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Palin’s Interview With Gibson
ABC has posted excerpts. It’s basically entirely about foreign policy (except a brief digression on Palin’s religious beliefs in which Gibson was simply awful — as in, asking unfair questions with false assumptions awful), and most of it seemed pretty standard aggressive, blustering, conservative fare.
Oh, and she seemed to commit us to going to war with Russia if they attack Georgia. That’s sort of important, I guess.
15 Responses to “Palin’s Interview With Gibson”
You're right re: praying to God that the Iraq war is right. But then she clearly said that God supports the pipeline deal and we should pray to God for unity on it. That wasn't Lincolnian like the Iraq comment.
And I think the Bush Doctrine exchange was the most embarrassing for her.
I agree with David that I too cringed during the Gibson questioning on the “God” statements. Every critical sounding question about her daughter or family or views on God is fuel for the view that she's the victim of personal attacks. (I guess because they partly are.
) Stick to policy. Ask her about how she would govern the nation and ask in detail. She will demonstrate if she's ready to lead the nation or if she's still getting ready. And those are areas that should be legitimate no matter what your political leanings are.
UPDATE: naturally, the lead on the front page of Yahoo is not about Palin's lack of knowledge of the primary doctrine upon which our foreign policy has been based for 7 years nor about war with Russia — it's her views on God and war. Ugh.
Yeah, she pulled out the Lincoln reference pretty early in these excerpts.
Russia can't cross a border to (outwardly) protect an ethnic group. Check. US can cross any borders we want to pursue our enemies and spread democracy. Check.
And is she somehow trying play down her very evident ultra-fundamental religious views as being normal? I've seen the video of her addressing members of her church's congregation and she is truly a cheerleader for Jesus, not a quiet adherent or social congregant. Does she believe that a nuclear induced rapture is an acceptable outcome? Another instance where some churches zeal for videotaping their activities would seem to be inconvenient or perhaps just a little too much information.
Yeah, she pulled out the Lincoln reference pretty early in these excerpts.
Russia can't cross a border to (outwardly) protect an ethnic group. Check. US can cross any borders we want to pursue our enemies and spread democracy. Check.
And is she somehow trying play down her very evident ultra-fundamental religious views as being normal? I've seen the video of her addressing members of her church's congregation and she is truly a cheerleader for Jesus, not a quiet adherent or social congregant. Does she believe that a nuclear induced rapture is an acceptable outcome? Another instance where some churches zeal for videotaping their activities would seem to be inconvenient or perhaps just a little too much information.
Palin's on the hyper accelerated vetting plan for sure. And what is the deal with ol' Charlie Gibson? Didn't he used to be better?
T_Steel,
What, when he was on Good Morning America? A bastion of journalism if there ever was one…
Tyrone, if Charlie Gibson had been any “better,” McCain would have prohibited the interview to be aired…for security reasons…
I was actually surprised Gibson pushed her at all.
Who will be more “deferential” to Sarah Palin now that Charlie GIbson has shown his mean media self?
That's right, he was on Good Morning America. Forgive me. I think the wine as dulled my critical sensibilities…
I want the Tim Russert interview.
They edited the crap out of this interview. I'm going to look for and read the whole transcript. Leave it to the network…
Apparently McCain, as Palin did with Gibson, is pushing the “energy is national security” meme too. Plus the laughable “Alaska is close to Russia so she knows all about Russia” meme too. Even Palin didn't go that far. In this interview today there was this exchange:
[REPORTER] “Well, you say you're sure she has the experience, but again, I'm just asking for an example,” Caldwell said. “What experience does she have in the field of national security?” McCain responded (emphasis mine):
[MCCAIN] “Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America. She's a governor of a state where 20% of America's energy supply comes from there. And we all know that energy is a critical and vital national security issue. We've got to stop sending $700 billion of American money to countries that don't like us very much. She's very well versed on that issue.” And, uh, she also happens to represent, be governor of a state that's right next to Russia. She understands Russia.”
Oh my goodness. She knows more about energy than anyone else in the country? Who is he kidding?
Now, I agree that energy really is an important issue with national security overtones, but knowing something about oil and gas supplies hardly qualifies her as an expert on national security. Heck, it doesn't even qualify her as being an expert on energy. That's ridiculous. Although perhaps not as ridiculous as saying she understands Russia. Sheesh.
The interview has some other rambling moments. For example, the interviewer asks him about Palin's per diem expenses. McCain responded with a nonsensical list of irrelevant spin. He did the same thing when the interviewer asked him about Palin's understanding of terrorism. Then the interviewer asked him again about national security and he got pretty much exactly the same answer as he did the first time. It was just weird.
Half,
They did edit the interview. But I'm not convinced that she would have looked any better with the uncut version. They might have done her a favor.
The editing was very sloppy and I'm not sure if it helped her or made her look worse. The brash confidence she has exhibited in her carefully controlled previous appearances seemed to falter a number of times, despite the brevity of what we were shown. It will be interesting to see if she improves upon this performance when (if?) she is given opportunities to sink or swim on her own as the election nears.
The questioning was reasonably low-key. How will she handle someone more forceful than Mr. Gibson was this evening?
Has anyone brought up Wasilla charging victims (up to $1200) for their sexual assault/rape kits while Palin was mayor? That seems like something that would get the talking heads flapping.