Palin to America: Bring Back the Banana Clip

Tonight was a tough one for Sarah Palin.


In tonight's ABC Nightly News interview, she floundered. Had she been prepared (or had any experience with a national news outlet, sans cheering crowds before tonight), Charlie Gibson's questions may not have seemed quite so difficult.

Sarah tripped up so many times, you could almost hear the gears in her head grinding - as she tried desperately to figure out how she could get back to her key messages and "spunky" talking points. The whole exchange was borderline nonsensical as she spewed right-wing propaganda answers that didn't match the questions being asked of her.


After the interview, the Associated Press referred to Gibson as, "... an old professor unhappily recognizing that his student does not deserve a passing grade..."


As someone who's developed corporate messages and performed media training for executives - not to mention an Obama supporter - I found this process fascinating.


My favorite part of the interview was not when Charlie asked Sarah about the Bush Doctrine and she - literally - looked like a deer caught in headlights. (She couldn't respond so she started talking in broad terms about Bush's policies.)


And it wasn't when she formed a tiny fist and began punching the air for emphasis to underscore her "important" rhetoric and try to derail Charlie's line of questioning (to no avail).


It wasn't even when she repeated Charlie's name 47,000 times - an old interview technique, which affords the speaker an oft-needed "beat" to think about her next statement; and, if done effectively, allows the subject to establish a "connection" with the interviewer and his/her audience. (In this case, the technique only succeeded in an annoying, nasally repetitive delivery of "Charlie's" name and served to break the cadence of the discussion, more than anything).

No, my favorite moment was subtler, yet more direct. The excerpt is below:


GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?


PALIN: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote.


GIBSON: Exact words.

Then she tried to spin her "exact words" and her thoughts on "God's Will."

It was so very painful to watch.
Where's the Camera?


I'm really beginning to think this whole "Sarah Palin for VP" thing is a joke. If Punk'd were still on the air, I was half-expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out from behind that chair (the one that Sarah looks so uncomfortable sitting in), and let her and everyone else know the jig is up. We all had a good laugh, now let's get on with the real election.


I'm really trying to be open-minded about this process, so I often go here to check out all the rumors that are flying around the Internet. One thing's for sure, we're getting down to the wire and things are only getting uglier.


I normally wouldn't quote a celebrity regarding a political candidate, but this one's great. (I see a "Team America II" coming on... Someone call the Film Actors Guild.) -----
"I think there's a really good chance Sarah Palin could become president, and I think that's a really scary thing... I think the pick was made for political purposes... Do the actuary tables and there's a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn't survive his first term and it'll be President Palin... It's like a really bad Disney movie. The hockey mom, you know, 'oh, I'm just a hockey mom'... and she's facing down President Putin... It's totally absurd... it's a really terrifying possibility... I need to know if she really thinks that dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. I want to know that, I really do. Because she's gonna have the nuclear codes." - Matt Damon, with perhaps the funniest quote on Palin I've heard yet (besides Peggy Noonan's, of course).


I've gotta' hand it to the Republicans: they accomplished something I didn't think could ever be done. They found someone who makes President Bush look smart.