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September 30, 2008

I Have Tried To Ignore Palin. Really. I Have!

Like nearly everyone else in the country, I watched Governor Sarah Palin's disastrous interview with Katie Couric last week. We were presented with the Republican Vice Presidential nominee haltingly throwing up GOP talking points as if her answers were constructed of refrigerator political poetry magnets, regardless of the questions asked. I recognized the halting, yet cocksure, demeanor immediately. It was the very same look I had my sophomore year in high school when I showed up for my Civ oral exam completely unprepared, unorganized, and (quite frankly) fucked. Here was the woman who would be, if the GOP has its way, a single heartbeat away from running the United Stated of America, trying with great effort to bullshit her way through an interview for which she was woefully unprepared.

This doesn't even begin to describe the ridiculous things she actually said.

Immediately, she came under reasonable fire from the media as being unqualified for the job for which she is stumping. Even Kathleen Parker, in the unquestionably conservative National Review, called her a candidate "Clearly Out of Her League" and suggested she remove herself from the ticket (this before writing my favorite line from the entire election cycle to date: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself").

I had no need to comment on the McCain campaign's desperate ploy to get the Evangelical vote or its truly sexist attempt to woo Clinton supporters (as if one vagina can be interchanged with another). I had no need to comment on Palin, as I had a feeling, if given enough interview rope, she would hang herself. Today, however, I am beginning to feel as if some commentary from the peanut gallery is warranted.

To this point, Palin has been shielded from the media to an unprecedented degree. I can not think of a single example of politician in the midst of a critical campaign who has made him/herself so unavailable to the press. Either the McCain campaign thinks she is too delicate or too unqualified to face responsible scrutiny. Neither of those reasons bode well for her role in the Executive office.

Now she has been trotted out, again, before Katie Couric in a short interview granted CBS News last night. There was McCain sitting beside her, ready to jump in to her rescue if need be. And he did. It was embarrassing to watch, but more telling, it gave Palin the opportunity to show a very mean spirited attitude toward the very same people she hopes will put her in office. Namely, the voter.

Did you catch that? Apart from the entire, "Ignore what she said! Ignore what she said! She doesn't agree with Obama! You MEAN journalists with your GOTCHA! Journalism! How dare you!" argument, which is patently absurd and purposefully obfuscating, there was a quieter and more depressing message. A voter flat out asked her a policy question, a question that the media would ask her themselves were they able to gain access. What are you going to do about the cross border attacks originating from the Waziristan region of Pakistan? Palin took a mocking tone as if the voter had absolutely no right whatsoever to put her on the spot (1:46-1:53). The NERVE of that voter to *gasp* challenge her while she glad hands the people.

Guess what, Ms. Palin? You are running for Vice President of the United States. You actually HAD better have an answer to Pakistan. Our complicated relationship with Pakistan is one of the most pressing issues we face as a nation today and, believe it or not, having an opinion, a philosophy, and an idea of where it is on the map is not only part of your new job description (I know, I know, you don't even know what that is), but is a concern of the voters. Not just to the coastal, liberal, elitists you and your party regularly mock and deride, but also to the "reg'lar Americans", men and women, who have children in the military and who historically vote republican.

There were many moments in that interview that I found distasteful and disingenuous, but those few seconds, where Palin shows her true colors as to what she really thinks of the people on who she depends for her office, reconfirms my suspicions that the McCain/Palin campaign slogan "Country First!" is just a sad joke.

Posted by bethamsel at September 30, 2008 12:52 PM