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September 09, 2008
Sarah Palin and Interview Planned To Be Done By ABC's Charles Gibson
McCain plans new Palin rollout
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.”
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 talk to Gibson 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.”
Wild Thing's comment..........
Sarah was a point guard , which means she does even better when the pressure is on.
When she gave her speech at the convention, the teleprompter was not working so she had to wing a lot of her speech and it was marvelous. Sarah is a person who is comfortable in her own skin. I have total confdidence in her for this interview or any interview and any debates as well.
Posted by Wild Thing at September 9, 2008 03:48 AM
Comments
Sarah Palin doesn't have to make up stuff to paint the picture that she's a hardworking member of the middle class, unlike other VP candidates we know about.
Posted by: yankeemom at September 9, 2008 08:44 AM
I wish the interviews would be done live, so they cannot be edited or taken out of context. My confidence in Sarah Palin is total, but so is my expectation that Charles Gibson and company will do what they can to present her in a bad light.
Of course, ABC could shoot itself in the foot if it does a hatchet job on her. Let's just hope that this time the news interview is mostly fair and unbiased.
Posted by: TomR at September 9, 2008 09:42 AM
Something that hasn't been discussed regards the interviews with Sarah Palin is that she has much more conservative views of things than John McCain. As McCains VP she has to stand behind his positions and not her own. In private she can try and influence him and he would be wise to seek her conservative counsel.
She can touch on some differences between her and McCain but needs to skillfully not let the media turn them into wedge issues. I have full faith that she will handle herself well and the Obama folks will continue to go nuts.
Posted by: Les at September 9, 2008 04:45 PM
Yankeemom, that is so true and that is huge. She is real, not some press release of hype.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 9, 2008 05:06 PM
Tom, yes I would like live too. It has a different feel to it when it is live as well.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 9, 2008 05:08 PM
Les, you are exactly right. I thought about that too and I feel Sarah knows she can be herself and at the same time have even more of an influence if done in the way you said. She has a tremendous chance to get through to hardened rino's and I really believe she is up to it. I think she will like the challenge of it too. That soft and sweet but very strong influence.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 9, 2008 05:12 PM
I just hope they don't turn it into a liberal heyday. I'm sure Sarah can handle herself. She's been doing it a long time.
But at least Charlie Gibson will interview her.
Did you hear what Oprah said? (and she deserves to be kicked in the teeth for it, too!) That there is no way she's going to interview Sarah Palin because she doesn't care about women's rights and it's her show and to hell with the ratings and if she did interview Sarah, it would be a boost for McCain and that ain't gonna happen. Now I know it's her show, but when she stepped on not caring about women's rights, she opened a whole new hornet's nest of trouble.
Plus, there's something called the "equal time" law. Cousin Freddy's show had to show the episodes without him while he was running because that would be an unfair advantage.
I think we ought to boycott Oprah and her biased, racist butt!
Posted by: Lynn at September 10, 2008 04:15 AM
