Can Sarah Palin survive in the age of YouTube?

At least one conservative columnist agrees.  It's time for the Alaska phenom to head back up north says Kathleen Parker, a writer who appears occasionally on the O'Reilly Factor.  In a column written last week at the National Review, Parker says after watching the Gibson, Hannity and Couric interviews she comes to the conclusion that Palin is "clearly out of her league."

"No one hates saying that more than I do," Parker writes.  "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."

High School

Parker hardly stands alone.  She is just one of a seeming endless supply of critics.  Slate's Christopher Beam offered a number of public speaking tips in case McCain campaign managers Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt happen to log-on.  He offers a lot of advice in his column and Beam clearly thinks Palin needs it.

"[In] her latest face-to-face, with Katie Couric of CBS, she looked like a high-schooler trying to B.S. her way through a book report," Beam writes.

First interview

The Palin interview with ABC News anchor was highly anticipated.  And in comparison to last week, looks pretty good.  If there was a controversy it was when she blanked when ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson asked her position on the Bush Doctrine.

"In what respect?" she said, appearing to ask for a clue to what that doctrine is.  Gibson didn't budge and offered, "What do you interpret it to be?"

"His worldview?" she asked.

Seeing this was going nowhere but still determined not to give it away, Gibson stated, "The Bush Doctrine, enunciated in September 2002, before the Iraq War."

Then a whole lot of nothing before Gibson offered his understanding of what the Bush doctrine was.

Many in the media forgave this exchange as Gibson didn't seem to know exactly what it was either.  The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, for example, gave her some props for her presence alone.

“Even Palin’s critics should admit that, in terms of demeanor, she handled herself well for someone who three years ago was worried about the books in the Wasilla library. She projected confidence and was not openly rattled," Kurtz wrote.

Second interview

The second interview, to many, doesn't count.  Fox News commentator Sean Hannity might as well have been wearing a red, white and blue oversized cowboy hat with a "Drill, Baby Drill!" t-shirt.  She was in pretty friendly confines.

Interview number three

This interview has undoubtedly created the biggest stir and led Parker to issue her plea for Palin to bow out. The two excerpts most often discussed are the clips in which Palin is asked to provide examples of John McCain being pro-regulation in context of the U.S. credit crisis and why her proximity to Russia emboldens her foreign policy credentials.

Previous

1 | 2 | 3

Next