The differences in statements and fact in her book are not as contradictory as most people would have expected. Though there are some caveats.

Fact-checking Sarah Palin

Here are some of former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s claims in “Going Rogue,” her new book released this week:

Frugal Governor

Palin: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking “only” for reasonably priced rooms and not “often” going for the “high-end, robe-and-slippers” hotels.

Facts: Although travel records show she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City’s Central Park for a five-hour women’s leadership conference in October 2007. With airfare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000.

Campaign Donors

Palin: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

Facts: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500. She accepted $1,000 each from a state senator and his wife, and $30 from a state representative in the weeks after the two Republican lawmakers’ offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a powerful Alaska oil-field services company.

Federal Bailouts

Palin: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to President Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, “you’ll have to be brave enough to fail.”

Facts: Palin blurs the lines between Obama’s stimulus plan – a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts – and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Conflicts of Interest

Palin: Writes about a city councilman in Wasilla, Alaska, who owned a garbage truck company and tried to push through an ordinance requiring residents of new subdivisions to pay for trash removal instead of taking it to the dump for free – this to illustrate her stance against conflicts of interest as a public servant.

Facts: As Wasilla mayor, Palin pressed for a zoning exception so she could sell her family’s $327,000 house, then did not keep a promise to remove a potential fire hazard on the property. She asked the City Council to loosen rules for snowmobile races when she and her husband owned a snowmobile store. But she stepped away from the table in 1997 when the council considered a grant for the Iron Dog snowmobile race in which her husband competes.

Climate Change

Palin: Says Obama has admitted that the climate change policy he seeks will cause people’s electricity bills to “skyrocket.”

Facts: She correctly quotes a comment attributed to Obama in January 2008, when he told San Francisco Chronicle editors that under his cap-and-trade climate proposal, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” as utilities are forced to retrofit coal-burning power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Obama now argues that climate legislation can blunt the cost to consumers.

SF Gate