Posted on 09/27/2008 8:37:20 AM PDT by PAR
Sorry for the vanity. Just watched the Palin Couric interview and I am concerned.
First, I think Palin was an inspired VP choice, gave a great convention speech, and did well under adverse conditions in the Gibson interview.
Second, even though I thought she was awful during the Couric debate, I believe she would make a very good President. Many people who are unaware of a candidiate's accomplishments and record, will judge a person's fitness for office based on how they "come across" during an interview or debate. While I think that the substance of what someone says can reflect significantly on their fitness for office, I also think that there are skills, that if not honed, reflect poorly on a candidate that otherwise would do a great job.
Having said that, I thought Palin was abysmal with Couric. I am very far from being an expert on appropriate interview techniques, but the following are some comments.
1) Since Couric is obviously a woman, people naturally more closely compare Couric's demeanor with Palin's than they would with a male interviewer. No sensible person will ever mistake Couric for a serious journalist, but in the interview she had a professional, calm, low, and measured voice. Palin, on the other hand, spoke in what I will describe as a sing song, highly modulated voice that made her appear like something bordering on a valley girl (yes this is an exageration to make a point and I am showing my age) in comparison to Couric.
She has got to change this and she has to change it fast. She did somewhat better in my opinion on this front with Gibson. I recognize that there is a danger that if you ask Palin to change too much of her natural "way of being" it could make matters worse. That's why her handlers are paid the big bucks- to know where to draw the line.
2) For the love of God, could Palin and McCain please bring up these points EVERY TIME they are asked about the bailout!: a) Community Reinvestment Act; b) Lawsuits forcing banks to lend to people who can't afford it; c) Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac irresponsible lending criteria; d) Specific McCain attempt and more generally Republican attempt to reform Fannie and Freddie that was blocked repeatedly by the democrats; e) Obama said nothing and did not support repeated attempts to reform Fannie & Freddie; f) Obama is number 2 on the list of Fannie & Freddie contributions g) Jim Johnson & Franklin Raines;
How McCain last night could let the bailout discussion go by the boards without hitting HARD on the above in unfathomable. I don't know why Palin would not have hit on it as well.
3) Palin has to learn how to parry ridiculously biased questions. Case in point: Couric asked her if she was aware if John McCain had ever opposed regulation excepting his 2006 attempt to reform Fannie/Freddie. Palin's ultimate response was to say I'll have to get back to you. I thought this was a very weak response.
In my view, even if she knew of some examples, she should have refused to answer such a biased, no-win question by first stating that John McCain generally believes that regualtion stifles the economy and innovation but that he has a long record of supporting regualtion where it is clearly needed.
Then she should have turned the question around onto Couric by saying simply: "Katie, I'm glad you brought up John's Fannie/Freddie reform effort because I think it is appropriate to focus my comments on what has become the most significant financial crisis since the great depression. John McCain, consistent with his record of doing what is right for all Americans, presented legislation to fix the mess before it ever got to this point. Where was Barak Obama and the rest of the democrats when John McCain tried to fix this mess? They opposed him every him every step of the way. Maybe you should ask Obama why he didn't support the most important regulation of our lifetime." Then repeat the points above if necessary. Politically it will probably be necessary to insert some poplulist garbage about Wall Street excess as well.
If you respond by saying you'll get back to her, you are implicity admitting the legitimacy of the question, which you MUST NOT do. Better to communicate in a tactful manner that the question is bogus by not answering in an artful way, but if you can't do that, you just have to say that it is an unfair, biased question.
4) Finally, Palin needs to study the example of last night's debate. As Hannity mentioned after the debate, Obama came across as someone recalling lines he had memeorized from a textbook, unlike McCain who was able to rely on actual experience and events to place his answers a coherent context.
There were times last night that, because Obama can't speak directly from experience or knowledge, he gave rambling, incoherent answers simply because it is difficult to remember for 1 1/2 hours what the "script" is. However, Obama did't make a "total" fool of himself because he worked hard to remember his canned responses and generally tried to stick to the script. Even though McCain kicked his ass and made him look like the schoolboy he is, Obama was not totally embarassed (exception- the bracelet was priceless). Palin has to do what Obama did when it comes to foreign policy. Memorize your answers and stick to the script. If you can, mix in you relevant experience, but please don't talk about Russia being your next door neighbor unless there is some real substance. My parents are liberals and they are laughing out loud on the "Russia is our next door neighbor" story. Back it up or can it.
Hopefully the Couric interview was a bump in the road. In my humble opinion, she needs to be much better for the debate. Fortunatey, Biden has been making a non-stop fool of himself. Palin needs to hit Biden hard on all of his gaffes over the last few weeks. But please do so in the context or flow of the debate/conversation. Slamming someone out of the blue generally doesn't go over well.
Go Palin!!!!
Note: These comments are not meant to be comprehensive. Just my off the cuff initial reaction.
NOT LET HER GO THAT WAY !!!!!!
let her go out into the media
They did the same thing to Ronald Reagan. Every leftist today STILL believes that he was a doddering old fool who was just lucky on some issues. That's not our problem. They are ALWAYS going to present that because to present otherwise validates his views. Palins views are like Reagans. Their views are the OPPOSITE of liberalism. They can NEVER present her as a serious politician. She is NOT there to have the media like her or to have them say nice things about her. She is there to serve.
STOP giving suggestions based on the media presents her. It's a worthless pursuit and only perpetuates their view.
Until CBS releases the unedited interview any conclusions about Governor (a word that was edited out) Palin’s performmance are pretty much baseless ... they’re a response to liberal propaganda.
Look, I love Sarah Palin. Her views match mine closer than any politician I can think of. But you need to be able to express those ideas clearly and vigorously to be an effective politician.
McCain’s people have bungled their opportunities with Gov. Palin. She needs to act tougher and get her ideas across no matter what the questions are. Whining about how mean the lefty press is is not helping the cause.
Might I add that during a live televised unedited debate, Couric BS and open hostility will be evident. It will be a fair playing field. No gotcha questions to just one candidate. No comments suggesting incest, faked pregnancy, firing brother-in-laws - where does it end. She will do just fine.
Sarah sure has got me! You're right and I hope that the reason that we are not hearing much on her right now is she is being brought up to speed on world events. She is sharp and I'm hoping she will be able to hold her composure. Biden will try to rattle her. He is an ass.
Reagan was not seen as all that popular politically well into 1980. people saw him as a risk. empty headed.
” Let’s not get so panicky! The interviews with Gibson and Couric are good opportunities for Sarah Palin who is a quick study. “
My wife and I are sticking by Sarah. After all she has had to make tough decisions on unscripted issues. These interviews are about the MSM setting the agenda.
If they were so knowing (AKA O’Reilly ) then why don’t they get out ahead of issues, and offer solutions which can be measured for effectiveness.
No they are Monday Morning QB’s who were never even on the bench, let alone in the game..........
Good I feel better having let that out.............
The good thing about the debate is that it should be unbiased as far as Sarah and bin biden getting the same questions, granted we don’t know if the questions will favor bin biden, but she will have notes to refer to. The only issue I’ve noticed is she needs to work on hesitating between words. She needs to stress that she is an outsider and though she hasn’t been in Washington, she knows how to get things done based on her success as governor....
By the way, I hope the McCain camp runs ads over and over, especially as we get closer to the election of her “18 million cracks in the hardest, highest glass ceiling” remark as well as something from the Republican convention speech. Make women proud to walk into the booth and vote for McCain/Palin.
Sarah is not the question she is th answer.
Ok. Wait till I quit laughing. *ahem*
You saw the House Republicans interview on TV yesterday? WHAT?! You mean the press didn't cover it?!
Well then I know you saw coverage of the House revolt over drilling this summer, right? No?
*Gasp*! You mean the press isn't fair to Republicans? They don't cover them but instead cover for Dems?
That’s why she has not once appeared on talk radio or on MSM live interviews where she can’t be edited.
Show me the offers for these venues. Has Obama been on these venues? Has he been grilled as the Republican VP has?
The sky is not falling and thank goodness you aren't in charge of McCain's campaign. One of McCain's heroes is Reagan. Reagan bypassed the press and went directly to the people. That's what McCain is doing.
I don’t think we’ve had a fair assessment of Palin’s abilities from these heavily edited, gotha-type interrogations they have NEVER subjected Obama and Biden to. And I think she has come out alright and there really is no substance to the criticisms yet. I do think the McCain campaign better unleash Gov. Palin and make it LIVE interviews or make sure they demand no editing answers and have their own recordings of the interrogations so they can bring the media tyrants to account and hit them hard. I think some people need to calm down with these edited items that didn’t give the Obama media anything but distortions of what she said and nothing really at that.
I just saw a clip on Fox of Sarah in what looked like a winter white jacket. She looked really good in that. She also looks good in black and vibrant colors. What color do you think she should wear in the debate?
I’ve read the unedited transcripts from her interviews and she comes off slightly better, but certainly not great. If the McCain campaign feels she would be better unscripted then she should have been doing TV or radio live, such as Rush, Hannity, Fox and Friends, GMA. And she should be taking questions from the press. This would build up her confidence and allow people to gauge her views. She has been mishandled, that’s for sure.
Better yet I think all candidates, prior to interviews, should demand copies of all unedited “pre-mix” tapes so that the “edits” could be exposed for what they are! If the news services refuse..then no more interviews!
The vanity was a good one. I didn’t get to see the Couric interview or even read much news in the last week as I just had a baby :) - so I’ve been trying to find out what the reaction to this interview was, as my husband assures me it was universally panned.
As an Alaskan I can tell you that the sing songy form of speech you mentioned is something that I’ve long been perplexed by - it is not an intonation/accent/dialect that is native to Wasilla - where we had a house when I was a kid - or this part of Alaska. Her sister Heather doesn’t speak like this either - in her intv. with Greta on Fox I noticed that Heather pretty much sounds like your average Alaskan. A bit of Canadian sound to it I suppose - as well as probably some native influence on certain words.
When I first heard the new governor giving a speech I was really surprised at her speech pattern and thought she sounded incredibly squeaky - she often lets her voice get into a high pitch that people just don’t take seriously. One of my thoughts when she joined the ticket was that they better get a LINGUIST to work with her, fast!
I say this as a McCain/Palin supporter who certainly wants to see them beat Obama, and does certainly hope that Palin can rise to the occasion and perform well as VP despite her shortcomings.
She was born in Idaho..a lot of scandinavians settled in that whole area...scandinavians speak with a kind of sing song inflection in their voices. It’s possible she picked up the inflections from her parents as well as from her peers where she attended college.
It has been my personal observation that some who use inflections like that in their voices tend to run their thoughts thru a kind of internally weighted thought dialectic balancing personal knowledge and personal opinion while guaging the possible emotional impacts upon their listeners. If the listeners engage in a kind of poker faced, “gotcha” kinds of conversation with such folks, shading their emotional reactions, then the “sing song” most forcefully shows itself as the speaker is attempting to emotionally reach and is in a sense “radar ranging” trying to “sense” where the listener is!
In observing Palin you see differences in her public speaking verses 1 on 1 conversations. In the Gibson interview, he struck a kind of “disapproving” tone which allowed Palin to range in on Gibson and she gave a much more
forceful interview. Couric was disingenuous and snaky in a way that only women can be with each other. Palin sensed it but was at a loss as she could not “range” in on where Couric was coming from. Palin was also constrained by “Bush” preppers so you sensed she wasn’t being as forthright in her responses as she wanted to be. You could sense the strain...the ossilations between who truly was versus what her ‘handlers” were trying to mold her into vs. skeptical disingenuousness on the count of Couric. This “cognitive” ossilation I think may explain the “singy songy” ( perhaps better to call it see-saw speech) evasiveness that crept into her interviews with Couric!
Palin will be better off speaking with crowds and with male interviewers. She’ll need to learn how to cope with female interviewers like Couric who hide daggers behind their lip sticked smiles!
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