Sarah Palin: If She's Not Ready To Debate, Can She Be Ready To Lead?

Last night's first-of-two part interview of Sarah Palin by Katie Couric — not exactly known for her hard-boiled interview technique — proved a couple of things to me. First, the terrible interview she did with Charlie Gibson was not a fluke. Second, there really is only one reason that McCain camp wants to "reschedule" the Vice Presidential debate that they already insisted be re-formatted to accommodate Palin's shortcomings: That reason is that she sucks at speaking extemporaneously — Sarah, if you're reading this, that means "without a teleprompter" — and she was obviously as poorly vetted as the McCainiadenied she was at the time she was nominated.

Look, she's a great politician, but (as anyone who works in Washington knows), being a great politician doesn't mean you have to be book-smart or good at the issues and, as these non-Hannity, non-ass-kissery interviews are showing, she's really sort of not. Even her sister admits that learning about all the important stuff you need to run the country "is like the worst college exam cram period ever." You know what sucks about cramming for exams? You never recall all the information you need for the exam, and you sure as shit don't remember a word of it later. Governor Palin's going to be Vice President for 4 years if she gets elected (or, if anything happens to Old Johnny, President) and we're supposed to rely on her cramming for two weeks for a 90-minute debate as her preparation to tackle the challenges facing our country? When she can't even retain enough information to stand her ground in an interview with Katie Couric?

I mean, I can answer the question of when John McCain was out there pushing for more regulation: The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill. Of course, Republicans all hate the bill and pushing for regulation was, until last week, an anathema to them, but that was McCain's singular biggest accomplishment this decade and she can't pull that one out of her ass in a soft-focus interview with softball pitcher Katie Couric? What is she going to do in meetings with heads of state when they aren't trying to fuck her?

Anyway, so, basically, this whole hullabaloo about McCain postponing the debate to be in Washington has as much to do about getting Sarah Palin out of having to play in the Big Leagues as it does with showing some bullshit leadership by fucking over the political process. Campbell Brown was right — either she can play the game or she can't, and there's not a damn sexist thing about asking her to do it and a ton of sexist shit about not letting her try. You know Hillary Clinton would be ready, at 9 pm or 3 am.

Worst Of Sarah Palin's Katie Couric Interview (So Far) [Gawker]
One-On-One With Sarah Palin [CBS News]
McCain Camp Wants To Postpone VP Debate [Huffington Post]
Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar [NY Times]
Did Palin Get Vetted? [Time]
"I Never Thought I’d Say, 'My Sister, the Vice President'" [Glamour]
Palin Has Meetings for a Second Day With Foreign Leaders [NY Times]

BREAKING NEWS OH MY GOD Sarah Palin took questions from actual reporters! And she still managed not to say anything substantive. Recap: 9/11 was bad, we have to "take the fight to [them]," she is "watching" Alaska Senator Ted Steven's trial and she only supports the bailout package if it includes every single thing McCain has ever asked for, not that she knows what that is. She'll get back to you. [Politico]

Send an email to Megan Carpentier, the author of this post, at askalobbyist@gmail.com.

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