I asked him if he thought protecting Trig and his sisters was ‘more worthy.’ I asked if fighting through the bull so that I could reveal truth and fight for what is right for our state and our country was ‘more worthy.’ I asked if breaking free of the bureaucratic shackles that were now paralyzing our state was ‘worthy.’ “I finally said out loud what I knew I had to do,” Palin said. "’I’m not a quitter, Track,’ I finished. ’I’m going to fight. And that’s the point.’ 

• Chuck Todd of NBC said Palin describes Juneau this way in her book: “Politically, Juneau always had a reputation for being a lot like Animal House: drinking and bowling, drunken brawls, countless affairs, and garden-variety lunchtime trysts. It’s been known at times to be like a frat house filled with freshmen away from their parents for the very first time. At other times, the capital city’s underside was even darker: clandestine political liaisons and secret meetings, unethical deeds and downright illegal acts. . . . In short, it was a lot like Washington, D.C.”

•In a review, The New York Times says the book is “party cagey spin job, part earnest autobiography, part payback hit job.”

•The Web site Media Matters for America says that one of the complaints that Palin registers against a legislator was wrongly attributed to a Democrat in the state Legislature, when the “offender” was really a Republican.

The site quotes this from page 344 of Palin’s book:

"It was almost funny, certainly ridiculous, the political buckshot critics fired our way. Nationally, pundits and reporters would criticize me for focusing on Alaska and not attending the celebrity-packed events we were invited to Outside; locally, the opposition would criticize me for focusing on national issues — as if I suddenly needed to become parochial and think of Alaska’s issues as irrelevant to the nation. In Juneau, one Democrat lawmaker complained that I wasn’t as “sparky” as before and that Piper and I no longer brought around bagels like we used to. The few times I hustled out of the state to attend, for instance, a fund-raiser for kids with special needs, my Juneau critics said that they were being abandoned."

•On Jan. 31, the Associated Press quoted Republican Sen. Bert Stedman of  Juneau as making the “not so sparky” comment. The story went on to say that he worried that Palin might not concentrate on the problems the state was facing, given her national celebrity.

The same story went on to quote Democratic Rep. David Guttenberg as saying, after the State of the State speech:

“I think her speech was not directed to us but right over our heads to a national audience,” said Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks, who remembers a much different Palin from just six months ago.

“There were days when she walked around the building with (her daughter) Piper handing out bagels. I think those days are gone,” he added with a touch of wistfulness.