Dr. Melissa on Gov. Palin and the Press
The utterly and often wonderfully inimitable Dr. Melissa Clouthier, a fellow Palinite, has a great post up comparing and contrasting Gov. Palin's interviews with Oprah and Rush.
My overarching impression wasn’t related to Sarah Palin at all, but rather to the state of the press in general. For example, here’s Sarah Palin going into hostile Obama-loving territory on Oprah. She was on edge, and fought defensiveness, much like her interview with Katie Couric. But she did it. Unlike Barack Obama, who has studiously avoided any interview from anyone who isn’t a “friendly”, Palin demonstrates some gumption.
[. . .]
Sarah Palin needs to deal with this den of vicious beasts better. And they are vicious. Camille Paglia, who The Anchoress quotes, says succinctly:She also needs a shrewder, cooler take on the mainstream media, with its preening bullies, cackling witches, twisted cynics and pompous windbags. The Northeastern media establishment is in decline, and everyone knows it.
Rush’s interview, in contrast, made Sarah Palin sound like a wise elder statesman. He didn’t throw softballs. To the contrary, he asked her substantive policy questions. [Transcript here and here’s the audio.] Guess what? She didn’t stumble. She flowed. It was great to listen to, really, and heartening. Rush asked her questions on everything from national security, foreign policy, oil exploration, health care and illegal immigration. Not one stutter. Not one hiccup. She was flawless.
It wasn’t just her form. Her substance was pure, unapologetic small-government conservative. It was like taking a breath of fresh political air, if such a thing exists. D.C. smells gives off the fetid fumes of months dead fish in the still undrained swamp. Sarah Palin is not D.C. She brings the brisk, clean Alaskan air and sends a chill down the spines of Democrats and Republican establishment types. They are right to fear her. She is formidable.
[. . .]
Sarah Palin must though, find a way to be at ease answering any question that the superficial, bigoted, condescending North Eastern blue bloods throw at her. Underneath, these people are insecure. It rattles them to their bones that a state college educated, wife, mother, politician and governor could best them. Their insecurity will get more piqued as President Obama continues to waffle, avoid and hide–from unfriendly press, from dictators, from tough decisions, from failure.
Sarah Palin will have to get used to wearing the mantle of leader. That means that she’ll have to own the fact that she’s so formidable that Barack Obama has finally, at long last, decided to man up and face Fox.
[. . .]
She needs to march down the road with cheerful grace. These self-important press and establishment types cannot handle good humor. They have no sense of humor about themselves. A well-placed gentle jibe will do more than 100 well-circumscribed answers and cluck-clucking back-tracking. The circumlocution is Obama’s forté. Sarah Palin needs to own everything, be direct and have a ball.
It’s a characteristically superb post. Read the whole thing.
HT: The Anchoress
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5 comments:
She gains confidence with each interview, she was better in the Walters an Limbaugh, and some of the others, the Hannity one, not as smooth because it rehashed old ground. Flashed by ;Larry King is alive,' and they had Naomi Wolf, (the woman is insane) and some other lib reporter, and Amanda & Andrea, for the first time in a long while, Amanda understood her better than Andrea, what she was trying to do
I concur with Melissa. It reminds me of how she flowed, because of her level of comfort, on an Alaska radio show with a focus on gun rights. She is really improving though with the hostile interviewers, and the more she studies them and does those the better off she'll be in the long run. Learn their strategy and use their weaknesses.
What does the Bible call it? Matthew 10:16: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
I completely agree with this article. Rush has been the only one to do Palin a true service by respecting her enough to not ask the silly questions. I hope O'Reilly and Greta step up to the plate. Sarah is staying on message, and is definitely more comfortable, but there's still a lot of work to do. The beauty is we have time and nothing is more endearing to the public than joining her in this journey.
I agree with you. I was not impressed with Hannity's radio or TV interview. He had a golden opportunity he missed, when he didn't press the resignation issue to ask her, "When you are president, and they go after you like they did (which you know they will), will you resign then?" Many Republicans, like me, want that simple assurance from Sarah.
I agree with Melissa's take. I think she has already gotten much, much better at dealing with the media (tho I don't know if it's a good idea to KEEP calling them "lamestream media," even tho it's true -- LOL), but she does need to keep Camille's advice in mind and remember that these people have pretty much already eroded all of their own credibility and relevance and try not to let them get to her. Everyone is going to get annoyed and let it show once in awhile; remember Reagan when he snapped, "I'm paying for this microphone!" But mostly he just dismissed them with good humor and let the criticism roll off his back. Gov. Palin is so solid on her message that I think she needs to keep pounding away at it and ignore attempts by anklebiting members of the press to knock her off balance. I believe she is already growing more unapologetic, and that's good. She is getting progressively better with each interview, and I feel she did a good job with Barbara Walters (who might be considered hostile territory), and BOR who, while "friendly" is just crochety and confrontational by nature. She is definitely holding her own and demonstrating what a keen mind for policy she has. I think she learned a hard lesson from the Katie Couric brouhaha. She regrets how she handled it and I respect that about her. As long as she continues to speak honestly and passionately about the ideals she believes in, she will be golden: No one will be able to resist her.
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