Anchorage Daily News

Ouch. Reviews of the Katie Couric interview and of an impromptu four questions exchanged between Palin and reporters after a visit near Ground Zero are very tough on Palin.

As Friday wore on, commentators began to ask disturbing questions about what the McCain campaign's media strategy (virtually no access) may have done to Palin's once vibrant confidence. Links for critiques and analysis follow.

Also below, updates from Stevens' trial Friday, footage of Palin from the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant and more context for the viral Palin "witchcraft" video.

National Review: Step down, Sarah. Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker puts it bluntly: "It was fun while it lasted," writes Parker. But her three TV interviews - Gibson, Hennity and now Couric - have only served to reveal "an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League." She even suggests that "if BS were currency," Palin could save Wall Street single-handedly.

Mr. McCain can't repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Mr. Obama faces the same problem with Mr. Biden.

Only Ms. Palin can save Mr. McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first. Do it for your country.

> Sarah Palin flunks CBS interview (London Telegraph)

We are way past the Palin-excites-the-base phase. The reasons for that are clear and fair: She is a likable, everyday, gutsy, church-going mum with a gun. And nor is her performance defensible with the liberal-media-witchhunt argument.

This is about readiness and John McCain's incredible gamble on Mrs. Palin. With six weeks to go before the election, it might be prudent to recall that if elected she will be a heartbeat away from the presidency. On this showing she simply isn't qualified for the job.

> On Russia: Get me rewrite. (The New York Times Caucus blog)

What she said to Couric:

It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state.

What she meant (according to her campaign, when asked later for clarification):

"Russian incursions near Alaskan airspace have occurred, and when they do, she is briefed on them by the adjutant general of the Alaska NG. Jets scrambled would likely be active duty, possibly Guard."

> Wobbly words. (The New York Times)

Yet Ms. Palin's answer was surprisingly wobbly: her words tumbled out fast and choppily, like an outboard motor loosened from the stern.

> "Meandering off in fruitless pursuit of coherence." (Los Angeles Times)

Palin on the bailout: "But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."

That mind-bender prompted Couric to muse, almost charitably, on "The Early Show" that Palin is "not always responsive when asked questions, and sometimes does slip back to her talking points."

> Time for a speech coach. (Slate.com)

To Palin from speech coaches:

No more "I'll get back to you."

Don't repeat yourself so much.

Tell stories. (Think Mike Huckabee)

Catch phrases are overrated ("John McCain is a maverick.")

Relax. "She's been a little too coached. You gotta make it your own." Sentences that aren't just declarative but overly decisive - "We must not blink, Charlie" - sound almost Bush-like.

Give details. The two best words you can say in interviews are "for example."

(Also: Know details.)

> Is Sarah Palin "Legally Brunette?" That's the case New York Times columnist Judith Warner makes, by way of explaining that internal wince many women are feeling watching such a public disgrace of Palin. Is she our own inner Elle Woods "the frilly, frothy blonde who charms her way into Harvard Law School," a movie with a make-believe ending.

So many of us today - balancing work and family, treading water financially - feel as if we're in over our heads, getting by on appearances while quaking inside in anticipation of utter failure....I saw this feeling in Palin - in a flash, on that blue couch, catty-corner to Kissinger, as her eyes pleaded for clemency from the camera.

Frankly, I've come to think, post-Kissinger, post-Katie-Couric, that Palin's nomination isn't just an insult to the women (and men) of America. It's an act of cruelty toward her as well.

> What happened to Sarah Palin? (American Prospect)

The fact that Palin's responses to questions are becoming increasingly incoherent rather than rapidly more polished is interesting. Rote memorization should have all but eliminated the overlay of nonsense in her answers by now. Matt Yglesias offers a decent hypothesis, saying, "It's possible that all this cramming is causing Palin to become less coherent - instead of just parrying questions she knows she doesn't have good answers to, she's trying to remember canned lines but it's too much all at once to actually get right."

It fits the facts. Increasingly, Palin's worst answers are not on the questions she isn't expecting, but those that she's got to be prepared for. Russia and Alaska, for instance. Or this Dadaist trainwreck on why it's better to spend $700 billion on financial bailouts than broad-based economic help. (See video here.)

> Has the McCain campaign broken Sarah Palin? (The New Republic)

The obvious implicit message her preppers and coddlers and protectors in the campaign are giving her is: You're not ready. We don't trust you. You have no idea what you're talking about. Don't ever open your mouth unless you've cleared it with us or you might destroy the whole campaign. These are not pleasant things to hear, and Palin has presumably been hearing them (again, by implication) every day for weeks now.

When I compare Palin's performance with Gibson to her performance with Couric, the biggest difference I see is confidence. With Gibson, she obviously lacked the knowledge one expects at this level, but she seemed to have a glib faith that she could bluff her way through. She may not have answered many of his questions directly, but her evasions were, for the most part, perfectly articulate and comprehensible. In the Couric interviews, by contrast, she often seemed to be stringing along buzz words and sentence fragments that even she recognized to be gibberish. With Gibson, she was tap dancing; with Couric she was drowning.

>"Get me out of here." (Christian Science Monitor The Vote blog)

Couric: "[McCain's] been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation - not more."

Palin: "He's also known as a maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party."

Couric: "I'm just going to ask one more time, not to belabor the point - specific example in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation."

Palin: "I'll try to find you some, and I'll bring ‘em to ya."

As those last words fumbled from her mouth, you know she was saying, "Get me out of here."

***

> "Ted Stevens' trial started a couple of days ago. Let's see how that goes." (The New York Times Caucus blog)

In a story called "Palin takes questions from reporters," she didn't answer them, especially the one about whether she supports the re-election bids of Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens. Watch her not answer here.

Palin made a campaign stop at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and finally "fielded" four questions, according to a reporter in the small pool of journalists assigned to accompany her.

"Notice I wrote ‘fielded' since she didn't exactly answer them," the reporter, Ken Vogel of Politico, wrote in his notes sent out to other reporters following the campaign.

Writes TPM Muckraker:

Palin is in a real bind here. She can't say she doesn't support the re-election of her state's GOP members of Congress -- she's the Republican nominee for vice president. On the other hand, saying she does support these mucky pork-dealers would really damage the brand that the McCain campaign has manufactured for her as a supposed anti-pork ethics crusader.

Only this summer, they were on more cordial relations, if this Anchorage Daily News video is a true reflection of how they work together. It's dated July 2, 2008. Palin remarks:

"I have great respect for the senator. He needs to be heard across America - his voice, his experience, his passion - it needs to be heard across America...."

In other Palin headlines:

> VIDEO: Palin in 1984 Miss Alaska Pageant (waxy.org)

> Letterman's Top 10, delivered from Wasilla (cbs.com)

> She did too meet a foreign head of state (Seattle Times)

It was Ragnar Grimsson, last October in Anchorage, over geothermal issues both regions share.

> No direct answer on the rape kit question is troubling (The New York Times)

In the absence of answers, speculation is bubbling in the blogosphere that Wasilla's policy of billing rape victims may have something to do with Ms. Palin's extreme opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape. Sexual-assault victims are typically offered an emergency contraception pill, which some people in the anti-choice camp wrongly equate with abortion.

My hunch is that it was the result of outmoded attitudes and boneheaded budget cutting. Still, Ms. Palin has been governor for under two years, and she's running for vice president largely on her experience as mayor of tiny Wasilla - a far superior credential, she's told us, to being a community organizer. On the rape kits, as on other issues, she owes voters a direct answer.

> Palin's parents are part-time rat killers. (The Associated Press)

Chuck and Sally Heath have been part-time U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialists for the past 15 years, traveling throughout Alaska trapping or killing animals. They've eradicated rat infestations, shooed geese from runways and killed foxes that were keeping threatened Canada geese from nesting.

In January 2002, they went to New York City for a two-week assignment that fit their specialty. Their job was to make sure birds and rats did not disturb the debris from the collapsed World Trade Center towers that was being searched by forensic teams for human remains in Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill.

> More on Palin's New York dinner with Murdoch (The New York Post)

Guest list: Martha Stewart, Vera Wang, the first lady of Iceland, Jordan's Queen Rania, Brit prime minister's wife Sarah Brown, Mary-Kate Olsen, among others.

By now we know Sarah's wardrobe. Jackets. Maybe only one black sheath and one pair of black pants, but she's as big on jackets as on shampoo. And this one was black, ruffled, belted. Stunning. So, whose? "I really don't even know whose it is," she laughed. She talks easily. Gets A-plus in schmoozing. "I'd tell you, but I have no idea. You'd have to look at the label in back." For half a second Sarah partially turned around, and I nearly lunged at the collar, but she stopped, I stopped and Rupert stopped. He said to her: "Cindy'll do anything to get a column."

> Palin in a cornfield. (Photo, Associated Press)

> Palin on your wall (Times of India)

A US company Wednesday launched life-sized Palin wall stickers:

Dressed in a chic white jacket, black skirt and open-toe shoes and wearing her signature glasses, the high-resolution image of Palin stands 5 feet six inches (1.67 meters) tall and comes with two choices of accessories -- either Republican Party emblems or a rifle, hockey stick and puck, tiara and lipstick.

No refunds after the election.

***

Stevens trial continues today. This morning, don't miss the Washington Post's Dana Milbank on Ted Stevens and "The Aw-Shucks Defense."

The defense:

The 84-year-old senator left his lawyers the unenviable task of explaining away all the goodies he took but didn't report. "He didn't want these things," superlawyer Brendan Sullivan said of the gifts. The tool cabinet? "He wanted it out of there." The furniture? "Used! Big cigarette hole in it." The garage? "It snows six feet a year." The $20,000 worth of Christmas lights? "I suppose Ted Stevens, the senator, should go home and get some climbing shoes on, go up and take them down, and send 'em back?"

Sounds like Stevens' wife, Catherine is getting set up as the fall guy, err, fall wife.

"You have to look at the relationship between Ted and Catherine, because it says something about what happened here," Sullivan declared. In fact, he said, the Stevens family has a saying: "When it comes to things around the tepee, the wife controls. That might seem old-fashioned, but Ted Stevens is old-fashioned."

***

> Compared to what Stevens did legally for Alaska, unreported gifts were modest. Slate.com writes of the opening days in Steven's corruption trial and of the modest $36,000 a year in gifts hat Stevens didn't report, "almost endearingly small to what other congressmen have pulled in."

Especially considering what Stevens did legally. His earmarks, self-perpetuating Alaska-specific federal programs and no-bid contracts for Alaska Native corporations, collectively funnel $8 billion a year back to Alaska, the most heavily subsidized state in the country for most of the last quarter-century.

If he had pursued his corruption with any seriousness, couldn't the man who snagged $100 million for the University of Alaska to study the energy-generating potential of the aurora borealis have done better for himself than a Brookstone massage chair and a nice barbecue grill?

Other stories on the trial:

> ‘No paper trail' ordered for Stevens remodel (Friday afternoon, Associated Press)

> Cabin remodel detailed at Stevens corruption trial (Friday, Associated Press)

> Opposing lawyers present very different pictures of Ted Stevens (APRN)

> Sen. Ted Stevens corruption trial opens (Los Angeles Times)

***

Witch hunting? Spiritual warfare? Sarah Palin? The 2005 video of Sarah Palin being prayed over by Rev. Thomas Muthee to be spared from witchcraft and the June 2008 video of Palin speaking about that experience in a Wasilla church beg for some context. Who is Muthee? What do you mean, witches?

Reporters covering the U.S. election for the Times of London offered some background on Muthee, the African evangelist who has given 10 guest sermons at the Wasilla Assembly of God church. The story provides links to Muthee’s church Website, to a trailer for the documentary film Transformations and to a 1999 Christian Science Monitor profile of the spiritual movement Muthee has joined.

Can the 'spiritual DNA' of a community be altered?" That's the question posed in a Christian video called "Transformations."

Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee is convinced that it can be. In 1988, he and his wife, Margaret, were "called by God to Kiambu," a notorious, violence-ridden suburb of Nairobi and a "ministry graveyard" for churches for years. They began six months of fervent prayer and research.

Pondering the message of Eph.6:12 ("For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world..."), they prayed to identify the source of Kiambu's spiritual oppression, Mr. Muthee says. Their answer: the spirit of witchcraft.

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