Saturday, December 31, 2011

Levi Johnston's Tell-All

Here's a challenge with a purpose - let yourself imagine that Deer in the Headlights was originally written factually, dates and all. Imagine that Levi wrote a tell-all.  Or at least a tell-a-lot-more.  

Choose your own reason - maybe he wanted to unburden himself and his family from a web of lies; maybe he wanted to cash in; maybe Levi made so many errors and contradictions in the things he told James and Lois Cowan (the ghostwriters/co-authors)  that the couple figured out parts of  the truth and convinced him to come clean with the rest.

The purpose of this exercise  is so that you can read passages from Levi's book with your mind open to the possibility that he actually drafted a book that revealed our former VP candidate Sarah Palin perpetrated a hoax when presenting herself to the American electorate as the birth mother of Trig.

I actually believe what I'm asking you to imagine, and passages from the book make more sense if this is scenario is true.  

"Deer In the Headlights" did not turn out to be a scathing tell-all. Nor was it a bestseller. Not even close. In fact, with the forced feeling of the many references to Trig and Tripp being "only 8 months" apart, and the in-your-face statements about Trig being Sarah's bio baby, the book gets tediously repetitious.  It contradicts itself with confusing information about the timing of Tripp's conception, gestation, and birthdate.  Nevertheless, it's worthwhile reading for those in search of truths about Babygate.

Do you remember when the original release of Deer in the Headlights was delayed and the general consensus on the blogs was that Levi's publisher was going to ride the coattails of the release of "The Rogue" by Joe McGinniss?  Well, here's another idea. What if the delay were due to revisions - revisions that erased the truth about Trig?  What if the book was delayed in order to hastily edit it to support the phony Palin timelines and other assorted Trig and Tripp lies? What if those doing the changes missed a few things? 

This would explain why there are contradictions and why some things simply don't add up. It also explains why the book is replete with annoying phrases to underscore Trig's April birth and an eight month spacing between the babies.  It was some editing at the last minute, changing truth to lies by inserting things like "... eight months before, for Trig's birth... This was different. This was Bristol's and my baby.".

Levi, in the "Acknowledgements" section at the end of DITH said his ghost writers grilled him:

[The Cowans and I] we sat, drove, and walked; I talked, and the Cowans asked questions, mused and recorded. ...like another couple of goddamned parents --pushing, prodding, expecting me to understand and explain a confusing series of events and I time when I chose to bury my head under my quilt. (pg 287-288)

Hmmmm, pushing and prodding for the truth behind the wild ride,  behind baby Tripp being hidden from public viewing, behind the lack of either baby's birth certificates or either baby's picture taken  "just born and placed in mommy's arms"  ?

And if the Cowans got the truth from Levi, wrote the truth into each chapter, and had a near-finished manuscript, how did they feel when Levi changed his mind and they had to back off and edit out Trig's real story?

Levi said, "I wanted them identified as my coauthers. They felt one name should be on the jacket. It was my story, they said."

Yeah, right. DITH is a story. It's not entirely factual. Not an honest memoir. It's Levi's story.

How would the Cowans spin it to explain this final product? Here's what they wrote for the "acknowledgements" (page 288):

This book was researched, organized, and written on a tight schedule. ...our time-pressed picky phenomenal editor, Matthew Benjamin...carried the play to the end. (pg 288)

Okay, so how did obvious inconsistencies (such as described in detail in "Hockey Sticks and Pregnancy Sticks") get past "picky" Mr. Benjamin? Must be due to "a tight schedule."

Remember, when they wrote this book,  Levi and the Cowans knew full well that an audience of Truthers were hoping he would spill the beans and say Trig was not born April 18, 2008 to Sarah Palin.  They knew that.  They teased us with Levi saying he was writing the book for himself, his son, and the country.


Levi may have actually, as late as last May, intended to finally tell us the truth about Trig Van Paxson Palin.  The people who write the  Politicalgates blog have over three years experience tracking Babygate clues, and their regular contributor Leadfoot_LA met Levi at his 21st birthday bash in Los Vegas to see what she could learn about Deer In the Headlights.  Leadfoot_LA came away with the impression Levi really, really was writing an an exposé.

She asked about Tripp ("Yes, I've seen him recently") and about the book, then wrote on May 7, 2011 :

I asked if the book is completed and he said no, almost, but it still needs a little work. I said, well, you know that the people who read my blog are NOT fans of Sarah Palin. We are one of the big Palin watchdog blogs. So when your book comes out, will we like it, or will we love it? He smiled again, looked me right in the eye, and said slowly, "you will LOVE it." Tank echoed him. "YOU WILL LOVE IT." Everything about Tank is large, especially his voice. Levi said, "I promise you, it will be a best seller." 

My impression is that Levi will tell the 100% truth in this book. He was a sweet, genuine kid. "Deer in the headlights" is a perfect book title and is exactly how I would describe him. He is not "Ricky Hollywood." He is a proud father, who smiled, but almost seemed a tiny bit sad behind his eyes when I mentioned Tripp. He didn't come off as dumb at all. He was quick-witted. He's just out of his element a bit. But remember -- the clearest, loudest and most emphatic thing he said to me was that the readers of Politicalgates will not just like, they will LOVE his book. That said all I need to know. Before last night I was hopeful, but not sure. Now I am sure.

Leadfoot_LA may have been mistaken, but I don't think so. I think that as late as May 7, 2011 Levi was set to tell what he knew. He's been saying for over two years that he had "big things" in his arsenal. His book was coming out. He was promising we Truthers would love it. I think it was sincere bravado. I think he had come clean to the Cowans. The introduction to the book further teases with the suggestion that Sarah's deceptions were going to be detailed (bold type is my added emphasis):

Page 1  - ... [Sarah's] oh-so-carefully-crafted moment in the spotlight...

" Dictionary.com defines "craft" as a vehicle, as making things by hand, as skill in an occupation, and as "shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception."  Levi and the Cowans are saying in the intro that Sarah Palin's moment in the spotlight demonstrated skilled deception.  Bingo! Trig Truthers rejoice! After all, designer clothes, Levi losing the mullet he'd worn since second grade, and his being included on stage at the Republican National Convention were not shrewdness but simple necessities. So, the word crafted in the introduction set up expectations for something that everyone knew Truthers were looking for.

Why then, is there nothing in the rest of the book that supports the description of "oh-so-carefully-crafted" ?  My theory is that the word "craftted" was well chosen and fit the book when first written. Then, edits removed references to the great deception. Facts were changed to Palin party line prevarication, and fixing the introduction wasn't even  a thought.

Between the Introduction and Chapter One there are four pages devoted to "Las Vega, Nevada: Happy Birthday to You..."  I can't let that slide. It's not the intro, it's not part of the body of work the Cowans assembled as Levi's story. It's stuck in between. It's a late addition.  If it was about the birthday party, why not just put it in the end of the book in chronological order? What is the point?

I think the point is this - after the book was finished and the intro written and Levi decided against exposing Sarah's fraudulent pregnancy, his own paternity of Trig, and all the smaller hoaxes that splintered off from those two, he was feeling like sh*t . He knew very well that he was letting people down and he didn't like himself.

Like many times before, he found himself a braggert who couldn't follow through. DITH started out as a book Truthers would love, a book "for the country;" then, for reasons of his own,he betrayed his co-authors whose time and talents had been given to him for purposes of getting the real story out  and he was embarrassed that he'd come face to face with a pretty young woman blogger from Politicalgates and had led her to believe he had the courage to expose Sarah Palin.

He had to insert something of an explanation to assuage his own conscience and to explain to the blonde political blogger why he had done what he'd done  (which includes referring to Trig truthers as crazy). In this short excerpt, Levi first mentions Trig,  indirectly introduces Babygate, and explains that context is important to understanding the book he has written. It's Levi's offering of  an excuse for the book which will be published  with cowardly revisionism that took place in those last weeks when truths were deleted. Maybe Levi felt foolish for backing down and needed to insert this passage about the "blonde with a great smile" whom we know as Leadfoot_LA from Politicalgates:


Page 6 - She asks, Have you seen Tripp?

I feel myself come alive. Yes, I say. I had seen my toddler son recently.

...Are we going to like your book, Levi? She smiles.

You're going to love it, I say back.

My manager says, You're going to love it. 

Is it going to tell what you know about Trig? Will you describe what it was like to pose for Playgirl?

I think, but don't say, that I can't answer these questions out of context, without their history.  Without my own story -- how I got to where I  am today.  That needs to come first.

Is the book done? I'm asked.

I'm on it, I say. It still needs a little work.

And so does the rest of my life.

James and Lois Cowan did admit that the book was finished and then after the manuscript went into publication it was revised. They explain that Levi was asked to answer Bristol's most outrageous comments that came out in her memoir in June, 2011.

My thinking is that Bristol's charges aren't the only thing addressed in that last-minute rewrite. While an addendum was added for that, there's also that birthday insertion that isn't part of an introduction nor is it in a chapter. It sure looks like it got stuck in there after the fact.  Stuck in there because Levi backed off the honest parts about Trig?

If so, then the domino effect caused last-minute editing by someone not tuned in enough to catch what we caught in the inconsistencies.
In future posts I will provide passages from Deer in the Headlights for readers to consider whether they think Levi meant at one time to tell the truth about Trig's parentage, his age, and how the baby with Down Syndrome became Sarah's son.  (Full disclosure once again- I think Trig is Bristol's and Levi's bio kid.)

Of course, if the truth about Trig was coming out, there would be no reason not to come clean about Tripp, too. No reason to lie about when he was conceived.  (Personally,  I can imagine Levi telling the Cowans  that Bristol and he didn't take precautions after Trig was born because Bristol didn't want to prevent a pregnancy, and the result was Tripp's February 2008 conception. And there's my Tripp birthday theory laid out in "Hockey Sticks and Pregnancy Sticks" which may interest new readers who haven't seen that one yet.)

When interviewed on his book tour, Levi said he'd held some stuff back in case it gets crazy again.

How crazy does it have to get Levi? Not seeing Tripp for months on end isn't crazy enough? Wow, what dark, dark secrets are hidden in Wasilla up to  four years after Trig was born?  For now, we can only imagine, but we will keep digging. The coming year may be Sarah Palin's worst year ever, and after 2011, that's sayin' a lot.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I always believe Trigg was Briston and Levi's baby. Lying about the dates just proves the point. Happy New Year Folks.

Levi start the year straight. The truth really will let you be free.

grammy97 said...

Thanks for this post, Allison. I bought Levi's book, and was 100% convinced that he had (once again) been compelled to withhold the truth. The political wolfpack behind $arah Palin plays ugly.

B said...

Allison, I haven't bought the book yet and my library didn't get it (surprise, surprise) but your theory sounds right that the truth got revised out at the last minute, except for the places they missed. Did Levi write the book and then take $$$$$$$ from Palin to change it? What can Palin possibly threaten that keeps Levi silent? I'm still Team Levi, but baffled.

Anonymous said...

it wasn't delayed, it was moved up to feed off of joe's book.

My personal opinion is, Levi has no idea how to answer our biggest questions because he has no firsthand info. He may have seen Sarah not pregnant but considering no one knows where Trig came from, I"m 100% sure Levi doesn't either.

Remember, this boy literally rewrote his entire dating history and relationship with Bristol. There is written evidence his longtime girlfriend (through 07) called him a liar. The book is meant to make him NOT look like an immature kid without a diploma or job.

What's sad is, his son will not respect him for the book. Tripp will not respect him for trashing his mother's family, a family who gives him love everyday. (for the record, I somewhat believe this about Bristol's book too and am not solely speaking about Levi)

Anonymous said...

I don't even think Levi had much to do with the book. There are verbatim statements stolen from Blind Allegiance and several blogs. Levi wouldn't know these. The cowans, already palinhaters, would.

I think Levi dictated some childhood stories and the Cowans wrote a story making him out to be this perfect boyfriend, when he was the opposite. Again, proof. They say he and B's relationship was strongest in late 07, yet she didn't attend dances with him and hung out with friends and cousin a lot??? hung out around xmas in the mall. Yeah, okay.

Remember, there were so many rumors from 07. Celtic Diva said she heard Bristol was hardly in Wasilla because her parents tried their darndest to keep the two apart and apparently Bristol kept telling Levi this and he believed her.

my point is, we have no real info. We have strange rumors. There's only ONE month Bristol wasn't in public view or mentioned. January 08. Bristol was mentioned by name as being out in public up until xmas 07 and starting feb06 2008 again.

I think Levi felt pressure to make a good story but because he just doesn't know real hard details, couldn't come through.

Anonymous said...

Levi is a boy from a broken home (at least emotionally). He's a daddys boy. All he cares about is hunting (his words). He has never cared about school because it interferes with his hunting. (his words) He chose his girlfriends family over his own at least twice. He is now and has been jobless almost all his life. His current girlfriend describes him as a baby. Bristol has said she doesn't like boyfriends who are needy.

My personal opinion is, Levi saw an out in Bristol. He had been dating Lanesia for awhile, and as late as spring 07, Lanesia's friend was saying "I hope you and Levi are strong as ever." Until Bristol, Levi was a typical dumb jock and playboy. he has as much admitted that. He has said he was never close to Sarah or Todd but felt welcome. He has described Sarah like a second mother (2009, and a contradiction kind of). He was visibly hurt in early 09 when talking about the final breakup. during this same time, Bristol wasn't exactly unhappy.

I think Levi's the kind of projection himself. He may be more mature and faithful to Sunny, given the strong rumors that he broke up with bristol in early 08, I highly doubt those two were ever stable. Once you're labeled a cheater, it's hard to win trust again.

I think none of this is worth examining. We weren't there. We have no idea what fights ensued, why breakups happened, why decisions were made. It hasno bearing on our lives of the country. That's the simple truth. These kids have obviously moved on. Their business is theirs. Levi's actions are his to make.

Too many cooks....

Anonymous said...

But why would he get soooo many tiny things wrong, events that could easily be looked up again, dates of events he referenced that have no bearing on any big questions.

The book is careless in every sentence. We know the stories of Levi chatting with Sarah on the couch are pure bullshit. I doubt, aside from the possible hockey getogether, he really saw Sarah before end of 2008. She was always out of town for starters.

Your approach is interesting but there's no point in analyzing things when the whole thing is a contrived piece of firewood.

Anonymous said...

Well, 2011 was pretty great for Sarah. She was painted a justifiable victim and defended by MSM. She survived the slander and the hate. Her family is still strong as hell.

I don't know why people think Trig is Bristol's, let alone Levi's. There's literally zero hard evidence of a previous pregnancy and even less that Trig is theirs. There are lots of rumors that contrdict each other though from that time. And it's saying something that the pg rumors came SOLELY from Juneau, a place where legislators hated Sarah from the beginning.

B said...

"Too many cooks..."

I'd say too many *trolls*. Three real comments and then: Levi doesn't know what he's talking about, Allison doesn't know what she's talking about, blah, blah. "Her family is still . . .hell." (Not "strong as.")

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
AKRNHSNC said...

2011 was great for Sarah? You're really living in a fantasy world. Aren't you? How about January when tragedy in Tuscon had Sarah pretending that she was the victim despite others having lost their lives, including a nine year old little girl? She proved exactly what she was and her approval ratings continued to fall. However, they have been on a downward trajectory since November 2008.

We have Sarah's family vacation courtesy of SarahPAC starting over Memorial Day weekend when she tried to make a tribute to those who lost their lives in service to their country, all about her! Thankfully, they were able to keep her muzzled and she wasn't allowed to speak. The family vacation lost family members on a daily basis as Todd, Bristol & Willow left and went back to Alaska two days after the trip started. Who can forget Sarah's inability to answer a question about Paul Revere? Worst of all, she refuses to ever take responsibility for any mistakes she made. Instead, Palinbots were trying to re-write the Paul Revere Wikipedia page to reflect Sarah's ignorant statement. When multi-millionaires use PAC money to take a family vacation it proves how truly trashy they really are, something the Palins' are quite adept at reminding us of time after time.

Throughout the year we've been reminded of Todd's need to find comfort in the company of other women especially since Shailey Tripp stepped forward, passing multiple lie detector tests. Of course, Sarah tried to defend him but only made a bigger fool of herself. Hey, there is something she's good at after all!

Palin led her supporters on all year pretending she was running for President when in reality she was seeking more $$$ for her PAC. She had the nerve to send a letter out asking for donations to help her decide less than a week before she announced she wouldn't be running. To this day she's still begging for $$ from them and is probably pissed that they are spending it on ads for her in Iowa since the only people who don't realize she'll never be President are her fans at C4P.

2011 has seen Palin become less and less relevant as the year passed. In fact, her announcement that she wasn't running was received with far less attention than that of Chris Christie. There was nobody on TV crying about the fact that she was sitting out the campaign.

This has not been a good year for the Palin family, especially Bristol. We saw her book flop, her reality show canned before it ever saw daylight, and now she's allegedly trying to shop a show about her, Willow & Gino. It's more fun watching paint dry than listening to Bristol attempt to speak on television. Sarah's desire to make Todd a reality star was also a disaster as they were turned down by everyone they approached.

You can keep pretending that it was a great year for the Palin family but in reality, everyone else knows they are finished. If only someone had the guts to tell Sarah the truth.

Allison said...

Anon@6:10 The book was moved up in release date? My memory had it reversed. Thanks for this correction.

Moving it up would have cut down on the time to edit carefully and to proofread. Not that Levi read it and approved it, but if he had, that would have been rushed, too.

Sloppy editing can't be denied. The Cowan's used the words "time pressed" and "tight schedule." Moving the release date up fits well into that picture.

Floyd M. Orr said...

I think the most basic issue concerning Levi Johnston is that his mom has been kept in a position that is deeply vulnerable and he knows it. None of us can really know any of the truths he may be concealing as long as his mom is under house arrest in a place in which the local law enforcement is under Palin control. Levi may or may not be complicit in these deceptions, but whatever the case, he currently has a good reason to keep his mouth shut. I doubt anyone from Alaska will ever tell us the whole truth.

http://niafs.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012.html

Allison said...

Floyd, thanks for reminding us about Sherry. It's easy to forget about her because she's been out of sight (by design). Have we played into the Palin's plans?

Ivyfree said...

I was just reading the additional comments and going to say the same thing Floyd said. Sherry's at risk for reincarceration for another year, I believe. I can't even imagine having a chronic pain problem and not being able to get your meds.... if Sherry's reimprisoned, she's essentially being jailed WITH TORTURE because they can keep her pain meds away from her. I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't do that to my worst enemy.

And I'd like to point out that now that Sherry has this on her record, she'd be very easy to set up for another offense.

Sherry and Mercede both need to get out of Alaska. They're both way too vulnerable there.

Anonymous said...

I don't think legislators in Alaska hated Sarah from the start. The honeymoon ended once she showed how inept, two-faced, and unengaged she was.

Allison's blog may make sense. The alternative is that the ghostwriters were hired by Sarah who were willing to have Levi say what he wanted about Bristol (contrary to her book) but had have approved wording in places about Trig. In that case, Levi would have given the authors somethings he wanted to say, and they or someone filled in the rest. Not sure. Allison's idea is an interesting one. Levi might be quiet now because of the $$ he received from Sarah for not writing about truth. I don't think Levi would care at all if the facts were not consistent. If the Palin-editors cannot get it correct that would be their problem and not his. It was obvious on the Lawrence O'Donnell interview that he had not read his own book. (Likely true for Bristol and Sarah for their own books as well.)

grammy97 said...

Thank you, Floyd Orr, for re-stating what should be thunderously obvious. All the propaganda storm of comments about Levi's youth and character flaws should be ignored. He's in a hostage situation. His mother is at chronic risk, and she can't even legally move out of Alaska. His son, Tripp, is a hostage in the household of a cluster of criminals. Yes, I believe Tripp is his son. And if no one else believes it, Levi does. The Palins are treacherous people: that little boy is not safe with them. I believe the only reason TriG is still alive is the fact that $arah publicized him so much. Levi needs less criticism and more help.

B said...

Perhaps Sherry is the entire reason Levi would sell his "rill book" to Sarah and publish a revised book. If so, that arrest was a streak of luck for the Palin machine. But was anyone in that machine smart enough to think of setting Sherry up as a way of controlling the Johnstons forever? I have thought they set up Sherry because they could, because they are petty, and maybe to control Levi when Tripp was born.

Allison said...

B - do you think Sherry might have been set up to keep the Johnstons from spilling the Truth about Trig?

Floyd M. Orr said...

Let me answer that question, Allison: Duh!

Anonymous said...

nice idea.. thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Im not sure how I found this blog. But I actually read, ok skimmed, this book. It literally reads like a couple of politically motivated groupies attacks on a politician with hunting stories thrown in.

Levi couldn't even talk about his childhood in a natural manner. There are terrible lies in it. There are just plain weird quotes desperately trying to prove something while actually making the "author" look petty and mean.

Every other page is contradictory. And from what I remember, the words in the book don't even line up with things Levi previously said.

I highly doubt he had anything to do with this book aside from handing them some hunting stories. James and Lois are bad at hiding their ghost skills and just bad writers and "researchers." I would even say they're bad people for what they did to Levi and how they hurt innocent people with their lies.

This is a prime example of why ghost writers really aren't a good thing in the world of publishing. All a writer needs is an editor(s).

Levi was used. Again. Cowans=Tank/Rex

Anonymous said...

Forgot to mention my favorite part. The "mommy sarah" thing was hilarious. I mean, really Levi? You are ridiculous. And I fully blame the Cowans for even thnking that fictionalizing some Mrs Robinson fantasy would be a good idea. Sad what they did to Levi.

If I were Sarah, I'd NEVER forgive him.