It is remarkable really that one of the four candidates for the top two offices in the land has yet to take an unscripted question from the press over the last two weeks. Please believe me when I say I have nothing against this woman, other than that she is clearly unprepared for the job, and, okay, I disagree with her on social issues and fiscal and international policy. I am not picking on the lipstick (the woman); I’m picking on the pig (the politician). As E.J. Dionne writes in the New Republic,
Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, gave the game away when he said on “Fox News Sunday” that she would not meet with reporters until they showed a willingness to treat her “with some level of respect and deference.”
Deference? That’s a word used in monarchies or aristocracies. Democracies don’t give “deference” to politicians. When have McCain, Obama, Biden or, for that matter, Hillary Clinton asked for deference?
….It is hugely unfortunate that the first big story about Palin — other than questions raised about whether she fired the head of the Alaska state police for refusing to dismiss her former brother-in-law — concerned her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy. It’s not just that Bristol Palin should be left alone, but also that the intense interest in this story gave McCain’s bullies an excuse to push aside legitimate questions about Palin’s record and knowledge.
Well, her big chance to prove more of us naysayers wrong is coming up later this week. The McCain campaign, which has already said it will only have her do interviews when the media gives proper deference (can you IMAGINE the reaction had Obama said that at any point during this campaign), has agreed to an interview with Charlie Gibson of ABC. She will spend two days with him, including the September 11th anniversary, when she will speak at her son Track’s Iraq deployment ceremony.
I am surely not the only one hoping this won’t just be a fluff piece, where we all marvel at the bear rug on her couch or the king crab on the table. I hope he won’t just ask her how hard has this been for her family, and how did she make this decision and is she working really hard to just not get pummeled in the debate with Joe Biden.
Because she obviously excels at “aw shucks” and charm (Hillary fumed over Obama’s eerily similar swoon factor- when he hollers “I love you back!” to someone at a rally, Chris Matthews feels a tingle up his leg;o). Of course she’ll sound “real”, whatever I mean by that. But will she sound prepared, particularly, when by her own admission just one year ago, she was too focused on state issues to opine on a national issue like the Iraq war. How will she respond to questions like:
1) Your campaign and many of its surrogates have complained that the media, and your detractors, have been suggesting that as a mother of five, you shouldn’t have accepted the job of vice president of the United States. Do you also take umbrage with that suggestion, whoever may be making it? And, in 2004, you declined to run for the U.S. Senate, telling the Anchorage Daily News that “How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?” What has changed for you since you declined running for that job?
2) Do you believe Senator Obama inappropriately supported age-appropriate sex education, and specifically education against sexual predators, when he was in the Illinois Senate? Do you stand by the McCain Palin campaign ad that aired earlier this week?
I could go on, but someone has already done a better list than I. Read the nine questions that Charlie Gibson should ask Sarah Palin. Wait. Here are some even better questions from Maureen Dowd:
What kind of budget-cutter makes a show of getting rid of the state plane, then turns around and bills taxpayers for the travel of her husband and kids between Juneau and Wasilla and sticks the state with a per-diem tab to stay in her own home?
Why was Sarah for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against the Bridge to Nowhere, and why was she for earmarks before she was against them? And doesn’t all this make her just as big a flip-flopper as John Kerry?
What kind of fiscal conservative raises taxes and increases budgets in both her jobs — as mayor and as governor?
Inform Your Consent 