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Sarah Palin’s Media Act Grows “Thin”
Steve Adubato, Ph.D.
CBS 2 Political Analyst
The Sarah Palin act is getting old in a hurry. While the Republicans have tried to hide Palin and keep her away from anyone in the media who may ask her a legitimate question, the jig is up. Palin’s interview with Katie Couric of CBS News last week was pathetic. She is so paper thin in her answers, it’s laughable. The only problem is, if McCain actually becomes President at 72, that doesn’t make Sarah Palin that far away from potentially being the leader of the free world. Ouch!
I admit it, I was a bit caught up when she was first selected. She gave a great speech, particularly when she had her talking points. She plays to the camera well. But once you get a little closer, it is downright scary how ill- informed Palin really is. She actually told Katie Couric with a straight face that the fact that she can see Russia from her home in Alaska gives her foreign policy credentials. What lunacy. She was talking as if the Alaskan National Guard would protect the country if Russia invaded the US. She believes this stuff.
And after going on and on about John McCain being a maverick and a reformer who stood up to the banks and pushed for greater regulation, that would have avoided the fiscal/credit mass we’re in, she panicked. As soon as Couric asked her to come up with a specific example of how McCain regulated the industry, Palin said; “I have to get back to you on that.” Sound familiar? In a Tina Fey send- off of Palin this past weekend on Saturday Night Live, when Fey as Palin was asked the same question, she looked dumbfounded and said; “Can I use a lifeline?” following with; “Can I call a friend?” It was hysterical, yet painful to watch because Sarah Palin’s actual performance with Katie Couric wasn’t that different from Saturday Night Live’s parody of the same interview. I think Sarah Palin thinks this is all a game show, and that she does have a lifeline, and that she can phone a friend.
It’s no secret that Republicans kept her at distance from the mainstream media. Now what are they going to say, that Katie Couric sandbagged Sarah Palin? That Couric is part of a left-wing media conspiracy to make Palin look bad? How is Sarah Palin supposed to stand up to world leaders if she can’t even do a basic media interview and get through it without sounding like a total idiot? And it’s not even October. Could you imagine how bad it’s going to be in the debate against Joe Biden this week?
The “Palin Experiment” is exploding before the country’s eyes, and John McCain has no one to blame but himself. He may have ultimately handed Barack Obama this election on a silver platter by trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat with Sarah Palin, but winding up coming up way more than empty. The problem is, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. All I know is that Tina Fey is wondering what she did in a previous life to be so lucky to be able to play this Palin thing out for the next month. Let’s just hope it ends there, because having to take four years of it seems unbearable.
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