Sunday, September 28, 2008

Palin Phobia?

I haven't heard much coverage of the Sarah Palin / Katie Couric interview from last week in the mainstream media. There could be a number of reasons for that. I didn't think the interview was remarkable, so maybe those in the MSM didn't think it was worth covering. Perhaps becuase the interview aired on CBS and was conducted by Katie Couric, many people aren't aware the interview even took place.


Unlike the MSM, the blogosphere has been alight with discussion of this interview. To read blogs on the far left, you would think that Mrs. Palin either (a) spoke in tongues, (b) threatened to invade Russia, or (c) asked a wheel chair bound person in the audience to stand up. I have watched the interview, and have included a link to CBS with the transcripts and a few clips.


I will be the first to admit it wasn't her best interveiw. In all fairness, Katie Couric was a bit hostile and interrupted her a few times. However, any politician is going to have to deal with that from time to time. A couple of the answers Mrs. Palin gave were tough to follow, and she tripped over her own tongue once or twice. However, I also thought she made a few good points. During the interview, she pointed out that the American people were waiting to see what McCain did during this crisis. When Katie points out that Obama has gotten a boost in the polls from the latest crisis, Sarah gives a great response:


I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?


Some on the left have looked as this interivew and have said they are truly afriad of Sarah Palin. They are beside themselves that John McCain would pick her to be his Vice President. Was the interview a good interview for her? It was "ok", but not great. But it also doesn't deserve the panic stricken response from blogs on the left. She will have others that will be better, and she has given better interviews. If this is the worse interview she ever gives, she, and Senator McCain, will have nothing to worry about.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's be honest, Andy.

George Will, Charles Krauthammer Ross Douthat, Kathleen Parker, and David Frum are not "far left bloggers." Palin freaks them out, too. Got anything to say about that?

Fact: the more people get to know her, the less they approve of both her and McCain .

McCain is playing craps with the Presidency just like he gambled with the debate and the economy last week. He's lost his bearings.

Andy D said...

Why don't you site a few references to where these commentators are in panic mode about Palin like the left is. I read Krauthammer and Will fairly often. I am not familiar with the rest. The most I have seen from any of them is a warning not to get to swept up in Palin. These warnings were quick after the announcement that she was on the ticket. I haven't seen anything close to "panic" from Krauthammer or Will recently.

Andy D said...

As an aside, your fact is incorrect if you are meaning all people. There are a great number of people from both the middle and the right that like her the more they learn about her.

Anonymous said...

Chapter and verse:

Parker: Palin should "bow out."

Krauthammer: "Palin is not ready."

Frum: "The Palin choice looks cynical."

Will: "The man who would be the oldest to embark on a first presidential term has chosen as his possible successor a person of negligible experience."

Brooks: Palin has "not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness."

---

One quick note:

I'm citing these people not b/c I think they're smart, but b/c it shows that it ain't just liberals who think Palin is a dangerous choice for the Presidency. I.e., it's not just "some on the left" who say she's not fit for office. Some big-time conservatives say so, too.

That doesn't mean they're right. But it means you're not honest if you frame this as some kind of liberal vs. conservative argument.

Andy D said...

Anon,

Those are all good selections to make this point: Conservatives, Liberals, and Independents question John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a VP candidate. I have no problem with that statement. If that is the point you are trying to make, I would agree with you. But there is a difference between having thought out concerns about her qualifications and the following statements:

"...Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate scares the holy living shit out of me."

"...and holy crap, what nonsense."

"She gives me the heebie-jeebies big time,..."

"If they get elected...my husband promised me we could move to Canada..."

"I am beyond appalled that she was allowed to speak at the UN. People in other countries may actually begin to believe that she is representative of our citizenry."

These are the type of comments I have seen on liberal blogs. These are the type of comments that caused me to write this post.

Anonymous said...

That's because at this point the conservatives are starting to worry about the effect she's having on the ticket and the party.

If these conservatives were to freak out about McCain's pick like the liberals are doing, it would reflect even more badly on McCain.

So for now all they can do is politely express their concern and hope somebody in a position to make a difference will ask her to bow out.

Anonymous said...

“I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who is now a conservative columnist, said in an interview.

Anonymous said...

Frum also said, "...Dan Quayle never in his life has performed as badly as Sarah Palin in the last month.”

Andy D said...

I don't think you will see many conservatives express the kind of visceral crazy reaction to her I am talking about in my post, or that I mention in the comments above. There are some conservatives that are concerned with her. Others are not. She has united the party in a way McCain and everyone else running for President this year has failed to do. I think she represents the future of the Republican party, and we will have to wait and see how the election goes.

Kevin said...

I think people are scared of Gov. Palin. I wish she we be allowed to talk more and be herself. She scares people because she seems to care. I do not believe Senator Obama cares about Americans, I do not believe Senator McCain cares but maybe slightly more than Senator Obama. I think I can safely say Senator Biden could care less for being Vice-President. The way she talked in those first two speeches sounded like some one who cared. She gave a boost to McCain. People starting getting scared because the sure thing Democrat win in November was looking not so sure thing. So with out really knowing anything they claimed she was awful and has to be bad because they don't like her and were threatened by her. Yes, I do think the media and their bisas had a huge thing to do with it.

Here is an ironic thought...people said we know very little about Palin, although they seemed to know enough to know she was awful with that same very little bit of information.

Kevin said...

You know thinking about it perhaps there is a Palin Phobia but not because she is Palin but maybe because she is a she. I mean look at a current woman in power. The US House has never looked so bad. Lower than President Bush's approval ratings!
Wait that is not fair to Governor Palin or other women of the world. She is not a leader she is somebody who just wanted to the first at something. She could not even get 40% of her party to agree with her.
Also does it not seem really odd that Pelosi would say in a speech that this is because of "Bush administration's failed economic policies" and then ask people to vote for more of Bush's administration's economic policies? That is not a leader, that is not even a chicken with their head cut off. It is pond scum and that is probably an insult to pond scum. Sorry for getting off topic with that last little bit but it had to be done.

Kevin said...

and one more thing because I am still mad...way to take a few days off House. That is right people are losing money, banks are failing, the world economy is taking a hit, etc.
The people that claimed that they needed to hurry to save the country are taking so time off. That is right they will not be back to work until Thursday at noon. I am so glad they are the house for the people.
I don't completely blame them...I blame voters too. Everybody knows they are awful but they never seem to get elected out of office.

Andy D said...

I think there are a lot of "Fly Over State Americans" that really like her. I hope the campaign lets Sarah be Sarah on Thursday night.

Anonymous said...

In her now infamous series of interviews with Katie Couric, Palin couldn't recall ONE Supreme Court case she disagrees with other than Roe v Wade. She couldn't name one magazine or newspaper she read on a regular basis before being picked as McCain's running mate. She continues to site Alaska's proximity to Russia and Canada as foreign policy experience.

Couric asked Palin very straight forward questions and Palin was allowed to stumble through her answers in her own words. Nobody was stopping her from being herself.

Andy D said...

The foreign policy question, I don't have a problem with. I have talked about that time and time again here. In a nut shell, I don't think she is the foremost expert in foreign policy. I do think she has some experience because her state borders foreign countries.

I suspect she intentionally didn't answer the paper question because that is a pitfall. If she cites any particular paper (say USA Today) then people can use that against her, or read it as an endorsement of that papers policy. I personally don't read any newspaper because I think most of them are worthless, I look at their websites and really on other media for news.

I think the only people not letting Palin be Palin is the McCain campaign. I think they are trying to keep her on a tight leash, and it isn't working. The campaign needs to let her be herself.

chell12376 said...

Why is this foreign policy answer such a deal breaker? I have listened to Obama attempt to answer questions in his own words just as as poorly, if not worse. (Specifically in last week's debate, when he couldn't remember the soldier's name...)

If McCain's VP choice is such a horrendous one, then the voters will not vote for them. I for one trust that the American People will make the correct choice on election day.

Anonymous said...

Old thread, but had to share this breaking Palin news.