Palin: pretty, charming, and 1/4" deep

[JoshuaW]

Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson revealed what many expected, a pageant queen's forced charisma trying to cover a basic ignorance of world events. I've never seen Gibson look or sound so frustrated, unable to elicit a single intelligent response to his reasonable questions. Time and again Palin would reduce a question to a pre-school complexity and earnestly pursue the logic - Russia is very close to Alaska, terrorists are bad people, energy conservation is important. Clearly, this woman realized long ago that charm and perkiness would get her through life in place of intelligence and competence. The Republicans seem to seek out these shallow personalities.

The right will seize upon Palin's juvenile answers as representative of Palin's commitment, proof of her competence and qualifications. The rest of us stare open-mouthed, like Charlie Gibson, amazed that a candidate for vice president could demonstrate less insight than your average babysitter. Once again the Wizard of Oz analogy comes to mind. Charlie Gibson has peeked behind the curtain and is disgusted by what he found. Hopefully the truth of Palin's incompetence will prevail over the Republicans efforts to spin her as a qualified candidate.

 

[reverend B]

spot on. gibson got increasingly repulsed by what he was seeing. it had to be one of the most amazing interviews he has ever done.
i went to an excellent public high school in massachusetts in the '70's, and there were plenty of kids that could have done a more credible job than sarah palin did yesterday. when asked why being parked next to russia made her qualified for the v.p., she said, "you know, you can actually see russia from alaska!". fascinating, sarah.
did anyone see that ill-fated interview by the contestant from south carolina for the miss america pageant, where she completely humiliated herself? she was so dim, she ellicited our sympathy as she wallowed around in the empty closet of her brain. we sympathized because nothing was at stake for us. well now she is 25 years older and running to be a heartbeat away from president of the u.s. if you aren't scared, you simply aren't paying attention. this is the pretty girl that has all the confidence in the world but none of the skills. she not only embarrassed herself yesterday, she embarrassed john mccain for his judgment and america as a whole for elevating her to the position she has now, let alone the one she aspires to.
for those that would try to spin this, you don't believe in country first. even if you support mccain, you should now be calling for palin to step down. there is far too much at stake for this vacuuous person to be in a position of national power. this is a huge threat to our countries security, and if you put country before party, you will reject this poor pretender as unworthy of remote consideration.

 

[Honkytnkmn]

When was the interview? I was watching the news last night and they were saying she did well from what they saw, but they said the interview was going to be doled out to the public little by little over the next week.

I'm sure she didn't do as bad as you guys are saying, but we'll see.

 

[Rotator]

If you saw someone who said she did well, it must have been a republican. I liked her at first and only saw a portion of the interview - I hope to see it all soon somewhere. But based on what I saw, posts 1 and 2 are pretty accurate.

 

[reverend B]

it was on nightline last night at 11:30 pm est.

 

[MsAnne]

I don't disagree with the assessments made here. But did anyone else think Charlie had a major attitude from the start? It looked to me as though he'd made up his mind before he even started the interview - far from an impartial journalist.

 

[JoshuaW]

I don't disagree with the assessments made here. But did anyone else think Charlie had a major attitude from the start? It looked to me as though he'd made up his mind before he even started the interview - far from an impartial journalist.

Don't try to blame it on Charlie Gibson. He is as impartial as they get. His "attitude" developed as he realized that Palin and her Republican handlers were trying to use him to, yes, put lipstick on a pig.

Here's the link for yesterday's interview segment. You can see Charlie's "attitude" develop as the answers get increasingly irrelevant. Gibson may be fair, but he doesn't suffer fools well.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5783816

 

[MsAnne]

Don't try to blame it on Charlie Gibson. He is as impartial as they get. ...
Here's the link for yesterday's interview segment. You can see Charlie's "attitude" develop as the answers get increasingly irrelevant...

Oh, I wasn't trying to blame anyone. It just appeared to me that he was exceptionally easily agitated - unusual for him, as I agree he does tend to be quite impartial. It really did seem that he had made up his mind how the interview was going to go before he even started.

 

[blueapplepaste]

I can't wait for the debate between her and Biden! If this is any indication, she's going to be destroyed. Its no wonder she won't field questions from reporters.

 

[reverend B]

Oh, I wasn't trying to blame anyone. It just appeared to me that he was exceptionally easily agitated - unusual for him, as I agree he does tend to be quite impartial. It really did seem that he had made up his mind how the interview was going to go before he even started.

i thought it developed during the course of the interview as he got increasingly frustrated and dumbfounded, but i see how you could see it that way.
bottom line though, charlie isn't running for anything. she is, and she was humiliating.

 

[JoshuaW]

Oh, I wasn't trying to blame anyone. It just appeared to me that he was exceptionally easily agitated - unusual for him, as I agree he does tend to be quite impartial. It really did seem that he had made up his mind how the interview was going to go before he even started.

I used to work with Charlie Gibson. He is generous and tolerant of almost everyone, no matter their viewpoint or beliefs. I have never seen him this agitated on camera, and I can guarantee he did not have his mind made up before he sat down with Palin.

What would tick Charlie off is if he felt he was being manipulated, played for a stooge. I believe he felt that Palin was not answering his questions, only trying to create sound bites for the campaign. She displayed virtually no knowledge or insight on any topic, only repeating the most elemental partisan positions. She acted like she was lecturing a child, and Charlie didn't like that.

 

[FilM]

I had not seen the interview and seeing the comments here, I was expecting the worst.

Now having seen it, apart from the stupid comment about seeing Russia from Alaska, I think she did quite well. He did what most journalists do, and he did it well, trying to bait her, and she responded well, maybe not the specifics, but then I would like my commander-in-chief to look at the options in depth before making a commitment to a course of action (which I am afraid W did not do so well...), and it may well be she does not feel in a position where she has all the facts to make a decision she was being asked to make in the interview. I've seen much worse avoidance in politicians.

 

[Chaplain David]

Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson revealed what many expected, a pageant queen's forced charisma trying to cover a basic ignorance of world events. I've never seen Gibson look or sound so frustrated, unable to elicit a single intelligent response to his reasonable questions. Time and again Palin would reduce a question to a pre-school complexity and earnestly pursue the logic - Russia is very close to Alaska, terrorists are bad people, energy conservation is important. Clearly, this woman realized long ago that charm and perkiness would get her through life in place of intelligence and competence. The Republicans seem to seek out these shallow personalities.

The right will seize upon Palin's juvenile answers as representative of Palin's commitment, proof of her competence and qualifications. The rest of us stare open-mouthed, like Charlie Gibson, amazed that a candidate for vice president could demonstrate less insight than your average babysitter. Once again the Wizard of Oz analogy comes to mind. Charlie Gibson has peeked behind the curtain and is disgusted by what he found. Hopefully the truth of Palin's incompetence will prevail over the Republicans efforts to spin her as a qualified candidate.

Poor kid didn't do to well did she? I hope every possible voter votes and that choices not be made because of likability or on some brief TV interviews but from what appears to be best for our country and citizens. God bless.

 

[Douger]

edit

 

[Douger]

That was a little bit painful to watch. No depth or wisdom portrayed whatsoever. If I was running for office I would be counting the days to be able to debate that Sarah Palin.

I imagine what we saw was her covering up for a complete lack of knowledge on the questions she was asked.
I doubt she's always come across that poorly or she wouldn't have become governor.
Maybe I'm wrong though.

 

[Vylo]

I wish McCain could just drop her like a hot potato for a better VP pick. There are other republican women with things like intelligence and integrity.

How about Susan Collins? She's a uniter and pretty well on the side of republicans when it comes to issue.


Also: if you caught the Daily show blurb about her speech sounding like she was reciting info from wikipedia, it was pricelss.

 

[oldbetang]

I thought that she did quite well. Gibson's definition of the Bush Doctrine? LOL!

 

[Grizzly]

I thought that she did quite well. Gibson's definition of the Bush Doctrine? LOL!

yea, Gibson's definition was hilariously like the wiki definition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Doctrine

 

[MachZer0]

yea, Gibson's definition was hilariously like the wiki definition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Doctrine

There's something Gibson can be proud of, he agrees with wikipedia

 

[MrJim]

Did Gibson work over Obama about his experience? He is being a media punk~please, someone produce these same "experience" questions with the same punk attitude to His Lorship Obama.