Palin's Turkey Killin' Interviewin' Skills

What a moron. She needs to get out of the public eye, and quick.

GOP Next Steps

On the topic of "What Now?", if we step from the Obama White House over to the GOP, the picture is just about as interesting. Prior to the week following the election, I was in the "Sarah Palin is the New Star of the GOP, like it or not." group and was going to be a prominent leader in the party. However, following her meltdown and bickering war with McCain's people, I was skeptical. Yet, with the GOP governors meeting to discuss what the hell happened and how the hell do we fix it, Ms. Palin is firmly back in the spotlight, blowing off a GOP lunch and holding a press conference later today.

If nothing else, the election (obviously) jumped her a number of notches. She used to be a marginal young governor from Alaska but now is the featured attendee in Washington. The question now is whether she'll be able to regain any sort of national political prominance without being laughed off the stage for her gaffs, some of which I'm sure we haven't heard of, from the campaign. The fact that she was launched into the public spotlight unprepared and ill-advised can not be ignored. With some seasoning and the right coaching, can Palin regain her lost luster and go from sideshow to prominance in four years?

The other big question here is how the GOP reacts to Palin. While its clear that she isn't ready to go away and will do what she can to repair her public image, its not quite as clear how the GOP feels about her chances. Does the party want to continue to associate themselves with a ex-VP candidate who alienated pretty much everyone except hardcore conservatives? While she certainly appeals to the Religious Right and party line voters, how will she court the moderates? How does she court the young vote when her views so vehemently oppose the opinions of so many of the under 30 voters in the country?

Palin's Meltdown

It's been interesting to watch the reactions to Palin over the last week. Not only does Newsweek's special edition paint her in a particularly bad light, Palin herself is now coming back on her doubters. Prior to the election, I was in the party of people who believed that win or lose, Palin was here to stay but with the bickering and in-fighting throughout the GOP, and now her calling her ex-running mate's aides "jerks", I'm not sure that she'll walk away unscathed. Can she continue to have shots taken at her in the public forum and still be able to launch a national political comeback or is it one and done? At the very least, Oprah is now willing to help.

Newsweek Special Edition

While these are only some excerpts from the full edition that will be released tomorrow, it's certainly enough to pique one's attention. Especially of note:

"McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request."

"Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting."

"McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as a campaign issue. The Republican had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism. Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons). And before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a "celebrity" ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative)."

If true, even just these small portions of the article seem to be painting Palin as something of a renegade loose cannon, a maverick if you will. All kidding aside, this would have you believe that Palin was running amuck behind the scenes and McCain was becoming increasingly irritated by her with each passing day.

But At Least She Still Has The Right To Vote! Phew!

Palin may not enjoy the right to free speech but she does, thankfully, have the right to vote. Its nice to see she got dressed up too. Oh, she's so folksy! 

Palin: Protect My First Amendment Rights!

Palin is now worried that her First Amendment rights may have been violated by the press. See, the Press (which, correct me if I'm wrong, also has an Amendment that says they can say what they want. Its like the 30th, or 10th. Wait. It's the First too), like totally took that right from her when they called her on being negative to Obama.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but when people report that you call some guy's friends terrorists and put ads on television and devote entire speeches to attacking a guy's character, typically, its not out of the norm to call said ads and speech "negative". This is ludicrous. If I go out spouting hate speech in the streets and Colin, reporting for the Courant, tells me to stop being so damn negative, my reaction isn't to tell Colin that he's infringing on my right to free speech. Rather, as a sane individual, my reaction is "Dude's probably right, I should most likely stop yelling hate speech in public if I don't want to be considered negative".

"It's sort of perplexing to me, because I'm a practical person and plainspoken also, but just cutting to the chase and calling things like I see them, just like most Americans. But this has not left a bitter taste in my mouth, the bitter shots taken by the mainstream media and by some of the elitism there in Washington," Palin said.

That's cool. I'm practical and plainspoken too. THE MEDIA IS TOO. How is your questioning some guy's character for his associations any different than the media questioning your motives when you say that a presidential candidate "pals around with terrorists"?! This seems like a total double standard that Palin is trying to set up here. Ms. Palin, sorry that you've come off as an out of touch airhead, but maybe you should have had more intelligent things to say over the course of the campaign. The media isn't the reason that Sarah Palin is viewed as an unexperienced, unqualified fool. Sarah Palin is.

Jonny's Mad!

Jon Stewart at Northeastern, in a decidedly more direct attack than just "framing the narrative":



The obvious freedom of doing stand-up vs. a nightly comedy show is apparent. Stewart doesn't have to represent anyone but himself when he's standing on the stage by his lonesome.

He later went back to the Daily Show and explained his comments:

Health of the Candidates

We've previously discussed the idea as to what from the candidate's private life should become public knowledge. It seemed that the consensus was that the medical history of the involved parties should be made public, so that the voters of the country have an idea as to what they're going to be dealing with over the course of the next 4 years. In tomorrow's NY Times, a new article investigating the candidate's health will be featured. You can read the article on the Times website now. The article is an in-depth look into the medical histories of each candidate with the exception of Palin, who has volunteered nothing in terms of information, which keeps with the intense protection the McCain camp has attempted to utilize for Palin. Regardless, its an interesting (and intensive) read worth the time it takes to click through 5 pages.

Palin on SNL

For what it's worth, the clip from Palin on SNL, which brought in HUGE ratings for SNL. In fact, the best ratings in over 14 years for the weekly staple. That said, I'm surprised that they brought her on as a guest, what with Tina Fey's comments about her wanting to leave the planet if Palin is elected. Fey may not be a writer for the show anymore but its clear that they're happy to have her when she wants to stop by. But with those rating, who cares about politics?

Her portion of Weekend Update:

Palin Can't Tell Supporter from Foe

In the continuing trainwreck of a candidacy, Sarah Palin decided it'd be easier to attack everyone as opposed to just Obama. Can anything go right for this woman?

McCain/Palin Go Negative (Again)

With Sarah Palin more or less suggesting that Barack Obama is one step away from terrorism, it appears that the McCain/Palin ticket is getting ready to turn up the heat with attack ads once again. It'll be interesting to see how the media responds this time around after the first wave of attacks ended with Fox News reporting the lies in the ads.

Will McCain/Palin play it closer to the truth this time around or will the last month of the campaign become an all out war where truth takes a back seat to winning the election? In class, we've spoken about how McCain's ultimate goal is to win the election, as is any candidate's chief objective. It'll be interesting to see how far McCain will be willing to go with exagerrations and full on lies in order to claim that seat in the West Wing.

Sarah and Katie: Sarah Strikes Back!

Following the increasingly embarassing interviews by CBS News, Sarah Palin has come out like any good VP Candidate should and said that Katie Couric "annoyed" her. Thats funny because every one of Palin's answers "annoyed" most of America in their obvious BS factor. What has come out of those Couric interviews can only be described as highly damaging and while its too bad that Ms. Palin didn't enjoy some actual questions as opposed to the meatballs she was hoping, it doesn't change the fact that she was unprepared and came off as looking like a high schooler who didn't do the homework.

Having watched the Couric interviews a number of times, I've got to admit that none of the questions that were asked of Palin seemed unfair or out of left field. In fact, each seemed like something a VP candidate should be able to answer standing on their heads. Its unfortunate that Couric didn't give Palin the questions she was looking for, particularly ones that could set Palin up to attack Obama but thats the name of the game. The media has every right to ask the tough questions and too often, they don't. Here, Couric stepped up to the plate and took it to someone as opposed to letting Palin walk all over her. The fact that Palin was "annoyed" should only be taken as a compliment to Couric and her decent interviewing skills.

More from Katie and Sarah

She doesn't know any other Supreme Court cases!

This Just In...

VP Debate could be Politically Pivotal.

While it may seem like an obvious statement, with all the the scrutiny on Palin prior to tonight's debate, this could be a contest with far reaching consequences for both sides. With more than half of voters beginning to think that Palin doesn't understand the "complex issues", tonight may be her last chance to salvage whatever dignity she may have left. After getting drummed with questions to which she had no answer by Katie Couric (Katie Couric!) and stumbling through moments of the Charlie Gibson interview, it's almost a necessity for Palin to come out tonight and have a great debate.

On the other hand, I feel its almost a necessity for Biden to come out and bury Palin. Let's all be honest, the McCain/Palin ticket has had a rough couple of weeks and while I'm not quite ready to say that they're reeling, its not a stretch to say that they've been falling behind. If Biden can unequivocally show tonight that Palin is the clueless, unprepared woman she has made herself to be in the past few weeks, I'm not quite sure how she'll be able to recover. As we discussed briefly in Monday's class, if Palin has another bad week and then all of a sudden turns it around and comes out slinging knowledge, can we even believe that its genuine and not a regurgitation of today's fact packet? I'm not so sure that I want a VP who needs to use flash cards during a meeting with a foreign head of state. But hey, that may just be me.

Some Humor to Lighten the Load

Just because its been a long day and we could probably all use a laugh or two.

Palin Brushing Up on Foreign Policy at Epcot
Report: 60 Million People You'd Probably Never Talk to Voting for Other Guy

Voters Do The Google

An interesting glimpse into what exactly we, the people, search for in regards to our presidential candidates. I found this excerpt particularly frank:

"Ranking even above that No. 10 slot in mid-September was "Barack Obama antichrist," a manifestation of a list — disseminated via viral emails — of parallels between Obama and the villain in an apocryphal translation of the Book of Revelation. Over 20% of those searching the "antichrist" story clicked through to Snopes.com, an urban legend clearinghouse that brands the story "FALSE" with a trademark red icon. And the Snopes site itself is a common search term for truth-squadders who pair them with candidates’ names."

At least it was proven false. I mean, we can't have the antichrist in office. That wouldn't be good.

Sarah Palin Visits the UN (and Katie Couric)

Gaaahhh, the media!



Does she know a legit answer to any one of the questions? It's, well, questionable.

Sarah Palin Visits the UN: Part Deux

Yesterday, I questioned why the media doesn't start a harsher policy with the McCain/Palin campaign in terms of dealing with their shutting out reporters. Upon more thought, its a bit more obvious. The media, regardless of claims of journalistic integrity, is a business that produces news reports to make money. Wisely, the media recognizes that if they were to deal a cold shoulder to the Republican campaign, they would most likely lose their Republican viewers, thus losing ratings, thus losing money.

Regardless of how frustrating it must be to the members of the media (it's certainly frustrating me), they are locked into a symbiotic relationship with the campaigns. They need McCain/Palin as much as McCain/Palin needs the media, much to the (increasing) chagrin of both camps. Without the media, McCain has no outlet for his views. Without McCain, the media has no interest from its right leaning viewers/listeners/readers.

Searching for Bobby Fisher (/Joe Biden)

For all of those looking for the other VP nominee, it appears that he may be back in business. As we mentioned briefly in class, there was some increasing talk about Joe Biden's general lack of exposure in wake of Sarah Palin's Super Woman rise and escapades. The LA Times has an interesting article discussing the amazing vanishing act of one Joe Biden and in it, suggests that Biden may not have gone anywhere, but it was merely the media who fled. What'll happen as Palin's novelty wears and the general grating nature of her ignoring the press becomes more, well, grating? As I mentioned in my previous post, the press staged a mini coup earlier today at the UN. Will Biden begin to re-enter the picture as McCain/Palin continue to piss off the press?

Sarah Palin Visits the UN

With Sarah Palin's visit to the UN underway, the question now is not how her meetings with foreign head of states will go but rather, will anyone know how they go? The McCain camp remained steadfast in their tight restrictions around Palin, greatly limiting the press from having any access whatsoever to the VP candidate. I can't help but admit that this constant tightening of the belt around Palin is getting to be ridiculous. After all, the media has the right to do their job. If the McCain campaign continues to jerk around the major media outlets, why won't said outlets just pull their coverage of McCain and his cronies? They threatened to do so today (scroll down to the bottom of the article to read the entire ordeal in chronological order) and eventually won some ground but if this continues, the media will need to stand up for themselves and put their foot down. Palin can't hide forever as the McCain campaign will eventually need to start reaching out to swing voters and trying to let people have an idea as to who this enigma who could be help running the country really is.