Update II (9/27): Unlike Kathleen Parker, whose article I quoted below, I don’t believe Sarah Palin should drop out of the race, as I’ve been falsely accused.
Thread closed. Discuss the presidential debate (and Sarah Palin, if you must) in this thread.
When this election is over, I think I’ll return to digital music tech blogging. Smaller readership, less interest, and fewer commenters (understatement), but less tense and much more fun. Politics makes people…
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Update @ 12:34 p.m.: I am not alone! Another conservative woman speaks out against Sarah Palin publicly, risking the ire of the masses. Kathleen Parker, author of Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care, writes:
“Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
“No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted…Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there.
…
“If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.” (Source)
By the way, it appears that some commenters don’t understand the point of this post. Typically happens when readers consider parts but not the whole. I don’t expect VP candidates to have vast foreign policy experience. This post is about Palin’s responses in TV interviews. She put herself out there when she cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia to bolster her foreign policy credentials. She said that. Nobody put words in her month.
Later…Another conservative woman, Peggy Noonan, speaks:
“As for Sarah Palin, the McCain campaign continues to make mistakes. They don’t seem to understand her strengths and weaknesses. The U.N. photo-ops were a staged embarrassment. Keeping the press away made her look infantilized. When she finally began to sit for television interviews, the atmosphere was heightened, every misstep magnified. With Katie Couric she seemed rattled. In the Charlie Gibson interview it was not good when she sounded chirpy discussing possible war with Russia. One should not chirp about such things. Or one wouldn’t if one knew the implications. And knowing the implications is part of what we hire leaders for.”
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At GodBlogCon, my co-presenter Scott Ott said that since John McCain selected Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential running mate, the role of Vice President has grown. Once perceived as a not-much-to-do job, it’s swelled in importance as detractors cite Palin’s lack of significant executive experience.
I’m one of those detractors, I do admit. I have serious problems with a mother of small children sacrificing them to spend so much time elsewhere. One woman at the convention who disagreed with me said obtaining the vice presidency may be Palin’s “mission field,” or something like that. Perhaps.
You may recall that Palin cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia to bolster her foreign policy credentials. I thought that was odd. Even more odd was her defense of the statement. I’m no fan of Katie Couric, but she was remarkably restrained and polite as Palin tried to explain her comment. Watch and listen to her painful (for me) response (after a 30-second commercial):
Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.
Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…
Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state.
I have muddled responses and parts of presentations before, but I’m not running for high office. I’m just a blogger!
The point is Palin has no foreign policy experience, which doesn’t necessarily disqualify her for the vice presidency. When ABC’s Charlie Gibson asked about her foreign policy experience, she could have said “I have none, but…” or “What I do have, Charlie, is plenty of…”
But she didn’t. She resorted to embarrassing, nonsensical fillers.
Question for Palin fans: What’s your opinion of Palin’s foreign policy experience response?
Question for all: Do you think Palin’s being scrutinize to this degree because she’s a woman? Double standard in effect?
