2008 Election

Palin Uncomfortable, Defensive in Gibson Interview

By Maegan Carberry ⋅ September 12, 2008 ⋅   Email this post ⋅  Digg This ⋅  Share on Facebook ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

It’s surprising that the Barracuda was not a little more poised in her big ABC prime time debut. After throwing down the gauntlet in her RNC speech, she certainly invited the media scrutiny that has followed. I expected her to perform better.

Since I didn’t watch it live, but read about it first and watched the rest online, I agreed with James Poniewozik’s observation on Time.com:

“The one thing that strikes me is that the interview comes off much different if you read the transcript than if you watch the video. On the page, it’s pretty unremarkable, even the quotes that are being picked up on the political blogs. … On the screen, it was much different; the real information, it seemed, was in the tone and manner of the exchange.”

Right down to the Courtyard Marriott-style meeting room and those uncomfortable looking chairs, the whole thing just felt awkward. And as journalists, if we’re trying to avoid distracting talk about sexism, it’s best to not set up that screen shot with a big imposing man towering like Professor Snape over the female Republican Vice Presidential candidate. 

The substance of the interview focused primarily on her experience (or lackthereof), and she cleverly leveraged an Obama argument (also from Time’s coverage):

“Asked if she’d ever met a head of state, she raised her unshaken hand like a badge of honor: ‘We’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time,’ she said. ‘It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yeah, they’ve had opportunity to meet heads of state.’”

This leads me to suspect that in debate season, the Republican reply to criticism of BO’s experience will be, “Yeah, well, at least she’s running for Vice President.” (Dems will have to try hard not to abuse John McCain’s impending death as an easy counterpoint …) 

For those who are wondering how she’ll match up against Biden, I think we have our first look at an answer. Much like in her basketball days, she’ll play scrappy, but it will be tough to take down a seasoned veteran. Biden will have to focus heavily on how she reinforces John McCain’s policies and takes them to a new extreme, which should be easy for him to do with his long resume, freeing up Obama to reclaim the change-agent title he created long before anyone else tried it on for size.