Sarah Palin is Aware of All Print Journalism Traditions.

This isn’t even funny anymore.

This gets to the point I was making before: why is this a question that she would answer with so little confidence? She could just randomly tick off a few publications, even if she doesn’t actually read them, and Couric would move on to the next question.

It’s mind-boggling. She should be batting these things away with no problem. A new Pew poll finds that 51% of Americans think she’s unqualified to become president if necessary, while also finding a correlation between her dwindling appeal and support for McCain. For the first time in my life, I’m proud of my country.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

Latest posts by G.D. (see all)

  • quadmoniker

    Can I just say, Katie Couric has done a good job of getting Palin to really talk.

    I was watching the video on the nytimes.com homepage that showed Palin’s debate performances in the 2006 gubernatorial race, and even when she stumbled she spoke in complete sentences. I’m actually started to wonder whether she’s kind of doing it on purpose. You know, so that people misunderestimate her and she can surprise us when she makes some sense in the debate.

  • Palin on reading newspapers with Katie Couric:

    Palin: “I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.”

    Couric: What, specifically?

    Palin: “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.”

    Couric: “Can you name a few?”

    Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.”

    From what I read about her on wikipedia, she was a journalism major in college and was a TV reporter briefly. With this said, wouldn’t you think she could answer this question without even having to think about it?

  • quadmoniker

    GW: I agree. Now I think Palin was the kind of journalism major whose concentration was looking pretty for the camera.

  • For the first time in my life, I’m proud of my country.

    Traitor!

    Also, I have to differ with you: it *is* still funny.

  • Insightful piece from an Alaska Republican who debated Palin:

    In one debate, a moderator asked the candidates to name a bill the legislature had recently passed that we didn’t like. I named one. Democratic candidate Tony Knowles named one. But Sarah Palin instead used her allotted time to criticize the incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. Asked to name a bill we did like, the same pattern emerged: Palin didn’t name a bill.

    Why should she start being specific now?

  • quadmoniker

    Shani-o:
    The disturbing thing about that is that Palin still won by a 7 point margin!

  • LMAO at the last line. ‘Believe me, Alaska is a microcosm of America’.

    I think the ‘shock’ value of McCain’s choice of picking this woman is finally beginning to wear off, as more and more people see she has no substance.

  • rakia

    My five year-old niece could b.s. an answer to this question.

    QM: I’ve been saying the same thing for the past week re: Katie Couric. Despite the flak she and her broadcast have taken over the past two years, Couric is a top-notch journalist and interviewer.

  • Shawn L.

    Because of the gap in intellectual curiosity between her and anybody that interviews her, Palin makes everybody look like a top-notch journalist. But mistaking Couric for one given her own track record — “it’s not my job to critically report on Iraq”, admitting that she doesn’t write her own Notebook podcast, etc. — is an insult to top-notch journalists.

  • Aja

    I still get insulted by people who do think she’s qualified. Are they not watching? Or do they watch her interviews on “mute”. You’re right, it isn’t funny anymore. . .it just makes my head hurt.