Sarah Palin's: 'America Is Losing Her Way'

November 22, 2010 -- On almost every issue -- from the economy to social policy to civil rights -- Sarah Palin offers a full-throated critique of President Barack Obama in her new book, casting herself as a "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" character drafted by the American people to take on the president and other conservative foes.

In the book, "America by Heart: Reflections on Faith, Family and Flag," which goes on sale Tuesday, Palin accuses Obama of misunderstanding the American people.

"The epitome of progressive thinking was Barack Obama's promise, just before the 2008 election, that 'we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,'" Palin writes in the book, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News. "I guess you could say that he warned us! But the problem is that Americans don't want a fundamental transformation of their country."

She quotes Obama throughout her 269-page book, at one point giving the president's 11-year-old daughter, Malia, credit for unwittingly asking her father an incisive question during the Gulf oil disaster: "Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

"Who among us hasn't had the experience of a simple question from an innocent child bringing our ego crashing back to earth? Of course Malia's daddy hadn't 'plugged the hole' -- because doing so was beyond his capability, even as the most powerful man in the world," Palin writes. "But as Americans, Malia's sweet question should also remind us that we're not children, and President Obama is not our father."

Palin portrays herself as a modern-day Jefferson Smith, the character played by Jimmy Stewart in the iconic film, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which she says is her favorite movie.

"Americans love 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' because it's about an ordinary man who stands up to power and says, 'We're taking our country back,'" she writes.

Palin draws on an eclectic mix of source material, quoting from the Bible, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, speeches of President Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy, lines from movies like "The Incredibles" as well passages from the works of the economist Milton Friedman and the ancient philosopher, Plato.