September 09, 2008

A Good First Effort

The 20 Questions We Would Ask Sarah Palin

It's a pretty good list. I might skip some of the more factual questions ("Who leads China and India?") in favor of more questions about policy (if you are only limited to 20 make them count; asking factual questions seems more a way to deliberately trip her up). Still, I'd like to see McCain and Obama answer those.

Posted by baltar at September 9, 2008 03:44 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs | Politics


Comments

Another proposed slate of (considerably more provocative) questions. I don't like the way they're worded -- too gotcha -- but each touches upon an entirely legitimate point.

Posted by: moon at September 9, 2008 04:17 PM | PERMALINK

Then there's this. So let's review what Gibson will not be touching upon, for fear that anything that seems to address anything having to do with Palin is biased, sexist, and rankly unfair:

Women; motherhood; stem cells and crippling disabilities; porkbarrel solicitations; the use of lobbyists; abstinence-only sex education (and, presumably, abstinence-only approaches to AIDS policy, which is roughly like, well, make your own comparison); ethics reform; abuse of power; knowledge of foreign policy, facts, or anything else; teen and/or out-of-wedlock sexual activity and pregnancy; knowledge of what it is the vice president does everyday; energy policy . . . did I miss anything?

I don't envy Gibson his task, truly. He's already under the bus; he just doesn't know it yet.

Posted by: moon at September 9, 2008 04:25 PM | PERMALINK

Maybe they should let Elisabeth Hasselbeck interview Palin. You know, since she's such a hard hitting journalist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoxkQUHZrTg

Posted by: kikimonster at September 9, 2008 06:42 PM | PERMALINK

I guess we can add to the list of rules that Gibson is not allowed to use any colloquialism that uses the word "lipstick" or anything else vaguely associated with femininity.

Posted by: moon at September 10, 2008 09:30 AM | PERMALINK

I'm actually not crazy about Foreign Policy's questions. Too many lend themselves to stock answers. But some are good - especially if she's forced to explain her response. 2, 7, 10, and 20 would be very interesting to hear though. And maybe 16 - again, if she was forced to justify her answer.

Posted by: Armand at September 11, 2008 02:11 PM | PERMALINK

Re foreign policy questions, you make a good point, recalling Stewart's hilarious treatment of the "wikipedia" section of Palin's convention speech, wherein she ticked off a bunch of blurbs about various world events that sounded like she was reading from a list of things The Vice President Should Know about, and which her not-as-dynamic-as-usual presentation of which strongly suggested she was more worried about pronouncing things right than actually being able to extemporize about any of them. A quick youtube search didn't turn up the clip, alas.

Posted by: moon at September 11, 2008 04:39 PM | PERMALINK

It might also be an interesting approach not to so much grill her on open policy questions as to invite her to speak for McCain's policies. Her talking points will give her blurbs on every major foreign issue, and I'm sure will aim for consistency with McCain's own policy ideas, to the extent they can be discerned. Her real job would be a) to be a shill for her boss's ideas; b) to be someone who can step into his place should something unfortunate happen and provide at least some continuity to whatever's been accomplished to that date by the administration (q.v., not much, dominant dem majorities in both houses and all); and c) attend funerals, of course (but we don't need questions about this: wear black, look somber and pensive). Indeed, someone might mention that to her, since she's indicated a degree of confusion on the question.

Anyway, my point is this: while people will tend to assume that on any given hot spot she'll be given the info she requires at the time, in the way of chief executives, she should not be waiting to ascend to know what her administration is about. Moreover, McCain's policies are startlingly thin and in multiple dimensions entirely incoherent. It's reasonable to ask her what her ticket is about. Even if she'd been around a while, I doubt she could, because McCain still can't. But it would be instructive to see her try. And no one could cry foul.

Posted by: moon at September 11, 2008 05:14 PM | PERMALINK
Post a comment









Remember personal info?