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I've never been an Ann Althouse fan. I usually find her to be intolerably prissy and annoying. But boy did she unload on Sarah Palin after seeing a brief excerpt of her new book on the Drudge Report. And rightfully so. The excerpt is drowning in faux self-pity and ends up making Palin look worse rather than better.
The excerpt deals with the decision to give the first interview to Katie Couric and she basically throws one of the McCain campaign's advisers under the bus for that decision. But as Althouse points out, the fact that Palin silently went along with what is by her own admission little more than self-serving emotional blackmail by the adviser shows that she's not even remotely prepared to run the country.
Rather than posting the whole back and forth, here's the full excerpt from the Palin book:
By the third week in September, a "Free Sarah" campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp's decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor's staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate.From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign's general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well on the trail thus far. My suggestion was that we be consistent with that strategy and start talking to outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal. I really didn't have a say in which press I was going to talk to, but for some reason Nicolle seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon.
"Katie really likes you," she said to me one day. "she's a working mom and admires you as a working mom. She has teenage daughter like you. She just relates to you," Nicolle said. "believe me, I know her very well. I've worked with her." Nicolle had left her gig at CBS just a few months earlier to hook up with the McCain campaign. I had to trust her experience, as she had dealt with national politics more than I had. But something always struck me as peculiar about the way she recalled her days in the White House, when she was speaking on behalf of President George W. Bush. She didn't have much to say that was positive about her former boss or the job in general. Whenever I wanted to give a shout-out to the White House's homeland security efforts after 9/11, we were told we couldn't do it. I didn't know if that was Nicolle's call.
Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. "She just has such low self-esteem," Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. "She just feels she can't trust anybody."
I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain's campaign how?
Nicolle said. "She wants you to like her."
Hearing all that, I almost started to feel sorry for her. Katie had tried to make a bold move from lively morning gal to serious anchor, but the new assignment wasn't going very well.
"You know what? We'll schedule a segment with her," Nicolle said. "If it doesn't go well, if there's no chemistry, we won't do any others."
Meanwhile, the media blackout continued. It got so bad that a couple of times I had a friend in Anchorage track down phone numbers for me, and then I snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and someone I thought was Larry Kudlow but turned out to be Neil Cavuto's producer. I had a friend call Bill O'Reilly after I was inundated with supporters in Alaska asking why the campaign was "ignoring" his on-air requests for a McCain campaign interview. I had another friend scrambling to find Mark Levin's number. Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters' strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press. At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, Tracey or Tucker would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, "No! Absolutely not- block her if she tries to go back."
And a sample of Althouse's response:
Why didn't you have a say? There's that "really" hedging: You didn't really have a say. You're pleading passivity and impotence but you want us to think you have what it takes to be President of the United States?...If Sarah Palin did not see the limited value of Nicolle Wallace's comment about Katie Couric, then she is too pollyannaish and unsophisticated to be trusted with presidential power. Couric is a pussycat compared to the world leaders who will smile and exude pleasantries and then stab you in the back...
Katie has low self-esteem?! Bullshit! Anyone with the stuff to be President would have said bullshit. Or something like: Look, I'm running for Vice President. I can't be distracted by some TV diva's need for an emotional boost. Not unless I know it will translate into making me look great. But how would that work? Her boost is only likely to come if she makes me look terrible. Even if she has low self-esteem, #1, I don't care, it's hardly a pressing issue I need to be thinking about, and #2, that makes her more dangerous to me. She can't trust anybody? Well, I don't trust her. And Nicolle, how can you even present me with such an argument that is so specious on its face?...
It seems that Sarah Palin wasn't able or didn't want to bother to analyze whether she was ready to debut on the big media stage, and she wasn't large-minded enough to think beyond herself to what it would mean for the whole campaign. That is, she was dumb. She was too dumb to handle campaign responsibilities properly, so she was clearly too dumb to step into the role of President of the United States.
Could she build up her political intelligence? Might she have it now or by 2012? If these 2 pages of "Going Rogue" are any evidence, she is displaying her weaknesses all over again, and she is still too dumb to be President. And, most scarily, she doesn't know how dumb she still is.
Althouse is right.
I also had to laugh at the clip of Palin's interview with Oprah where she says that she knew that the interview with Couric had not gone well. That's funny, because in the aftermath she blamed it all on the nasty media inventing the fact that the interview was a disaster.
Politics
Comments
"Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. "She just has such low self-esteem," Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. "She just feels she can't trust anybody.""
WTF? The Impalinator's ghostwriter must be drinking Lavoris by the gallon to get over throwing up in her mouth a LOT.
Posted by: democommie | November 16, 2009 9:49 AM
A bit more about the McCain-Palin train wreck from one of the useful Wall Street Journal blogs.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/11/04/book-report-sarah-from-alaska/
Posted by: kehrsam | November 16, 2009 9:52 AM
Palin sort of reminds me of a female classmate I had to work with in college, who had some weird fantasy of universal sisterhood and expected me to support her no matter what, even when she showed up late to every meeting and missed so many classes that she had no idea what was going on. She got mad at me for calling her on her behavior in front of our male classmates (who knew about her laziness anyway), instead of doing twice the work to make her look good. I don't where some people get this idea that they can be incompetent but should be allowed to get away with it because they have something in common with other people they interact with.
Posted by: catgirl | November 16, 2009 10:05 AM
I think Palin was too busy reading all of them magazines to understand TV media.
Posted by: Reed A. Cartwright | November 16, 2009 10:19 AM
Perhaps Palin should join the crowd over at Shakespeare Sister. They're all into that "you're evil if you criticize me" crap, too.
Posted by: James Hanley | November 16, 2009 10:25 AM
catgirl "I don't where some people get this idea that they can be incompetent but should be allowed to get away with it because they have something in common with other people they interact with."
Have you seen the Republican Party?
Posted by: Modusoperandi | November 16, 2009 10:30 AM
Wow, what an ugly little excerpt. That she would be OK with any of that even being printed is another reason she shouldn't be President.
Posted by: Andrea | November 16, 2009 10:42 AM
Yet again, Palin seems so focused on pointing fingers at people that she doesn't get how petty or misguided her argument is.
I could just envision Palin as president: "You are going to blame me for bankrupting our country? I didn't even realize that wars cost money? Can't you make the losing team pay for it? That's why I'm firing the Secretary of Defense - he should have told me."
Posted by: Odie | November 16, 2009 10:54 AM
Andrea @7,
Palin is explaining her failure(s) and blaming it on someone, anyone else. Politics and human nature at its worst. The fact that it continues to make her look foolish and incompetent will undoubtedly be explained in her next book.
She wasn't (isn't) bright enough to hold national office. This book shows nothing to alter that. She didn't write it and mostly didn't live it. Her continued popularity is astounding, frightening and very disheartening.
Posted by: MikeMa | November 16, 2009 11:08 AM
This line slays me:
"I had to trust her [Wallace's] experience, as she had dealt with national politics more than I had."
Posted by: andrew | November 16, 2009 11:30 AM
Does the book mention the prank call from that Montreal shockjock posing as Sarkozy? I'd love to hear her take on that.
Posted by: Solly Hofman | November 16, 2009 11:36 AM
Note that what she says doesn't matter. As long as she's one of "them", all sins are forgiven (except, perhaps, lesbian adultery). This is because her sins are real the fault of the biasedLiberalmainstreammedia (all one word). Darn them, looking down from their ivory towers, heaping scorn on Real Americans.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | November 16, 2009 11:42 AM
This all overlooks the fact that Couric did nothing to really harm Palin during the interview. Palin's low intelligence and lack of preparation for the jib did that.
Posted by: Ric | November 16, 2009 12:01 PM
"This all overlooks the fact that Couric did nothing to really harm Palin during the interview. Palin's low intelligence and lack of preparation for the jib did that."
That's exactly what Palin is saying. It's all Couric's fault. Darn her for asking questions!
Posted by: Modusoperandi | November 16, 2009 12:10 PM
If Tina Fey using many of Palin's own quotes for SNL sketches isn't damnation enough as to the now ex-governor's idiocy then I don't know what else could be.
Yet the rapid, critical response from Team McCain regarding this book has been remarkable. I've never seen any text from a political celebrity like Palin evoke more instant blowback from the author's own party than those on the opposite side of the ideological aisle.
Posted by: CHV | November 16, 2009 12:17 PM
Modus @ 14:
I agree.
If Palin thought Katie Couric's interview questions were rough (when Couric was truly being lightweight with her) then it does demonstrate how dense she actually is.
But never mind, Palin's brain-dead supporters will wag a teabagging finger at Couric anyhow for asking such below-the-belt questions as "Name one Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade."
Posted by: CHV | November 16, 2009 12:22 PM
The comments on that blog post are nausea-inducing:
"I'll take the stupid person with good judgement every time, over the intelligent person intent on dismantling the country and remaking it according to hard-left ideology. We're hiring a president here, not a Jeopardy contestant."
Yeah. Great thinking there, Billy Bob. I could not possibly have summarized the current state of the Republican Party more effectively than this.
Posted by: Russell Stewart | November 16, 2009 12:30 PM
FYI:
Everyone go check out the responses to Althouse's blog post on Palin above. The latter's apologists are out in force to defend their gal-pal.
I especially love the comment left behind by one Palin backer claiming that "intellectuals are dopes." If this statement doesn't perfectly sum up Palin's appeal among her fans, then nothing does.
Posted by: CHV | November 16, 2009 12:32 PM
If Ronald Reagan could be considered "qualified"--by anyone--to be president, and then coould be RE-elected, then the argument that Palin is not qualified is basically bogus...
Yes, Raygun was the worst president in history after 'the Chimp.'
It just means that competence is over-rated...
Posted by: woody | November 16, 2009 1:00 PM
This is the sort of thing that leads me to think that she doesn't have the self-awareness necessary to reach the correct conclusion and *not* run for the Republican nomination in 2012.
Add to that the number of people around her who will be hoping to ride her coattails into power, I find it hard to see how she could resist the temptation.
Posted by: tacitus | November 16, 2009 1:08 PM
I can't believe this actually made it into the book. What, exactly, is peculiar about having little positive to say about one of the worst presidents we've ever had?
Posted by: Tacroy | November 16, 2009 1:29 PM
I see dumb people. They're everywhere. They don't even know they're dumb. . . .
Posted by: Chilidog | November 16, 2009 2:02 PM
(from the comments)
My Numbbutt 2000 super-deluxe irony meter survived that one, but dang! He's got an entire political party pandering to his pasty hetero religious ass, but all he can do is whine that other people play the victim? There's the Palin constituency in a nut(shell).
Posted by: Scott Hanley | November 16, 2009 4:25 PM
Wow, the Palin supporters on that blog are truly scary. It's all McCain's fault, Palin would be a great president, Obama is destroying the country, the recession is his fault, etc. It's like watching a commercial for the Glenn Beck show, quick little sound bites of insanity and stupidity.
Posted by: dogmeatib | November 16, 2009 4:35 PM
Tacitus @ 20:
Even scarier (and more hilarious) than the notion of Palin running in '12 are vibes that Fox News is encouraging Mary Cheney to run as well.
Now that would be a dream ticket...the neo-con spawn of Darth Vader matched with a woman who can't tie her own intellectual shoelaces.
But anyhow...my guess is that as Palin is someone who regards politics as "all dessert, no vegetables" (translation: give me the fun stuff, and leave the icky, boring work to others) that she will not run. It would be too restrictive for a person who likes to constantly remind the world of how mavericky she is.
Instead, having a radio or TV talk show would give Palin far more liberty to babble about issues without advisors or GOP party bosses telling her what not to do...like walk straight off a cliff.
But on the off-chance that Palin does run, she'll be torn apart by her own competitors on the right.
Posted by: CHV | November 16, 2009 5:12 PM
CHV,
Also, by not running, she can claim to be the victim of the liberal media and, at the same time, doing greater good for the nation. Irony is, she might not be lying on that last bit...
As I read the comments, I really have to question the sanity. There is one idiot talking about having a Republican president by 2012, "if not sooner." There isn't any "sooner." This shows a complete lack of understanding of reality, our political system, or, more likely, both. Unless they believe that the Republicans are going to state a coup, there isn't any way for them to take the presidency sooner than 2012 (if their candidate is Palin, 2212?)
Posted by: dogmeatib | November 16, 2009 5:26 PM
dogmeatib,
I suppose the idiot could be hoping for a double assassination while there's a Republican speaker of the House?
Posted by: Scott Hanley | November 16, 2009 5:36 PM
Dog @ 26:
There's a risk to the strategy you describe, though: no one likes a whiner, even the right when it's doled out by one of their rock stars. Thus, were Palin (should she not run in '12) to constantly portray herself as a victim of the MSM it would get old pretty fast.
Either way, the greatest irony I find about Sarah Palin is that her greatest obstacle to a '12 run was placed there by Palin herself when she prematurely quit as governor before the end of her first term.
In this respect, Palin locked herself into a perfect Catch-22; that is, should she decide to run in '12 and is asked "Do you regret leaving office early?" if Palin says "Yes" she looks impulsive, short-sighted, and unfit for the presidency (which is accurate, I feel), but on the other hand, if Palin says "No" she looks utterly incapable of self-introspection, albeit Bush's lack of it made him a darling of evangelical voters as only losers think before they act.
Either way, as if her interviews with Couric and Gibson weren't evidence enough, Sarah Palin is truly her own worst political enemy.
Posted by: CHV | November 16, 2009 5:53 PM
Scott Hanley @ 23:
Beyond that, I'm pretty sure there was no love lost between McCain and Bush. They might have put on like they were pals in front of the cameras for the election season, but let's be honest...
Posted by: havoc | November 16, 2009 6:25 PM
Oops... should have been Tacroy @ 21. My bad.
Posted by: havoc | November 16, 2009 6:27 PM
"I especially love the comment left behind by one Palin backer claiming that "intellectuals are dopes." "
Sure, it fits right in with "War is Peace" and "Freedom is Slavery"!
Posted by: Screechy Monkey | November 16, 2009 7:41 PM
Commenter Lem says:
Posted by: Dr X | November 16, 2009 8:30 PM
I believed this to be the case when she resigned as governor of Alaska, and I believe it even more: the book is nothing more than a campaign to get a show on Fox News. And I wouldn't be surprised one iota if at least one or two of McCain's former campaign employees return Palin's serve with a tell-all of their own within the next couple of years, with McCain's silent approval.
Posted by: Reverend H.L. Spork | November 16, 2009 9:25 PM
Full disclosure: I have not read Going Rogue, nor do I plan to.
Many politicians write books about their careers, after some important phase of their careers is over. Usually, these are seasoned veterans with decades of experience who want to leave us common folk some pearls of wisdom. Sometimes, these books are worth reading.
Many celebrities also write books about their careers, generally while their careers are still going strong (i.e., people still know who the hell they are). With the typical flash-in-the-pan stardom among celebs nowadays, they rarely have decades of experience to gloss on, and even fewer pearls of wisdom. If you're not a fan, these books are a waste of time to read.
Palin falls into the second category. She's not a seasoned politician. She's a celebrity, cashing in on her momentary fame to write a "tell-all" book about her glorious career, all 31 months of it. Palin is nothing more than a 40-ish high school class president, and a shallow one at that.
Posted by: wheatdogg | November 17, 2009 3:44 AM
CHV@25:
Even scarier (and more hilarious) than the notion of Palin running in '12 are vibes that Fox News is encouraging Mary Cheney to run as well.
You really mean Mary Cheney (the lesbian who once worked in PR at Coors to convince Teh Ghey that they could patronize Coors even though Adolph Coors was an evil bastard), as opposed to Liz Cheney (who is treated as an knowledgeable pundit for parroting daddy's talking points on Fox even though she's even more intellectually lightweight than Meghan McCain)?
Posted by: Uncle Glenny | November 17, 2009 11:23 PM