Leaks launch Palin's 'Going Rogue' with that ol' campaign fervor

In the book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," Palin contends that the McCain campaign stuck her with a $50,000 bill for the cost of her own vetting, botched the announcement of her teenage daughter's pregnancy, outfitted Palin with all those infamous costly ensembles, and shielded her from reporters. Even so, Palin goes on to belittle two famous interlocutors, Katie Couric and Charles Gibson, according to the Associated Press, which found and purchased a copy of the book before its sale date.

Those details trumped the more calibrated cyber-teasers, which began midweek with Oprah Winfrey's written and video excerpts of an interview she taped with Palin on Monday. "Breaking News From Me . . . " read the post on Winfrey's Twitter page, linking to a video in which the talk-show host, a die-hard Obama supporter who attended the president's inauguration as a VIP, related that she had conducted "really an interesting interview." Palin "talked about everything," Winfrey said, counting off on her fingers, "Bristol, the pregnancy, Trig."

Palin opted for Facebook to promote the interview, which airs on the eve of the book's Tuesday release. "We taped the show for Monday, November 16th," Palin wrote, "and enjoyed it so much that we went way over on time. The rest will air on Oprah.com."

According to Fred Malek, a major donor to the McCain campaign who has consistently defended Palin, early copies of the book went out to key supporters on Saturday, with instructions to keep the content confidential until the books officially hit the shelves. Malek insisted that he had only scanned the book, but said, "it talks about family, it talks about travails" and was "deeply personal and warm with a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that is fun to read."

It also included 16 pages of color pictures, Malek said, including photos of Palin as a child.

Such on-message appetite-whetting was in keeping with what the Palin camp, and the book's publisher, Rupert Murdoch-owned HarperCollins, had hoped for. Written at a blistering clip in the months since Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska, the five-chapter, 413-page book reportedly achieves a literary voice that -- ghostwriter Lynn Vincent notwithstanding -- echoes the folksy youbetcha-ness of Palin's campaign-speak.

Claims in dispute

But AP's reporting of some of the more pointed sections of the book have undone gentler elements of a soft launch and redirected attention to the more problematic portions of the Palin narrative.

In the book, Palin accuses the McCain campaign of leaving her a $50,000 bill, the amount, she suggests, that her vetting cost the campaign. She asserts the thousands of dollars in clothes purchased from some of the country's most exclusive department stores was explained to her as all "part of the convention." Palin also says she carefully revised a statement about her daughter Bristol's pregnancy, with her teenage boyfriend, Levi Johnston, the father, only to see the campaign's less delicate version distributed to the media.

A spokeswoman for McCain's Senate office, Brooke Buchanan, declined to respond to the charges.

But multiple former McCain officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, as the senator had not authorized any participation, disputed Palin's claims.

"John McCain offered her the opportunity of a lifetime, and during the campaign it seems that, for all of her mistakes, she is searching for people to blame," said one former senior official in the McCain campaign. "We don't need to go through this again."