09:45 am
Palin: Did She Read the Briefing Books?
In case you missed it last night, here’s the video of the full Couric interview:
To me, the crucial part comes at the end:
COURIC: You’ve said, quote, “John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business.” Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?
PALIN: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie - that, that’s paramount. That’s more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.
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, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he’s been talking about - the need to reform government.
COURIC: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you’ve said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?
PALIN: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.
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 you some and I’ll bring them to you.
Wow. Just stunning. Unbelievable. She would have been better off admitting up front that she didn’t know rather than letting Couric ask her three times and then admitting she didn’t know.
This is not merely bad. It’s Bush-looks-good-in-comparison bad. This is Tina-Fey-is-gonna-have-a-field-day bad. This is at-least-you-foreign-policy-interview-doesn’t-look-as-bad-now bad.
There really are only two explanations for this. The first is that she’s stupid. I honestly don’t think that is the case. The second is that they didn’t prep her on the economy, or she didn’t read the briefing books. Were they so focused on improving her foreign policy props this week that they forgot to brief her on the current meltdown?
Actually, there is a third possibility: she’s cratering, to use a favorite McCain phrase. The pressure is too much and she’s freezing.
Regardless of which one of the three scenarios is the most accurate, this can’t help McCain. If his current ploy to suspend the campaign doesn’t work, he’s pretty much dead in the water.