Sarah Palin enters her cocoon

I didn’t watch McCain’s speech tonight so I cannot offer any commentary on it. I’m still intrigued by McCain’s first and only major decision as a candidate: the selection of Sarah Palin as VP.

What do we know about what she brings to the ticket at this point?

1. She gives a great speech. She’s media savvy and appears confident in public.
2. She’s an outsider, from a state few Americans have visited and carries a unique and compelling biography.
3. She appeals to the hardcore Christianist base of the GOP.

But is that enough? Where does she stand on, oh I don’t know, the issues that face this country?
What does she think about health care? Not just that special needs children will be a priority, but how and through what program?
What about the future of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan?
What does she think about Russia?
Or the Israel/Palestinian crisis?
What is her response to the housing crisis?
How about the falling dollar?
Trade with China?
Free trade in general?
What about Federal tax policy?
How about education?
Or homeland security?
Or immigration?

What does Sarah Palin think about the national and international issues that face America today?

Unfortunately, if we had any intention of finding out what she thinks of these things as she plans to embark on the “heartbeat-away-from-the-Presidency” journey in 60 days, we will not find out any answers soon.

According to McCain spokesman Nicole Wallace, Sarah Palin will tell people all they need to know through her speeches., and not through interviews with the press. This spokeswoman seems to believe that reading a prepared speech off a teleprompter – however excitedly – is a sign of her actual knowledge of affairs.

My worst fears about her so far appear to be true. She is a very shallow candidate who never prepared for the role that a desperate John McCain thrust her into. She has spent no time developing a national profile, advancing a coherent agenda, laying out a vision for the country, spelling out her ideology. Nothing.

And now we hear from McCain’s spokeswoman that we will never hear answers to those questions because scripted rallies are enough. Yes, media-bashing is old hat for the Republicans. Then go on Fox News and meet with Chris Wallace if you want to avoid the more liberal networks. Go to some of the local media; I’m sure folks here in Tennessee would love to interview her and ask her about air pollution here in East Tennessee, or the coal industry, or science policy at Oak Ridge.

At some point the Obama campaign is going to start setting up a mocking “face the questions” clock, and she’s going to have to crawl out of her cocoon just to avoid accusations of being stuck in a cone of silence. Obviously, her debate will give a window into her basic sense of America’s challenges.

But the American people deserve to know more. Barack Obama was similarly charged with hiding behind a teleprompter. But if you watch him in interviews – like with Bill O’Reilly even – or in town hall forums where he takes very detailed questions, he clearly knows how to answer them. Yes, he says “um” a lot, but he clearly gives a coherent answer.

Maybe Sarah Palin could answer the same questions. Maybe she is being hidden from the press purely out of pique at their supposed mistreatment of her. But that won’t fly for too long.

The stagecraft and introduction is over. Sarah Palin acquitted herself well in a friendly setting. She proved herself a partisan fighter who rallies the GOP base – and the Democratic base. But she has come nowhere close enough to crossing the seriousness threshold not as a VP candidate, but as an actual Vice President.

Let’s hope Nicole Wallace is wrong and Sarah Palin starts taking questions and letting us know what she thinks about life outside her own biography and her own state. I’ll be waiting.