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I’ve been a little surprised over the last weekend to hear and red so many defenses of Sarah Palin’s ABC interview with Charlie Gibson. Even though I’m sympathetic to the claims that Gibson’s questions ranged from condescending to dishonest, she was about as bad as could be imagined without saying anything outrageous.

There’s been a lot of talk in conservative circles about how The Bush Doctrine has had so many evolutions of meaning over the last 6 years that even foreign policy professionals like Henry Kissinger have required greater clarification than Gibson provided Palin, but I don’t care. A good politician needs to know how handle themselves better than this. She did not look ready for the job.

I’m not writing Palin off. Obviously, the way she has changed the campaign — or at least fueled an explosion in a change that was already quietly underway since Obama’s Rainbow tour of Europe — is exciting, and I think she brings some intangibles to the McCain ticket. I don’t think this one bad appearance will hurt her with supporters (and I also enjoy the way she provokes instant outrage in opponents) but it wasn’t a good start by any measure. She’s going to need to get up to speed in a hurry to make this uncertain, shell-shocked, and dismal performance look like a fluke. That will show us how good she is, if she is.

Ironically, she appeared, to me, to be trying too hard to impress in that Gibson interview, but in doing so tried to inhabit a persona that wasn’t authentic. Instead of struggling to remember details intended to trip her up, she needs to find a way to handle wonky questioning by expressing her governing philsophy in the context of a bigger picture. But most importantly she needs to not do what bush does that often makes him look stupider than he is, and that is repeating the same thought several times in one answer. It’s OK to have a succinct response, as long it appears confident. And succinct.

Tags:   ABC · Gibson · PalinNo Comments