McCain plans new Palin rollout By: Mike Allen September 8, 2008 07:56 PM EST Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will speak at her son’s Army deployment ceremony on 9/11 and spend two days with ABC News crews later this week as part of a McCain campaign plan to increase Americans’ comfort with her as a leader. Campaign and network officials had said on Sunday that her first television interview would be a sit-down with Charles Gibson of ABC’s “World News.” But it turns out that she is spending much of Thursday and Friday with Gibson — at the ceremony in Fairbanks, Alaska, and at her home in Wasilla, Alaska. Campaign aides said the anchorman will get extensive, repeated access to Palin throughout her first trip home since becoming the nominee. “ABC News will have plenty of time to question her and examine her and spend time with her,” a campaign official said. “They’ll do multiple interviews over two days. No topics are off-limits – there are no ground rules. There’s tons of time to talk to her about every topic.” The remarkable rollout reflects new confidence in Palin by her handlers, who initially had suggested it would be a while before she did interviews. Now, there will be several. Until now, Palin has been "sequestered," as Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), her Democratic counterpart, put it on NBC's "Meet the Press" — delivering rousing speeches, but not giving interviews or holding news conferences or answering questions on the fly. She was the only one of the four national candidates not to appear on a Sunday show this weekend. “Once you start, you don’t stop,” a Republican official said with a chuckle. “That doesn’t mean you run the faucet on high. But once you turn it on, you don’t really ever turn it off.” See Also * 7 things to watch as the fall race kicks off * Obama revives anti-Kerry line * Obama: Palin 'can't just reinvent' self * McCain surges off convention bounce The strategy carries risk. ABC is war-gaming tough questions – not gotchas, but some requiring policy knowledge — with the thoroughness that a network prepares for a debate. The remarkable offer to ABC, made last Friday, is part of an ambitious project to sell Palin well beyond the right — to a broad swath of women and independent voters, including former supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). “I see women right at the forefront of that, but not exclusively,” a campaign adviser said. The official said Gibson will have the chance to “speak to her on 9/11 about her ideas for keeping America safe in the future; to speak to her as she goes back to Wasilla, where she grew up, about her life and her views and her vision for the country.” Two interviews with Gibson are planned for Thursday, including a conversation about her support for a natural-gas pipeline – a key applause line in her convention speech. Then on Friday, Palin will spend “as much time as both parties need” in Wasilla and Anchorage, the official said. She will fly into Anchorage and then drive to Wasilla. Palin riveted last week’s Republican National Convention with a witty, rousing speech, and has injected huge excitement into the party’s ticket in the 10 days since Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) named her as his surprise pick for running mate. “People don’t understand how to cover women politicians in a way that is completely fair and enlightened yet,” the official said. “And somehow, she has managed to transcend that.” Christian conservatives were immediately thrilled by McCain’s choice, and his events took on new electricity. Asked to describe her appeal, one official said: “I think she is accessible. I think she is honest. I think she is real, and I think she is fearless. In Alaska, she has been such a target because she has always fought for the interests of her constituents, because they’re her neighbors.” The campaign adviser said: “She’s just this real, identifiable, approachable, funny, smart woman.” Officials wouldn’t say how the ABC anchor was chosen. “There were lots of tremendous and credible and fair journalists to choose from,” an aide said. “Somebody had to go first.” Link Many on the left were "worried" about the media not having access to Palin, because they thought that they wouldn't be able to hear what she had to say about the issues (or attack her on what she says). They can stop worrying now.
I like how the son "voulentarily" joined the army after given a choice of facing a jail sentence or joining the army.
601-210 Army Regulations, paragraph 4-32 All offenses, regardless of their outcome or place of offense (includes crimes committed outside the United States) will be listed on SF 86. A person arrested, cited, charged, or held for an offense or offenses and allowed to plead guilty to a lesser offense will list the original charges and also the lesser offense to which a plea of guilty was entered. For example, a person arrested for grand larceny and 2 counts of criminal possession of stolen property pled guilty to 2 counts of criminal possession of stolen property, value of less than $500. In this example, the applicant requires a misdemeanor waiver. However, waiver is not needed if an arrest or questioning does not result in referral of charges, or if charges are dismissed without a conviction or other adverse disposition. Incident must be listed on SF 86. Waiver is not authorized if a criminal or juvenile court charge is pending or if such a charge was dismissed or dropped at any stage of the court proceedings on condition that the offender enlists in a military service. http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r601_210.pdf He wasn't given a choice of jail or the army.
I'm sure it's nothing is off limits as long as it is on the list that was given to them with topics they can touch on.
Just watched the first segment. Gibson really confused her on his question about the Bush doctrine, it sounded like she didn't know what the hell he was talking about. She had the deer in the headlights look going on. And when he asked whether or not she felt it was alright for the US to move into Pakistan without permission, she refused to give a yes or no answer.
I'm watching it for the first time. She's clearly not a foreign policy expert, but neither was Clinton. The editing job by ABC is botched pretty badly, it'd be nice to actually hear her answer the questions in her own words fully.
Right. My idea of a quality interview is the interviewer asks a short question and lets the person being interviewed speak for 5 minutes. From what I saw, she was asked dozens of questions, and maybe choked on the one about the Bush Doctrine. When explained to her, her answer was fine and consistent with her position on Israel.
Just so there is no misunderstanding, you would then agree that Bill O'Reilly is not a quality interviewer?
No, he's not. His ego is so large he thinks he's the story. I did see Obama on O'Reilly's show, and at least they didn't edit his responses to basically one sentence.
It is frustrating watching him. He asks some pointed questions, but he doesn't give his subject a chance to fully respond, and he cuts them off if he doesn't agree with the response. Sometimes I try to watch him, because I like to see what people of all political beliefs stand for, but I just end up angry. In many ways, his style immitates that on shows like "crossfire," but at least they couch themselves as a "debate" show, so maybe they deserve more leeway. The fact that O'Reilly uses every opportunity to hawk his book demonstrates that he is just about himself. I personally think that it is unethical for him to ask people to buy his book while he is working on the air and getting paid by FOX. He should be doing that on his own time.
The only person that deserves Bill O'Reilly's time for an interview is himself. I mean anyone else, is a waste of time.
I don't disagree with much of this, except that whatever he's doing is making his ratings sky high. I don't think Fox wants to see him change anything he does.
On ABC's overnight news, they showed a much less edited version of the interview, and she came off way better than in the hack edited version. Instead of the interview being 10 minutes of a 20 minute news program that also covered Ike, it was several segments separated by commercials. I wonder if people will get to see the better edited version; they'll have to show it at a time when people aren't mostly asleep...
