Joe McGinniss – the stalker who rented a house next to Sarah Palin’s in Alaska to spy on her for his book ‘The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin’ has kicked the bucket at age 71. I guess Joe McGinniss just couldn’t handle her awesome speech that she gave at CPAC this past Saturday. I not going to say I’m happy McGinniss is dead. I don’t celebrate the death of people, even scum like Joe McGinniss, but I ain’t shedding any tears either. Karma is a bitch, eh Joey?
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| Joe McGinniss – Sarah Palin’s stalker is dead |
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Few journalists of his time so intrepidly pursued a story, burned so many bridges or more memorably placed themselves in the narrative, whether insisting on the guilt of MacDonald after seemingly befriending him or moving next door to Sarah Palin’s house for a most unauthorized biography of the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate.
The tall, talkative McGinniss had early dreams of becoming a sports reporter and wrote books about soccer, horse racing and travel. But he was best known for two works that became touchstones in their respective genres — campaign books (“The Selling of the President 1968”) and true crime (“Fatal Vision”). In both cases, he had become fascinated by the difference between public image and private reality.
McGinniss was a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1968 when an advertising man told him he was joining Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign. Intrigued that candidates had advertising teams, McGinniss was inspired to write a book and tried to get access to Humphrey.
The Democrat turned him down, but, according to McGinniss, Nixon aide Leonard Garment allowed him in, one of the last times the ever-suspicious Nixon would permit a journalist so much time around him. Garment and other Nixon aides were apparently unaware, or unconcerned, that McGinniss’ heart was very much with the anti-war agitators the candidate so despised.