In Search of Sarah Palin


Watching Joe Biden buzz from network to network post debate, you had to wonder one more time: As she prepares for her own big night, is Sarah Palin's worst enemy now the McCain campaign?

Post-debate spin would have been a natural for her; a chance to be sharp and funny and charming and not worry that some interviewer would ambush her, since any pointed questions aimed at her could be brushed back with a breezy, "Hey, I have to wait my turn; tune in next Thursday. Tonight was John's night."

But once again she was nowhere to be found, and that seemed especially odd given the rough week she'd had. She sat down with Henry Kissinger and various world leaders in New York, in meetings that were initially open to cameras but closed to reporters until the networks threatened to boycott the whole thing. The encounters thus came off as substance free, though the new President of Pakistan did declare her "even more gorgeous" than he'd expected and suggested he'd like to hug her. She summed up her global speed date Wednesday: "It's going great," she said. "The meetings are very informative and helpful. A lot of good people share an appreciation for America."

Her big interview of the week, with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, was sufficiently cringe-making to inspire conservative columnist Kathleen Parker to conclude sadly that for the good of the ticket and the country, Palin should declare she wants to spend more time with her family and step down. And watching her with Couric, you had to wonder what happened to the spirited, sparkling character who swept onstage in St. Paul and turned the race upside down.

In the month or so since then she has been in lockdown, either lashed to McCain's side to boost the size of his crowds, or hunkered down in debate prep and remedial candidate school. No press conferences, few interviews, no questions allowed from the reporters traveling with her, no appearances on The View to stare down Joy Behar. Rather than playing to her strengths as a fresh face in an unendurably long campaign, they hid her away in a kind of conspicuous vote of no-confidence - which, one can only imagine, took a toll on her. I was struck watching her in St. Paul, where she appeared after five days of relentless media pressure and blew the doubts away, that she had the jauntiness of one who knew her own gifts: knew she could connect to a crowd and raise the roof and stomp her opponent with her sensible high heels. And of course, benefit from her critics' instinct to underestimate her.

Now that confidence seems gone, replaced by cockiness - which is just insecurity on steroids. With Charlie Gibson the waters were smooth if shallow; with Katie Couric she seemed forever at risk of drowning in her own syntax. But if she's growing less surefooted with each passing day of cramming, who can blame her, when the highly experienced Republican pols around her don't seem to trust her to talk past her talking points. Talk about undermining your brand; if she was picked as the Outsider Original Maverick with the experience and courage to help clean up Washington, you can't argue that she's not giving interviews because the press is so mean to her. She's ready for a cage fight with Nancy Pelosi but won't sit down with Campbell Brown?

In fact it got so bad that CNN's Brown called on the McCain team to free Sarah Palin, denouncing their use of her as sexist and infantilizing. "Stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower who will wilt at any moment," Brown argued. "This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong, she is tough, she is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. ... Sarah Palin has as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do."

The XX Factor bloggers over at Slate have been carrying on a lively argument about how Palin has been deployed and what that tells us. "I'm guessing part of the reason the Palin effect is fading so fast is that they've tried so hard to turn her into a pet - adorable, as you say, but mute," Hanna Rosin argued. "So now she's fetching but useless. And who else could we blame but her male handlers? It can't possibly be her choice. One suspects she would love to take the liberal media on, given the chance." But Dahlia Lithwick counters that this argument diminishes Palin just as much. "Why do we keep talking about women as though they lack any agency? Are we really going to condemn the McCain campaign for treating her as an object, with demands that they "free" her? I understand why smart women in the media are enraged with Palin's refusal to engage them. It's appalling. But I don't think it's good for women to direct that rage at her male keepers, handlers, or advisers, either."

All I know is that with each passing day, Palin's road gets harder, the expectations higher, the margin for error smaller. For voters who were encouraged to see a woman on the ticket for the first time in nearly a quarter century, it's discouraging that Election Day fast approaches and we still know so little about Palin's reflexes and principles and priorities. Hurling a newcomer onto the national stage with two months to go and then hiding her behind photo ops and teleprompters is a disservice to her, and to women, and to voters who want to know what they're buying.

Related articles on Time.com: McCain and Palin: Polishing Their Buddy Act Sarah Palin's Breakout Night Maxed-Out Moms: The Battleground Voting Bloc McCain's Bias Claim: Truth or Tactic? The Palin Pick: Bold or Disastrous?

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. 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. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

— Kathleen Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist.

© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group



Article: HERE

Sat Sep 27, 7:54 PM ET

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Protesters hold signs at a Hold Palin Accountable rally organized by Alaskans For Truth, in Anchorage, Alaska Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. Hundreds of people showed up to demand Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's GOP running mate, uphold her promise to cooperate with the state Legislature's investigation into her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

(AP Photo/Al Grillo)




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