Winfrey/Palin Was No Frost/Nixon

by Michael S. Rulle Jr.

Everything about Sarah Palin is magnified, as the current book tour demonstrates. The book was number one the day it appeared for sale on Amazon. All public figures have a larger than life appearance, but it is far more pronounced with Palin. She is an almost unprecedented media phenomenon. Yet few present her as a truly serious person. Democrats attempt mockery and Republicans damn with faint praise. Those who themselves praise her strongly are cast in a similar light. The great paradox is, on the one hand, the media is driven to her like a moth to flame, yet, on the other hand, they treat her as if she were not worthy of all the attention.

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This attitude comes from the same media which takes or has taken Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, Jon Corzine, and Joe Biden seriously. Admittedly, these are low hurdle comparisons, but that is exactly the point. Yet, to anyone who looks beyond the superficial coverage, it is obvious that Palin knows exactly what image she wishes to portray. Sarah Palin may or may not be a legitimate presidential candidate, (she is, in my opinion); her tactics on this book tour may or may not be helpful regarding future political ambitions (remains to be seen); but she is completely and naturally in command of herself. Yet this seemingly goes unobserved and flies in direct contradiction to the dominant narrative.

While Oprah was completely polite and respectful in her questioning, she seemed a little tense and self conscious. I don’t watch Oprah, so I have no baseline to compare this interview, but my hunch is this is not her norm.  On the “stage right” chair was a cheerful, perfectly at ease Sarah Palin. On the “stage left” chair was a vaguely uneasy and a little bit austere Oprah.

The questions covered much familiar territory; the Katie Couric interviews, the insider leaks by the McCain camp after the election, her daughter’s pregnancy, Levi Johnston, her future political aspirations, and even whether Palin was considering a talk show, (which Palin did not explicitly deny). Few answers were surprising, although the story on Bristol Palin’s pregnancy was new to me. The image given by the media then was as if her pregnancy were a surprise to the McCain camp. Thus began the unprecedented and repulsive media distortion of Sarah Palin (remember when Bristol was supposed to be the real mother of Trig?). But not only did the McCain camp know, they knew before they called her to interview.

Palin came off very clearly as the understated but definitive alpha female during the interview. Palin was very relaxed and subtly played the “alpha female” card when she would refer to her host as “Oprah” during several responses. When all was said and done, she accomplished what she wanted. She received exposure and made no news. She had no intention to make news on Oprah or Barbara Walters.

The Coming Media and Book Blitz

Democrats have always had Palin derangement syndrome, but it has lessened as they fear her less. This is because the GOP is now conflicted on how or whether to support her. The Winfrey interview will change no one’s opinion; hence it was disappointing to some Republicans.  What some Republicans want from Palin—at least those who don’t want her to simply go away—is “Frost/Nixon–Part 4″. What they want is a “confession” and an admission that she has not yet proven herself worthy, but that she will get working on it pronto. She needs to confess to all her “flaws”. She must show the public she can stop “blaming” others. She must get “educated on the issues” and not just rely on her idiot savant skills of crowd pleasing rhetoric. She must stop lowering herself by obsessing over her critics. If she does this, then maybe people like David Brooks and Peggy Noonan will like her. (To be fair, a few politicians and commentators I respect also do not want her around).

Brooks, Noonan and their ilk will never like Sarah Palin. Barack Obama can be made a fool of by the Olympic Committee; bow before Saudi Kings; get spun around by Khomeini; speak in non-sequitur precision about jobs “created or saved” in a rising unemployment market; clownishly believe in the imperative of preventing apocalyptic climate change; think that adding a multi-trillion dollar health care entitlement will create jobs; try an illegal combatant in civilian court in the city of the worst act of foreign war in US history; permit the First Lady to shut down traffic around the White House for hours once a week so she can buy fresh Tuscan kale at a “whole foods” market; say there are 57 states and ask Iowans whether they have noticed the price of arugula lately, support the Mullahs in Iran when they were killing protesters in the street, call Hugo Chavez “mi amigo” with an elbows down arm lock; agree with both Cuba and “mi amigo” in supporting ousted Honduran leftist president Manuel Zelaya;  and try to disenfranchise and silence Fox News and other media critics——etc., etc..

Obama can do all of this, but our media will never say Obama is unqualified because he needs to “get educated on the issues” or needs to “stop obsessing about his critics”. Some may call him mistaken, but none dare call him dumb. This double standard passes no test of sanity. Nor has Obama had to defend his 12 year old against Letterman rape jokes (or if she were 18 either); but if he had we would not be seeing Letterman on television ever again. Does anyone seriously not believe this?

Well, if those Obama policies are nuanced and smart, then I prefer my presidents blunt and dumb. There is zero doubt—like “absolute” zero—that Palin would not be or would not have been on the opposite side of every single one of those issues. So what exactly does she need to be educated about? She complains about her critics. What a shock she complained about Letterman. To say nothing would have been weird. The McCain camp went nuclear on her within one week of the election. This was unheard of. Yet our wise pundits say she should keep quiet. Doesn’t anyone remember what was said? They blamed her for the loss due to Diva behavior.

And “no”, she should not “confess her sin” of the Couric interview. She has admitted it went wrong. That’s quite enough. When we see all 9 hours of the taping, then we can talk about confession. Nixon had 22 minutes of missing tape and hundreds of hours of recorded tape. Couric had 22 minutes of interview and 9 hours of missing tape.

I am pretty sure she will not get hosed by the likes of Couric again. Speaking of Nixon, he was supposedly dead and buried after his loss to Pat Brown for the Governor of California in 1962. So comebacks are not uncommon at all. Palin has lost her broad public support according to the polls. But that is because she has been off stage as the critics remain on stage. She is back on stage now. If the Oprah show is an indicator, she looks pretty relaxed to me. One thing is for sure, she is a force and she knows it.

I realize life is complex and it’s easy to get confused. But the media should know by now that Tina Fey is an actress who stars on a mediocre NBC comedy, 30 Rock. She is not, as much as our genius pundits seem to think it so, the actual, you know, real Sarah Palin.


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Posted Nov 25th 2009 at 9:31 am in Culture, Media Criticism, Politics | 466 Comments