Yeah, I Watched Part 2

If you missed it on TV, the second part of Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson, which aired last night, is available on ABC's site. (And probably elsewhere, by now.)

My reaction: not a whole lot of there there, both as applied to the candidate and the interview. Gibson did an okay job, I thought. Many of my cohorts, by which I mean people who are informed enough to realize that four more years of Republican incompetence may well bury this country, will no doubt have wished that he'd pressed her more or addressed other issues. In the end, though, there is only so much one can expect of a single interview if the news organization is concerned about appearing balanced and not playing gotcha, and the interviewee is disciplined enough to stick to rehearsed talking points prepared for easily anticipated questions.

I thought Gibson did enough to show Palin for who she is. She neither fell on her face (as she did in the first part) nor shone. I expect that most people will only come away from watching the second part with their earlier impressions reinforced -- they'll either believe more strongly that she's not ready for prime time about as unprepared to be Vice President as one could possibly imagine, or they'll be happy that the nice person next door can hold her own when being "attacked" by the "media elite."

Palin sounded to me like John McCain -- a lot of slogans that weren't even complete sentences, and a lot of not answering the questions and not even doing that artfully. She displayed a good dose of petulance when she was pressed on the things she's been lying about, like the Bridge to Nowhere. She sounded downright defensive about Troopergate and the book censoring issue.

I thought she sounded like she had no idea of the proportions involved when she was going on and on about cutting earmarks and other "cost-savings" plans. I would like to believe that John McCain is aware, deep down, that this big idea of campaigning against earmarks is bogus. Despite the howlers that get all the media play, like the Bridge to Nowhere, much of the funding goes to programs that are useful, and in any case, the total outlay is a few drops in the bucket compared to what else the government spends money on (e.g.). However, given the McCain I've seen lately, I have my doubts about this, too.

Palin was pretty good on abortion and stem cells. Obviously, I think her views on these issues are wrongheaded, but I thought at least she sounded most like her real self there. Not completely honest, but politician-honest.

I continue to be put off by her saying "nuke-yular." It's a minor thing, but it's a powerful symbolic reminder of the Current Occupant. Given how hard the McCain campaign is trying to run away from Bush (while not actually differing in any substantive policy sense), I wonder if her coaches tried to fix this (as they did the first time she was on the national stage). I cannot shake the feeling, though, that her mangling of the word is part of her image package, that she and her handlers have put all their money on appealing to that group of Americans who proudly embrace their ignorance.

The next "interview" planned for Palin will be conducted by Sean Hannity, a man principally employed to convey the impression that Bill O'Reilly is a journalist and a human being capable of staying on an even keel. Donklephant says he'll do it alone; i.e., the sidekick Al Franken correctly calls Holmes will not attend. I expect the hardest-hitting question will be along the lines of "How do you stay so awesome in fending off the Russian invasion of Alaska and single-handedly eliminating every penny of wasteful government spending in the face of the radical-liberal-secret-Muslim-terrorist-loving-lipstick-hating attacks on your beautiful children?"

So, between this and the previous post, I think I'm done talking about Sarah Palin. I'll pass along good snark if I find it, but other than that, I think my time will be better served searching for discount prices on bulk lots of booze.

Although, come to think of it, there are probably better uses for my dollars.