Blaglash.com

 

Sarah Palin is famous now.  Much like Mike Huckabee, her candidacy has not only invigorated the religious right, it has also made a character out of the candidate.  On youtube, someone is always watching something about Palin, whether it’s comedic or from a news source.  And I think her existence is responsible for giving SNL a new purpose.  Sarah Palin, in essence, has become a caricature and ceased to become a political figure.  I’ve noticed that it seems more like Palin is campaigning to be First Lady with her pet issue being special needs children than vice president, where her best cred is in energy policy- and it’s cred based on a husband’s career with an oil company and some muddling in oil contracts.   But she is proving to be a veritable fountain of gaffes that are hurting the MCCAMPAIGN…

Her Couric interviews are legendary now.  She seems unable to speak in complete sentences, instead muttering oblique generalizations with many conjunctions and few facts.  This interview is paticularly damning, and also really scary.

The interview’s premise is a “re-do” of the Couric interview, which Palin’s pretty much says she blew off because she was annoyed at the questions she was asked.  To me, this doesn’t make sense.  What objectionable questions were asked?  Why didn’t she say anything during the interview?  She looked unprepared and lost, not indignant.

Most politicians would never admit this-  but it’s become a last ditch effort to save her image.  By claiming annoyance she can avoid being stupid.  (This method relies on the fact that we will believe her and that the time between these two interviews were not spent memorizing new answers.) 

Anyway!  The exchange goes swimmingly, despite a few trailing sentences and lots of poor syntax, until the end:

“As we send our young men and women overseas in a war zone to fight for democracy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, we’ve really got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press, and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege. We just want truth, we want fairness, we want balance.”

Even though this sentence doesn’t all make sense, it is clear that she means that the freedom of the press is a privilege given by the government, instead of a fundamental right outlined in the constitution.  This implies deeper issues, like would she support censorship?  Does she believe in executive privilege to avoid public disclosure?  Would she threaten the freedom of the press if elected?  Is freedom of speech a privilege too?

I think Palin will probably get a talk show or something after the whole politics thing falls through.