Brutal Honesty: Parsing the interview

The question is: Is Sarah Palin credible? She means well but just doesn't get it. There is great confusion over state and federal leadership. There is confusion about rewarding rogue Generals and not realizing that she is letting her National Guard down by allowing these Generals to intimidate and abuse their authority. Does she realize that she has a recruitment problem due to the Commanders? I feel badly for her when she is made fun of and ridiculed. She is out of her league. From a concerned Guardsman

The question is: Is Sarah Palin credible? She means well but just doesn't get it. There is great confusion over state and federal leadership. There is confusion about rewarding rogue Generals and not realizing that she is letting her National Guard down by allowing these Generals to intimidate and abuse their authority. Does she realize that she has a recruitment problem due to the Commanders? I feel badly for her when she is made fun of and ridiculed. She is out of her league. From a concerned Guardsman

Once the initial "buzz" of Sarah's nomination wore off in my head, I began to question whether my pride of an Alaskan being bestowed so high an honor should weigh heavier than the realization that Sarah is absolutely not qualified to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world. While I found her snarky acceptance speech at the RNC to have fired me up emotionally, her continual use of elements of that speech during her travels appears to serve as a substitute for anything of relevance. Additionally, the NYT story of Sunday 9/14 covering her tactics "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes" led me to a far more analytical approach towards Sarah Palin. She's smart politically, but leaves me with the impression that she's a very insecure, unsatisfied, self centered lady. I'm not questioning her intelligence, but am very concerned of her internal workings which are fueled by a world view of "the end justifies the means." She strikes me as another teflon like Bill Clinton. Alas, what are we to do at this point in time? Vote for Obamma? Not vote? Swallow the bitter pill and vote for John and Sarah, with the presumption that advisors in Washington will keep her on-track? The whole issue of her politics and in particular my growing awareness of the tactics Sarah has likely had others employ on her behalf - to ensure plausible deniability- just leaves me disenchanted with Sarah. She all too nicely fit into the Washington machine and has been swallowed up.

In a week when the CBO has said the deficit is going to be $407 billion we have people arguing about which candidate is going to give the biggest tax reduction. Wake up........there will be no tax reduction. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Director of the Congressional Budget Office and current chief McCain economic advisor, is an honest man, in a forthcoming book by Fortune columnist Matt Miller, he makes it clear that the next President is going to have to raise taxes. "If you do nothing on the spending side, you're going to have to raise taxes whether you're a Republican, a Democrat or a Martian," he tells Miller...and then he immediately makes it clear that the "spending side" part of the argument is nothing more than a political fig-leaf. "It's arithmetic." Federal revenue today is 18.8 percent of GDP and federal spending is 20 percent. Holtz-Eakin observes that "the pressure are there" to lift spending [on entitlement programs, mostly] and taxes to 23 or 24 percent of GDP by around 2020, and to as much as 27 percent if health costs remain out of control.

I know you receive many thank you's per day but I would like to add one more. Please keep putting facts out there, even if there IS opinions in the article. The American people need to know and deserve to know who this lady is and what she is ALL about. I believe in your factual statements and evaluations of Gov. Palin's character regardless of why you are doing it. Why? Because at the end of the day... truth is... truth. And I cannot be mad at that. On another note: Maybe we should give McCain his precious town hall meetings, maybe then I can ask him and her what are they going to do for smart college grads who have no longer have financial aid, little-to-no parental support, but have applied to hundreds of jobs with no luck?

I think John McCain was really sticking his finger in the Republican Party's eye when he chose Palin. Either that, or he has very little respect for the office of vice president and there will be no responsibilities for her if by some horrible circumstance they get elected. She will virtually disappear into the twilight zone if they are elected... oh wait, she will come back to Alaska. Palin acts like she is auditioning for a TV show rather than something as serious as VP. She certainly has her lines memorized. Maybe she will have to mysteriously withdraw from running in a few days, and then he will appoint his friend Lieberman.

Andrew, a little correction here: The 1 Mar 08 memo you mention was not FROM McManus, it was TO her, from her boss, Campbell. McManus heads the Air Guard, and Campbell is over Air and Army Guard. One can try to read in to this a parallel to the Monegan situation ... Wasn't the story that he was fired for not solving staffing level/recruiting deficiencies in the Troopers, despite his attempts to get the Governor to replenish his budget that she had decreased?

Wow...I thought that her trainers would have given her a crash course in public debate. All I heard was her typical platitudes, combined with a perky,trite demeanor. She has mastered evading direct questions by blathering on for minutes about things that are not germane to the query presented, followed by some cutsie facial expression. Has politics now boiled down to obfuscating ones stance on issues, revisionist history, cultural personalities and focusing on trivial issues? Meanwhile the country is mired in debt,immigration problems, a disappearing middle class, and a baby boomer retirement on the horizon. Is there anyone out there who is leader anymore ???

The one of the funniest (and most frustrating) thing for me is how the McCain campaign has latched on to this notion that Alaska's physical proximity to Russia makes Sarah a foreign policy expert!!! What???? How can people let a statement like that stand? Last night, she explained that from one place in Alaska, you can even see Russia - WOW. But, to keep it all in perspective, probably the best comment I have heard since this all started... "I can see the moon out my window. It doesn't make me an astronaut."

Sen. John McCain has done nothing, nothing, nothing for the State of Arizona. The state runs rampant with illegals, making the wages very low here. Our schools have to take the illegal students in, and very few speak English. There is no funding for these students so, it pulls the schools down in their ratings. Of course, drugs run rampant too. He is a "kept man" that is out of touch with average Americans. He does not have to worry who is going to pay for the electric bill in all of his 7 houses. His wife will pay the bills. He keeps getting elected because of the money that is in Phoenix. Even the veterans here are beginning to hate him, since he voted against the new Jim Webb G.I. Bill. He hardly spends time in the state. If he does not care nor is he interested in his own state, How can he truly care about the rest of the country?? He is a propped-up, plastic manikan. He has been in Congress 25/26 years, Arizona has at keast 300 days of sunshine. Where's the Solar Energy Program, and there is no help from the other plastic Republican Senator, Jon Kyl either. Arizona needs a big-time Change.

Watching Sarah's "staged" interview was a very sickening process. It seemed as though every time she was presented with a question regarding her credentials and experience, she answered by saying she is a "REFORMER". It was almost as if Charlie was pulling a string on her back and a recorded reply of "I am a reformer" would get touted out of her lipstick covered mouth. He never pressed her on exactly what reforms she proposes for the US foreign policy and the US economy, or for that matter any "plan" for any reform. Reform would be great, if only it were a true basis of action with a well coordinated plan, rather than an empty political soundbite. From Sarah's history, I don't see any real reform of government through her actions. She has demonstrated a clear pattern of making her decisions based on improving her image (with little true altruistic thought about improving the lives of her fellow Alaskans). She is all style with no substance.

That was even worse then I could have ever imagined. The damage McCain has done to the Republican Party with this pick is staggering, it isn't just embarrassing, it's dangerous. To pick a potential President that has less knowledge on world affairs then half the regulars at my local pub just to win an election shows how reckless even the most seasoned politician can become just to win an election. Win? Win what? Nobody wins in all this, I'm just sickened by the whole thing.

Hi Andrew. I think you meant parsing in the headline. I was also underwhelmed. military adventurism is alive and well, and the Bush doctrine has a new (if unaknowledged) lease on life. Obama's DNC speech clearly reveals that he is favor of militarism in the Afghanistan too, so don't expect a thoughtful reexamination of events of 9/11 anytime soon. My candidate explicitly back peace, and recognizes that it takes more than military might to attain that.Nader '08 - third times a charm!

Not the glittering generalities again! Why? Why does she have to do that? Oh, yeah... cuz she doesn't know the answers.

I am TERRIFIED after seeing this interview. Are you kidding me? Did anyone take that seriously. She didn't answer anything he asked. She stands for distration, smoke and mirrors and a lot of "fluff" and no substance. She is a joke upon the people of America.

Good Lord! I cringed through the entire interview.....embarrassed for Palin and for America. Republican Party...you should be ashamed! What can you be thinking? Palin could NOT answer one single question head on. She diverted WIDE on every single thing. You could see Charlie Gibson's frustration with her. The answer about the National Guard-- she acted like he had asked something different...BUT the "deer in the headlights " look on her face when he asked her if she agreed with the "Bush Doctrine"....priceless. She had NO CLue what he was talking about. She weaseled out ungracefully and showered him in meaningless words to the point that he finally said, "you've hit me with a blizzard of words." That is how she has managed to be Mayor, Governor and now VP candidate---she smothers you in long run on sentences. When you actually study them you realize she did not answer the question and said absolutely NOTHING. Par for the course. Tomorrow we will see how the McCain team weasels her and her AK adminstration regarding supeonas out of the fine mess she is in now. The lies and cover ups continue. If she "welcomed an investigation" what has changed? The fear of the LIES being revealed BEFORE the election? I think so!

Thanks for the link to the transcript. The video is bad enough, but the transcript makes it brutally obvious how clueless she is. Where to start? Having to repeat 3 times her memorized line about Israel because her knowledge is so thin that she is terrified to go off message? Or perhaps her absolute certainty that Russia's invasion of Georgia was unprovoked? Russia's action was inexcusable, but anyone who has read the news knows that Georgia's behavior was as provocative as a Bush Co. dancer. And following with her own provocative statements about expanding NATO beyond what any sane person has proposed! Or was it her complete ignorance about the Bush Doctrine of "anticipatory self-defense"? How can someone live through the Bush years and be ignorant of one thing for which history will always revile him? Perhaps the best was her determination to invade Pakistan, our ally, another nuclear power. Does she think that they will sit passively while their sovereignty is raped? Her interview took me from a state of disbelief, a feeling that we were in a bad Disney movie, to a feeling of stark terror. She makes McCain, Nixon, even the Current Occupant, look good. Hell, she makes Quayle and Agnew look good!

I'm surprised you didn't pick up on the 'God gotcha'. Turns out ABC was wrong and they tried to cover their tracks a bit - there was a different version sent to the west coast feed. Here's a nice description from John Podhoretz: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/29562 ABC has released excerpts from Charlie Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin, and in one of them, he attempts to catch her out by asking her to explain something she said: 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. In fact, it was not the exact quote; and the way Gibson quoted her is a complete misrepresentation of what she said. It may, indeed, be close to the opposite of what she said. This is the actual quote, and it’s from an article in a Palin-unfriendly source, The Huffington Post: “Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.” She was asking the congregation to “pray…that our leaders…are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God.” She was precisely not declaring that the task was from God. She specifically said the church’s congregants should pray “that that plan is God’s plan.” There would be no need for such a prayer if it were a fact to her and to them. Palin quickly followed up with Gibson by saying, “the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said…let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.” This is the Lincoln quote to which she alluded: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Isn't 'parcing' actually spelled 'parsing'?

Andrew, I read your blog regularly. I must admit, I don't know what point you are trying to convey with this one. We all know Sarah is fond of the sound bite. What I would like to know is, who do you support for president? We all know Sarah has limited experience(all those that read your stuff regularly); however, we also know Barrack Obama has even more limited experience. Additionally, given Alaskan's average wages, Obama is going to tax us into the stone age. At what point do you increase your remit to include Obama and Biden rather than just roasting and re-roasting Sarah Palin? Don't get me wrong. I don't think you have been unfair to Governor Palin. I just don't understand what you want to achieve in the end. I am worried about the USA. I have decided that I must support McCain/ Palin as the alternative will be devastating to the country I love. Where are you on that topic? Also, I voted for you once as Governor, but I fear at some point you will disqualify yourself through blogamania. Please help me understand where you are going and why.

I'm a registered Republican. I won't vote for Obama because I think he'd be harmful to Alaska's economy and our ability to develop our natural resources (and I'm not talking about ANWR). I think McCain's choice was selfish and incredibly political. Just once I'd like our team to field a candidate that actually has something of substance to say about the domestic and international challenges we face.

My hope is that her message matures and she starts to have a grasp of the issues before I cast my vote on November 4.....or for the first time ever I'll leave the box unchecked. One man, one vote...that's all I have and I'm tired of electing American Idols instead of American leaders. AH