Totally Incoherent

I just don't even know what to say anymore. Katie Couric asks Sarah Palin about the bailout, specifically why it's preferable to give that money to the financial firms who created this clusterfucktastrophe instead of to direct relief for struggling American families—and Palin's answer is just a rambling mess of jumbled talking points haphazardly strung together in a way that makes no sense, while she glances down at her notes. "Not ready for primetime" doesn't begin to cover it.



[Transcript below.]
As Shark-fu might say: Blink.

I mean, there are pieces of identifiable conservative policies there, to be sure, bits of familiar ideas, but none of them seem to be particularly familiar to her, even though this is basic Republican doctrine, so threadbare from overuse that I could have convincingly answered that question as a Republican imposter off the top of my head. It's not that she's a bad speaker—she did quite well at the Republican convention—and I don't think she's stupid. I really think she just doesn't know policy at all.

And if this example of her anxious attempt to keep on-message doesn't put to bed once and for all the idea that this is a ticket of free-wheeling, straight-talking "mavericks," I don't know what would. Because, clearly, at least part of the problem is that she's never had to be a doctrinaire Republican. Until now.

(I can't say I feel she did any better on defending how being next door to Russia bolsters her foreign policy credentials. That's another one where you really want to watch the video in addition to reading the transcript, if possible.)

Couric: She's not always responsive when she's asked questions, and sometimes does slip back to her talking points, um, so it was a really interesting experience for me to interview her yesterday.

Rodriguez: Let's see if that's the case here; we have an excerpt where you ask her about her opinion on the bailout.

Couric: Okay.

Couric [on tape]: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with healthcare, housing, gas, and groceries—allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy—instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

Palin [on tape]: That's why I say, I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bailout. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are [glances down] concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed [glances down] to help shore up our economy. [glances down] Helping the—oh, it's got to be about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform [glances down] and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief [glances down] for Americans, and trade we've—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 those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout [is a part of that].