Take a look at a clip from another typically vapid and disastrous Sarah Palin television interview and see what it looks like when the reporter is actually uninterested in clarifications or follow ups. I guess that's what Palin has moved on to these days. Local affiliate interviews with reporters who won't ask anything hard.
But that doesn't actually mean Palin gives correct answers. Oh, no! Far from it! All it means is that the reporter asking the questions doesn't give any indication of being aware that the answers are incorrect.
Here's her answer to the last question she's asked. It's a doozy, and she has to b.s. her way through it. It came from a third grader, after all:
Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, "What does the Vice President do?"
PALIN: Aw, that’s something that Piper would ask me, as a second grader, also. That's a great question, Brandon, and a Vice President has a really great job, because no only are they there to support the President agenda, they're like a team member, the team mate to that President. But also, they're in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it's a great job and I look forward to having that job.
The correct response to this answer, of course, is that the Vice President may sit as the presiding officer of the Senate, but has no legislative role whatsoever, with the exception of casting tie-breaking votes if the Senate is deadlocked. There's no "get[tin'] in there with the Senators and mak[in'] a lot of good policy changes." Which is why modern Vice Presidents hardly ever bother to take the chair on more than a few ceremonial occasions.
But that's not the response the reporter gives. Instead, it's your standard, "Governor Palin, thanks so much..." blah, blah, I didn't notice that you just filibustered your way through a third grader's question and actually ended up blowing it.
Good Lord!
By the way, it's worth noting that Palin takes the opportunity to sneak in yet another stupid dig about her having more "executive experience" than Barack Obama, and yet when she's asked what the Vice President does, her answer is that the job is legislative in nature -- a job with which she has... you guessed it... practically zero experience. And compared to her opposite number on the Democratic ticket, Joe Biden, well, it's hardly worth mentioning that you were once on the Wasilla City Council, now isn't it?
Anyway, the full interview, available at Think Progress, is actually chock full of squid ink b.s., proving once again that Sarah Palin rarely if ever knows the actual answer to even the simplest and most straightforward questions.
For example:
Q: Do you think there's such a thing as clean coal?
A: Oh, yeah, absolutely! We need to develop that clean coal technology. I know that Joe Biden has told the voter that, "No, there is no such thing. We don't support clean coal." No! Call him on that! Absolutely that technology needs to be found.
Normal person's reaction: So... is there such a thing as clean coal, or is that technology that "needs to be found," as you said?
Actual reporter's reaction:
Finally, Governor, we've been trying to engage some local grade schoolers in the last few elections. We do a feature called, "Questions from the Third Grade."
And that takes us back to the top.
Seriously, I encourage you to take a look at the whole video. There's already an ongoing discussion of it in this diary by BJ Rudell. It's an incredible performance of her "word spray" technique, even on totally subjective questions like, "Talk about if you feel you're ready for this position." (Note, too, that this is a viewer submitted question. That's almost certainly not the way it was worded, either. But the reporter is likely softening it, possibly quite a bit.) Watch Palin squirt out the stalest, cheesiest talking points imaginable in response to this "question." She almost forgets to include the one about how she's got "more executive experience than Barack Obama," but then goes on to ramble through her typical nonsense and non-sequiturs about the "worldview that I share with John McCain," her "understanding of the team effort" necessary "to put America back on the right track," "reining in government growth, blah, blah, tax cuts, blah, blah small business, blah, blah "that's how jobs are created," blah, blah, "getting our country firmly on a path toward energy independence," "combine that worldview with the experience and absolutely I feel that I'm ready."
Seriously! This is an answer to the question of whether she's ready. And the Politician in a CanTM hand gestures are just precious!
Truly masterful. And they didn't open the trap door under her chair even once!