I've been pretty harsh on Gov. Palin, so in the interest of fairness, I decided to watch the interview and give her a chance to show me something I hadn't seen before, anything that might persuade me to reconsider my contention that Sen. John McCain exercised poor judgment in naming her as his running mate.
Throughout the CNN interview, this was the self-assured Gov. Palin who acquitted herself quite respectably in the vice-presidential debate. The babbling candidate who suffered through disastrous encounters with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric was gone; but then again, CNN's Griffin was neither tough nor particularly probing.Weeks on the campaign trail clearly have reinforced what Gov. Palin needs to say and her confidence in saying it, while allowing her to retain her irrepressible folksiness. Today she delivered campaign talking points with familiar ease, even handling segues and deflections with an adroitness that surprised me.
Taken on its own, then, and in all fairness, Gov. Palin's performance merits praise -- as in the debate, she did what she had to do. To be fair to the rest of us, however, her CNN interview must be viewed critically and in the context of everything else we've seen from the candidate.
Gov. Palin had to show me that she's more than just an appealing parrot. Specifically, I needed to see that has more than a rehearsed understanding of what she says -- and I'm sorry to say that I didn't catch so much as a glimmer, much less the deep understanding and intellectual curiosity I expect of a candidate for Vice President.
I also expected Gov. Palin to assert herself in such a way that might "right the wrongs" she'd committed in other big interviews, something to demonstrate that she can navigate the tough stuff. Again, for whatever reason, she didn't deliver.
The substance of her answers is another matter, one that I won't discuss except to say that there wasn't any. (Substance, that is.)
I gave Gov. Palin a fair hearing and came away still unconvinced -- and maybe that says as much about me as it does her. I'll keep thinking critically about the choices before me, and no doubt Gov. Palin will continue to shower her appeal on voters who place a higher value on affinity than I do.
As she showed me again today, affinity is really the only gift she brings to the party.
