Queen Sarah?
It is hard not to fall into the "Sarah soap opera" trap the Republicans have laid to get us away from discussing the important issues. She is quite unique for a VP nominee and so little is known about her that curiosity is at an all time high, aided by the fact that every day something new and a little strange is learned about her.
Here are a few recent things I have learned about Sarah. Instead of working at the State Capital in Juneau, she works from an office in Anchorage, so she can live in her own home. But, waste cutter though she claims to be, Governor Palin charges the taxpayers per diem for not staying in the Governor's mansion, nearly $17,000 in 19 months for 312 nights spent in her own bed. And she also charges them for transporting her family to State events, about $45,000 so far Though Alaska has the highest rape rate in the nation, Wasilla under Mayor Palin was one of a minority of cities in Alaska that charged rape victims for the cost of rape kits to collect evidence [though the Police Chief said they would try to get reimbursement from the criminal]. As Governor, Palin has spoken at the Assembly of God where she used to attend, and told them to pray that God's will be done that a pipeline be built and that the US be victorious in Iraq. Her Dad sounds interesting too. For some reason, a few months after Sarah was born in 1964, the third of four children, her science teacher father moved the family from Idaho to Alaska to take a teaching job, and then when she was about 12, the family converted from Catholicism to the Assembly of God. I wonder what her Dad thinks about global warming and evolution.
Since Palin was introduced to Americans a couple weeks ago, all she has done is give the same speech over and over - you know the one where she lies, "On that bridge to nowhere, I told Congress, thanks but no thanks" and where she falsely implies she sold the State jet on E-Bay. It is unprecedented for a nominee for VP to be sequestered from questions for so long. They are not only afraid of the media, but also of the public; Palin does not take questions from the audience at her speeches.
Scheduling her first interview for 9/11 was a ploy. Palin's son is leaving for military service, so she has to be in Alaska for that. The solemnity of the day and the departure of her son give heroic overtones and demand attention from the interviewer, cutting into time for issue questions. The chosen interviewer, Charles Gibson of ABC will be sitting down with her Thursday and Friday and broadcasting portions on each of those days. Gibson has a reputation as a knowledgeable political reporter who is a nice guy and somewhat of a softball thrower.
Palin's handlers say other media opportunities will depend on whether she is treated with "respect and deference". Respect should come with any civil discussion, but deference presupposes superiority. Palin may have over-esteem problems. Her hard line demand for staff loyalty when she assumed the high office of Wasilla Mayor caused a local paper to remind her that she was elected, not coronated. The paper might also have been subtly reminding readers Palin finished second in the contest for the Miss Alaska crown. Her animosity to the media may trace to that Mayoral time, when she manifested it by ordering that no city employee should talk to any member of the media without first obtaining Palin's specific consent.
I don't know how Palin will do with Gibson. She is smart and has honed her political skills, especially with all the top level Rovian style coaching she has been getting. I think she will just try to follow her own script, regardless of the questions and count on the fact that Gibson will not press her. If he does press her, then they will try to use that as an excuse for not doing further interviews, claiming that as a woman she is being treated in a sexist way.
All the hoopla over Sarah has been distracting, as planned. Joe Biden gets no air time at all. Obama is trying to keep his eye on McCain and the real issues and not fall for the bait to get involved in Sarah Soap. Democrats are still trying to figure out how to deal with Sarah, including how to use women like Hillary as surrogates. Unfortunately, after a way too long primary process, this general election campaign is comparatively quite short.
posted by Tom Blake | 2:44 PM
3 Comments:
Well written. If McCain is elected, Palin will probably be our next president, sometime in the next nine years. That's a scary thought to me. Will she grow into the job? Not likely, unless there really is more to her than meets the eye.
John from Phoenix
Excited Sarah sycophants have identified those red peep toe patent leather pumps she wore when John McCain introduced her to America as the person he wants to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. They are Naughty Monkey brand, Double Dare style. Not a bad name, but here are some even more appropriate styles I suggest from the Naughty Monkey line (these are actual names of shoes they sell for women): Crash Course, Web of Lies, Getting Lucky, Cork It, She's Crafty and Somebody Shake Me.
Now, how about that interview. Well first, about the 9/11 date for her son's deployment. Turns out his unit is not actually leaving for a couple weeks, but they scheduled a 9/11 event for dramatic effect and the McCain campaign has created the false impression Palin's son was actually leaving on that day.
Credit is due Charlie Gibson. He did not throw softballs or waste time and he did try to press Palin on non-responsive answers, all without appearing rude. In short, he was respectful but not deferential. I think he should have pressed her a little more about her religious views and how they impact her public service, though she was coached well enough to answer that line of questioning with coy rhetoric about having her personal beliefs but also respecting the beliefs of others and following the law. On homosexuality, she claimed she does not judge others, but he should have pressed her more on her personal belief as to whether a person's sexual preferences are present from birth.
Palin passed her interview in the sense she did not make any major gaffes. To all except most of her fans she obviously had been intensely coached and was working uncomfortably hard at remembering what the coaches told her without calling any audibles of her own. She frequently called the interviewer by name, enough gratuitous "Charlie" insertions to become a joke. She identified the key subject word in the question and then answered with the canned rhetoric she had been taught. When Gibson pushed her, as when he followed up on her lapse from the script when she said the US would unquestionably support Israel if Israel unilaterally struck at Iran without notifying us first, she unflinchingly resorted to the mantra of not second guessing Israel, four times.
Palin was coached to come across as a confident and resolute person who will not blink in a stare down with anyone - a female George W. While it is scary that McCain chose her, allowing himself to be maneuvered into it by the same Republican powers that brought us Bush-Cheney, it is even more scary that he has allowed his campaign to degenerate into a Rovian disgrace and that Palin has eagerly surrendered what genuineness she may have and allowed herself to be cast into a largely phoney icon.
The attempt to portray Palin as a reformer cutting costs for taxpayers is already unraveling as the record is becoming widely known that she has been as big a suckler as anyone on the public breast, as Mayor, as Governor and as Sarah personally. About all she is going to have left of her image during these least few weeks of the campaign is that she is more right wing than McCain, probably even than Bush, and that she is a young woman of good looks and confident poise. That will be enough to keep some Republican right wingers in line and maybe will be enough to win some wavering women, as the current polls show, but as Palin wears more thin, some wavering women may tilt the other way.
The popularity of Palin has created a logistics problem for the McCain campaign. She draws the crowds that he cannot get, so for now they are forced to campaign together, lest McCain be embarrassed by paltry turnout. That means they can only cover half the ground Obama and Biden can cover separately. That is especially good for the Democrats in covering the many targeted local battleground areas.
I read an article by a political analyst in the Arizona Republic today stating that McCain continues to "skirt the truth" in his and Palin's campaign pronouncements. He is doing this despite heavy press criticism and with the press clearly pointing out his errors. It quoted a New York Times headline and a Washington Post headline that used the words "distorts" and "dishonest".
But that is not stopping him. Nor is the comparison with McCain's campaign today with his 2000 campaign when his motto was "straight talk". The article also recalled McCain denouncing the Swift Boat attack on Kerry as "dishonest and dishonorable". The article said that one of McCain's advisers is Steve Schmidt, who has close ties to Karl Rove.
As you point out, Palin is reshaping McCain's campaign. But she also has a huge impact on Obama's campaign. How about a few words on that topic? What's Hillary going to do? And will they lock Bill in a closet until it's over?
John from Phoenix
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