politics

Palin - There is no there there

Any doubt that Sarah Palin is unqualified to be vice-president was certainly removed during her incoherent, disjointed, rambling conversation with Katie Couric last night.

Even if you are conservative or Republican, frightened can be one of many adjectives that come to mind listening to her fumble like an unprepared college student for an exam spewing random talking points that appear—in her mind—to fit the bill of economics, world politics, health care or whatever, hoping to buffalo the professor, during her conversation with the CBS anchor. A sample:

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 a maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. …”

Couric: “I'm just going to ask one more time, not to belabor the point -- specific example in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.”

Palin: “I'll try to find you some, and I'll bring them to you.”

Another sample, what can at best be considered a classic of fruitless incoherence and a case study for future college classes:

"That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh -- it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."

Did Palin miss any talking points? More:

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state."

The United States deserves and needs, in this critical time, coherent, thoughtful, pragmatic leadership. If the evidence was not clear earlier, the interview with Couric is quickly illuminating the conclusion that, in the leadership category, there is no there there in Palin.

-30-

posted by dq @ 9:23 AM