New York:
In her new book, Sarah Palin takes on pop culture, revives talk of President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor and says former President John F Kennedy "wanted to run away from religion".
Who gets praise? For one, Simon Cowell, a former judge on the singing competition TV show 'American Idol'. Obama? Unsurprisingly, not so much, she accuses him of "a stark lack of faith in the American people," among many other things.
"America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag," which has been billed as a tribute to American values, comes out on November 23. The Associated Press purchased a copy.
Palin's first book, the memoir "Going Rogue", has sold more than 2 million copies.
The former Alaska governor's potential presidential ambitions have been the subject of increasing chatter recently, with her every remark parsed for clues as to her 2012 plans. In the new book, Palin does not detail her plans but speaks of a need for new leaders.
"We're worried that our leaders don't believe what we believe, that America is an exceptional nation, the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan believed it is," she writes. "We want leaders who share this fundamental belief. We deserve such leaders."
Palin devotes several pages to a discussion of Kennedy's noted speech on religion during the 1960 campaign, a speech many saw as crucial in persuading the country to elect a Catholic president. "I am not the Catholic candidate for president," Kennedy said then. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic."
Discussing her own faith, Palin writes that JFK's speech "essentially declared religion to be such a private matter that it was irrelevant to the kind of country we are." Kennedy, she says, "seemed to want to run away from religion."
She praises Mitt Romney, a Mormon, for not "doing a JFK" during his campaign for the 2008 Republican nomination, but instead speaking forthrightly of how his faith would inform his presidency.
Palin also returns to the subject of the Rev Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor. And she revisits Michelle Obama's comment during the presidential race that "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."
"I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church listening to his rants against America and white people," Palin writes.
Who gets praise? For one, Simon Cowell, a former judge on the singing competition TV show 'American Idol'. Obama? Unsurprisingly, not so much, she accuses him of "a stark lack of faith in the American people," among many other things.
"America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag," which has been billed as a tribute to American values, comes out on November 23. The Associated Press purchased a copy.
Palin's first book, the memoir "Going Rogue", has sold more than 2 million copies.
The former Alaska governor's potential presidential ambitions have been the subject of increasing chatter recently, with her every remark parsed for clues as to her 2012 plans. In the new book, Palin does not detail her plans but speaks of a need for new leaders.
"We're worried that our leaders don't believe what we believe, that America is an exceptional nation, the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan believed it is," she writes. "We want leaders who share this fundamental belief. We deserve such leaders."
Palin devotes several pages to a discussion of Kennedy's noted speech on religion during the 1960 campaign, a speech many saw as crucial in persuading the country to elect a Catholic president. "I am not the Catholic candidate for president," Kennedy said then. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic."
Discussing her own faith, Palin writes that JFK's speech "essentially declared religion to be such a private matter that it was irrelevant to the kind of country we are." Kennedy, she says, "seemed to want to run away from religion."
She praises Mitt Romney, a Mormon, for not "doing a JFK" during his campaign for the 2008 Republican nomination, but instead speaking forthrightly of how his faith would inform his presidency.
Palin also returns to the subject of the Rev Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial former pastor. And she revisits Michelle Obama's comment during the presidential race that "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."
"I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church listening to his rants against America and white people," Palin writes.
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