The important thing about the Gibson interview (transcript
excerpts here) is to try to look at it through the eyes of the
undecided independent voter, who doesn't care if she can describe
the Bush Doctrine or not.
(Video from Hot Air.)
This election won't be decided by foreign-policy wonks. It will be
decided by ordinary people who see a mother concerned about Islamic
extremism. Charlie Gibson's "gotchas" won't bother those people,
who like Sarah Palin a lot more than they like Charlie Gibson.
I am reminded of Mike Deaver who was asked about TV coverage of
Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign and said, we don't care what
you say about Reagan, we care about you showing those
pictures -- the photo ops the campaign arranged. As long as America
saw Reagan on TV, that was good for Reagan, because Reagan was good
on TV.
A similar dynamic is in evidence with Palin. America likes her a
lot, and she's good on TV. So if ABC wants to show Sarah Palin on
TV for 10 minutes, it doesn't really matter what questions they're
asking her, and it doesn't matter what the pundits say about her
responses.
Politico says she "appears to have held her own," but she did
more than that. She won.
topics:
Sarah Palin, Islam
