The Sarah Palin reviews are in, Part Deux

By GottaLaff

Via the L.A. Times:

It was a fascinating and unsettling interview nonetheless, first and foremost because it's been nearly two weeks since Republican presidential nominee John McCain announced the Alaskan governor as his chosen running mate and these are the first non-scripted words the American people have heard from her.

For days now, the media has obligingly reacted as if J.D. Salinger had suddenly decided to break his decades-long silence. Caught up in an anticipatory frenzy usually reserved for damage-control celebrity sit-downs -- Paris Hilton on "Larry King," Tom Cruise on "Oprah"-- everyone seemed to forget that this is a vice presidential candidate, a public servant who should not be playing hard to get with reporters and whose main job it is to articulate the positions and policies of her ticket.[...]

Even Gibson acted as if he feared this might be the one shot the entire Fourth Estate gets, conducting what was essentially a high-level, high-pressure interview with a job candidate who quickly revealed that her skill set is heavy on can-do-attitude, and light on company policy comprehension. Appearing momentarily stricken by some of the almost professorially pointed policy questions -- and embarrassingly baffled by his reference to the Bush Doctrine -- the Alaskan governor never missed a beat, though in fine political style she managed avoid to more questions than she answered, or at least answered in a way that had little connection to the question. [...]

Still, the inevitable parsing and analysis of Palin’s answers and performance in this interview, however tempting, is almost beside the point. In this case, her actions, or non-actions, have spoken much louder than any words. She didn’t blink, she told Gibson, when McCain asked her to join his ticket. But she certainly blinked after. What sort of reform-minded politician waits two weeks before giving an interview?

Since when it is OK that the American people have to wait in breathless anticipation for its nominated candidates to speak to them en masse? Since when do we have to rely on a single interview, from a single source, to introduce us to a woman who claims she would be privileged to lead us?

In a world that is measured by milliseconds, a broken-up hour is too short to offer, a week is simply too long to wait. Such manipulation of a public moment is simple exploitation. If Palin was trying to prove that she’s just a sense-talkin’ hockey mom from Alaska, she couldn’t have gone about it in a more wrong-headed way.

There is still some sanity in the corporate media, and for that I am grateful.