Making fun of Sarah Palin for being dumb has bugged me for a while, and I avoided watching her interview with Charlie Gibson precisely because of that. You don’t get to be governor–even in Alaska–if you’re an idiot. And even so, it’s unclear what being an idiot means and how it helps or hurts one. But this performance with Katie Couric… I’m not sure what to make of it. She sounds completely lost, but the payoff is at the end, around the five minute mark.
Couric has been asking her all sorts of questions about the economy, and Palin explains that McCain has pushed for regulating. Couric is having none of it:
Couric: But he’s been in Congress for 26 years. He’s been chairman of the powerful commerce committee, and he has almost always sided with less regulation–not more.
Palin: He’s also known as… The Maverick, though–takin’ shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Tryin’ to get people to understand what he’s been talkin’ about; the need to reform the government.
Couric: I’m just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point: specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.
Palin: I’ll try to find ya some, and I’ll bring ‘em to ya.
I apologize for writing Palin in dialect, but she ups the folky accent for these two answers (edited together out of context, it seems)–to my untrained ears, she seems to be slipping into a sort of aw-shucks type of vernacular. And look at how ridiculous the discourse gets. McCain is “also known as… The Maverick”? Her pause and emphasis almost forces “The” to be capitalized. I feel like it’s the v/o to the beginning of a superhero tv show.
And then she dodges the question like a lost TA in the first discussion section of the year: “I’ll look that up and get back to you.” This is how a VP speaks? Is this the Bushish “play dumb/just folks” routine?
Tags: CBS, diction, Katie Couric, Maverick, Sarah Palin
October 10th, 2008 at 15:07
Keith and I thrived in rural Alaska for a few years. We worked with pretty great folks. My experience in the rest of the states is limited, I’m young yet, but there were some real idiots who got to pretty high places in Alaska. I don’t have personal experience with Governor Palin, I didn’t know much about her when I voted against her. But let me say, some incompetent people rise to high places, at least in the rural areas, for lack of competition. A note to all folks who are working for minimum wage at Kinko’s, there are $45,000/yr+ federal grant management positions awaiting you in rural Alaska. This is not meant as a slight to Alaska, or Alaskans. I just caution against handing out credit for being governor. She should be able to display the amount of credit she deserves. And so far, to me, it’s about as much as the banks are handing out these days…