Dan

Calabrese

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January 13, 2009

How Did Palin ‘Perform’ In Latest Interview? Who Cares? The Woman Can Govern

I have no idea if Sarah Palin ever wants to run for president or make another appearance on the national political stage. I suspect she’s not sure herself.

But every time she opens her mouth, she gets judged by just about everyone under the assumption that she a) certainly intends to run for president; b) must be choosing her words for the purpose of positioning herself to run for president; and c) is doing so badly.

So went much of the analysis – from left and right alike – of the Alaska governor’s recent sit-down with friendly interviewer John Ziegler. Only too happy to respond to Ziegler’s prompting, Palin opined that Katie Couric had asked her insulting questions, that Couric and Tina Fey are exploiting their encounters with her for career advancement and that the media are surely going to operate according to a double standard with respect to prospective U.S. Senator Caroline Kennedy.

Disappointed pundits on the right bemoaned that Palin chose to play the victim card, as this is not befitting of a person seeking the gravitas necessary to run for president. Pouncing critics on the left ripped her to shreds for offering any analysis other than that she is a complete moron.

This interview was a classic example of why the political sophisticates will never love Palin – and why I do.

Nothing matters more than this: Everything Palin said was the truth. The Katie Couric interview was designed to put her on the defensive against the presumption that she is an ignorant bumpkin from a Podunk state. The entire media’s treatment of her was little more than a forced, never-ending Trivial Pursuit challenge Palin couldn’t possibly win.

Tina Fey? Funny woman, and for my money there aren’t many of those. But is she exploiting Palin’s persona as manufactured by the media for the advancement of her own career? As the Sarahcuda herself might say, yer darn tootin she is. Nothing wrong with that in my view, but it’s a fact that it’s taking place. As for Ms. Kennedy? As soon as someone asks her what she has ever governed, maybe they will have a point in criticizing Palin.

Is this poor form if you’re trying to become a national political figure? Maybe, but who cares? What people love about Palin is that she is not pretentious and doesn’t concern herself with conforming to the accepted norms of political behavior.

None of this would matter, of course, if Palin did not demonstrate exceptional skill in the art of governing, but she does. What’s special about Palin is not so much her conservative cred, although that’s clearly important, but rather the fact that she is not afraid to take on any entrenched interest – even those within her own party – if that’s necessary to ensure that government works to serve the interests of the people above all else.

Palin is not a candidate for vice president today, nor is she a candidate for president, so it’s moronic to judge her at this moment on the basis of either.

Palin, circa January 2009, is a very promising governor who has already accomplished noteworthy things for her state by embracing solid principles and by having the courage to stand up to people who had obstructed progress for years. She is also a person who got treated like crap by the national news media last year and sees no reason to pretend she didn’t.

The question that matters about Palin is not whether she will run for president in 2012, 2016 or ever, but whether she continues to govern Alaska with the skill and integrity she has shown to date. The Republican Party just blew a 12-year opportunity to effectively lead this nation by tolerating corruption and spending like drunken sailors. If it is to have a future, it needs to reject the politically sophisticated people who made that happen and embrace people who govern the way Republicans are supposed to govern.

Sarah Palin does that, and in the process declines to put on phony airs or follow the rules of uppity Washington. That – not how she “performs in interviews” – is what matters.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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