I can’t help wondering if the VP debate will be manipulated via preferentially leaked gotcha questions.

Not just the VP debate, come to think of it…

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/13/abc-news-edited-out-key-parts-sarah-palin-interview

You can see that the editors of the interview deliberately omitted key parts of the interview where Gov. Palin is answering questions re: Georgia/Russia in a measured and detailed manner.

In today’s NY Post, the indefatigable Glenn Reynolds, who always seems ahead of the curve, has a great suggestion for future hostile interviews, bring your own camera:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09132008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/bring_your_own_camera_128856.htm

Both by body language and occasional quavers in her voice, Palin seemed nervous. She kept trying to shift into the person-to-person informality in which she is comfortable, but gravitas was needed. Palin did about what might be expected from a first-term governor who has unexpectedly been thrust into a hostile national spotlight. Her insecurity is the counterpart of the teleprompter-less Obama’s uh’s and um’s.

Gibson was a pompous jerk who deserved a cream pie in the face. IMO Palin’s objectively best move was to counterattack like George H.W. Bush did during Dan Rather’s 1988 ambush interview. She doesn’t yet have the experience to be confident about using such a tactic, but it might have worked anyway.

Hostile interviewer Gibson underperformed more badly than Palin did. Most of us have had to endure sessions with smug, arrogant, unfair, entrenched, incompetent authority figures–teachers, bosses, interviewers, reviewers, bureaucrats, etc.–, and that’s how Gibson came across. Many voters may get so angry at Gibson that they will overlook Palin’s deficiencies; that may be especially true for women voters. Gibson made a much stronger case for media bias than he made against Palin.

There is considerable merit to Glenn Reynolds’ suggestion that candidates bring their own cameramen to interviews. I can’t help wondering if the VP debate will be manipulated via preferentially leaked gotcha questions.

The Gibson interview was an early round of a match between a fast-learning rookie and a bunch of know-it-all veterans. Hopefully Palin will correct her deficiencies faster than the MSM correct theirs.

This was a deliberate and premeditated attempt at the public ruin of an innocent woman in aid of an ideology. Thanks to the alternative media it seems to be failing.

It should be noted that when Gov. Palin asked Charlie Gibson for clarification on the Bush Doctrine, he botched the definition, which is not in his words “the right to a preemptive strike”. The Bush Doctrine claims that a country that harbors terrorists is just as responsible for any terror attacks as the terrorists themselves- which was his justification for attacking the terrorists in Afghanistan AND the Taliban.

After watching the interview, I thought Palin did fine, and that Gibson failed in his attempt to look and act like an intellectual.

Although the race appears to be close right now, what you’re looking at here is a blowout on Nov. 4.