# Ladies & gentlemen, your future vice president! (Palin interview by Katie Couric) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 25, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174 "2008-09-25T17:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/141 "2008-09-26T21:03:10Z")
> [@A\_shameful\_cracka](#): > > I think you are the first person I’ve seen on this board who admitted to changing their mind about Palin. Congratulations! I haven’t changed my mind about these aspects of her- she’s probably a decent woman & good at being mayor and governor, she was getting unfairly piled-on by some media & nit-picky liberals, she agrees more with my views than does Obama-Biden, she has the potential to grow into a capable future leader on a national level, she has my vote as McCain’s running mate. But I have changed my mind about being convinced she is presently informed enough to be a great V.P. > [@](#): > > Pochacco: > > That’s only HALF of the Constitutional job description of the VP. It’s the other half that scares the pants off me. And it should scare the pants off you too. If you mean her as the successor to the Presidency if anything happens to Pres. McCain, I’m concerned but not scared, because there will be a lot of experienced people around her to keep things steady. Neither the staff nor Congress nor her own party will allow her to run wild. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/142 "2008-09-26T21:03:36Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Unfortunately, this attempt to rid President Bush of Karl Rove was not successful… Yes it was. He was transplanted to McCain. _rimshot_ ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/143 "2008-09-26T21:10:45Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > While I’m not about to venture a guess about her intelligence (need more data), you’re missing the hardest thing about her interview: > > She’s not \*allowed \*to say what she thinks. Nice post, but being able to this convincingly comes with the territory. And not just in politics. Before going in public, a set of advisers and the top dogs agree on a message and a spin. Everyone who goes out there talking needs to stay on message, and make it sound like it is something they both came up with and believe in, even if they are busy working on a contradictory press release. What the hell is she going to do if she needs to talk about a diplomatic crisis and sounds like she doesn’t buy into the message. I have a feeling that if she was allowed to say what she really thought it would really cook her goose, but that isn’t her weakness here. I’ve done booth duty selling complex software, which, like any software, had weaknesses. You got to answer questions about not so great features with the agreed upon spin, and sound convincing. If she can’t do this kind of thing, she is not qualified for any high office. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/144 "2008-09-26T21:14:06Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > If you mean her as the successor to the Presidency if anything happens to Pres. McCain, I’m concerned but not scared, because there will be a lot of experienced people around her to keep things steady. Neither the staff nor Congress nor her own party will allow her to run wild. But she would be the boss. Say the McCain people keep the same lid on her that they are doing now, and it makes here angry. Are you sure that the minute she assumes office she won’t call them all haters, kick them out, and bring in her buddies from Alaska, who she feels comfortable with? She might have problems getting new cabinet officers through the Senate, but presidential aides don’t need approval. And I’m sure that there would be an outcry from the same people who like her now to let her have her own Cabinet. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/145 "2008-09-26T21:17:23Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > Re: Palin taking over, I envision her either establishing a “doctrine” of vendetta-based policies and loyalty oaths, or becoming a figurehead controlled by the current administration’s puppetmasters. Either one would be disastrous. I’m thinking we would get both. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/146 "2008-09-26T21:23:09Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > A fair observation but you’ve clearly never been in similar but non media situations, such as negotiations. > > I do not believe reporters are inherently fucking with the interviewee, rather communication of precise points is much harder than people think it is. I have been in corp negotiations with mergers and found that under stress, people tend to hear what they are prepared to hear, and often the repeat back function / habit helps make sure what you think you understood / heard is what the other person meant. > > It doesn’t take either an ounce of bad faith or stupidity, in my experience, to have serious and unintentional miscommunication. I am sure some journos exploit this, but it also strikes me most of you are terribly naive in your evaluation of communication value under stress. She has no business running for the vice-presidency, if in her case an ordinary sit-down interview, for which she had plenty of time to prepare, counts as “communication under stress.” ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/147 "2008-09-26T21:24:28Z")
What about this part: > [@](#): > > COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? … Instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess? > > PALIN: Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions. Let me parse her quote for you: > [@](#): > > So…reducing taxes…has got to accompany tax reductions. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/148 "2008-09-26T21:36:28Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > What about this part: > > Let me parse her quote for you: I also like how the $700B bailout is somehow related to reining in spending 😕 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/149 "2008-09-26T21:41:26Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > …(Sorry if my quotes are off - haven’t listened to that one for years. ) Premptive apology accepted. Georgie Tirebiter is the\* Vice Presidential \*nominee of the Natural Surrealist Party, which makes the jape even more insightful and trenchant. You would be well advised not to question my scholarship and authority in matters to do with drug-related humor. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/150 "2008-09-26T21:47:09Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > she agrees more with my views than does Obama-Biden, I’m not seeing much about her views other than pro-life. She seems to be a mish-mash of a lot of other views, which makes me think she’s not someone who has a specific ideology other than simply “Christian.” Is there evidence that she’s a fiscal conservative or is she more akin to Huckabee? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/151 "2008-09-26T21:49:16Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Is there evidence that she’s a fiscal conservative or is she more akin to Huckabee? Since she has the luxury of governing a state that can afford to give every resident an annual oil dividend, that might be something she has never even had to think about before. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/152 "2008-09-26T21:49:55Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > What about this part: > > Let me parse her quote for you: I actually had the same reaction to that piece of utter nonsense as Cafferty does here (posted mine upthread): [**Jack Cafferty Tells Us How He Really Feels About Sarah Palin**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8__aXxXPVc) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/153 "2008-09-26T21:53:04Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I don’t want her to win sympathy or any other kind of votes, but I really am beginning to feel sorry for her. She gave birth just a few months ago, THEN learned she was going to be a grandmother, THEN learned her son was going to Iraq, THEN got tossed into the middle of a huge arena that was bigger than she imagined, THEN is made to look like a nincompoop on every interview (and again, I don’t think she’s stupid, just a disastrously really really really bad choice) It’s not as if most of this hit her like a series of earthquakes. She obviously knew she was going to give birth, and later, that the baby would be handicapped. Her son Track is fresh out of training and our military is stretched thin. Where did she think he’d end up? Rammstein, Germany? And the realm of national politics is full mostly of men and women who have extensive experience and education, including graduate and professional (mostly JD) degrees. If she honestly imagined that she could hold her own in that milieu with six years of drifting through one school after another, it only makes me more contemptuous of her. If you ask me who I think would gain more from their education–a mediocre student who squeaks into an Ivy by virtue of his family background, or a bright and motivated kid at Podunk State, I’ll choose the latter every time. But she is none of that. > [@](#): > > I feel sorry for her. But I still want Obama to whip her like the rented mule that killed his pa. Oh yeah. We’re laying in popcorn for tonight’s extravaganza, and looking forward to 10/2 as well. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/154 "2008-09-26T21:53:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Since she has the luxury of governing a state that can afford to give every resident an annual oil dividend, that might be something she has never even had to think about before. Yeah. Looking at her record, I don’t see much evidence of a driving purpose. If Alaska were a state where the power lay in the Democratic party, I think she’d be a Democrat. If the power lay in the Froople party, she’d be a Froop. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/155 "2008-09-26T22:02:25Z")
She’s reminding me more and more of that beauty contestant rambling on and on about how children in South Africa don’t have maps and that’s why our schools are failing today. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/156 "2008-09-26T22:03:01Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > …Oh yeah. We’re laying in popcorn for tonight’s extravaganza, and looking forward to 10/2 as well. Sick and twisted minds are likely to misconstrue this perfectly innocent remark. And shame on them, I say! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/157 "2008-09-26T22:10:00Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Sick and twisted minds are likely to misconstrue this perfectly innocent remark. And shame on them, I say! Only those who never mastered the difference between “lie” and “lay”. Those of us who can’t remember _not_ knowing this sort of thing can sometimes forget the misunderstanding that can ensue, as most people probably use the words interchangeably. Therefore, thanks much for the reminder. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/158 "2008-09-26T22:10:33Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > She’s reminding me more and more of that beauty contestant rambling on and on about how children in South Africa don’t have maps and that’s why our schools are failing today. Well, you didn’t ask this time…but it seems relevant: [Palin, or Miss Teen South Carolina?](http://gawker.com/5055560/palin-or-miss-teen-south-carolina) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/159 "2008-09-26T22:19:10Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Only those who never mastered the difference between “lie” and “lay”. > > Those of us who can’t remember _not_ knowing this sort of thing can sometimes forget the misunderstanding that can ensue, as most people probably use the words interchangeably. > > Therefore, thanks much for the reminder. Whoa, no critique intended, nor even contemplated. If it arrived looking like a barb, it was sent as a Nerf ball. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174/160 "2008-09-26T22:33:44Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > If you mean her as the successor to the Presidency if anything happens to Pres. McCain, I’m concerned but not scared, because there will be a lot of experienced people around her to keep things steady. Neither the staff nor Congress nor her own party will allow her to run wild. If your position on a person wholly unsuitable for the Presidency is “well, there will be people around to keep her/him in line,” then why are you even bothering to vote? Logically, anyone would be more or less as good a candidate as any other, since the staff around them will keep them in line in proportion to their ineptitude. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ladies-gentlemen-your-future-vice-president-palin-interview-by-katie-couric/465174.md?page=9)