Palin Agonistes

One dark day, Sarah Palin will realize that the political handler who suggested her repeated excursions behind frenemy lines - her disastrous interviews with Katie Couric - served her neither wisely nor well. Until then, the latest bubbly froth from the font of embarrassment, as relayed by Melissa at Shakesville:

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media—

Couric: But like what ones specifically? I’m curious, that you—

Palin: Um, all of ‘em, any of ‘em that, um, have been in front of me over all these years.

Couric: Can you name any of them?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, it seems like, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C. may be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

As Liss put it: Oh, Good Lord. Even more horrifying in video!

Credulity check: Put yourself in her position for a moment. Granted, the camera is both obtrusive and intrusive, the lights are bright and hot, the questioner is most likely struggling to conceal a smirk…but not one newspaper or magazine? Seriously? Wow.

Even if you grant that Palin actually chose not to name a news source, that she feared being pinned down philosophically or forced to verify her answer - “Oh, the Economist, Governor? What do you think of its editorial stance on the bailout crisis?” - that level of defensiveness and affright, that desperation to conceal a yawning abyss, should terrify the rest of us.

End credulity check.

Word is that Palin was, once upon a time, a journalism major. Can this be true? Again, and apologies for repeating myself, wow.

While Palin cannot be said to have benefited from the CBS interviews, Couric has clearly prospered. The embattled anchor has seen a ratings boost for her program as a result of the Palin chat-ups: not enough to outpace the NBC or ABC shows, but still resulting in traffic that was “substantially higher than normal.” Well, at least someone is getting something out of Palin’s struggles.

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