Much has been made of the 'blizzard of words' that is let loose whenever Sarah Palin strays from her prepared text. People say that her sentences cannot be diagrammed, that she doesn't make any sense, that you have to trim away words to find her meaning. I disagree. I think she makes perfect sense, as long as you read her as you would a fill-in-the blanks puzzle, like a crossword or a numbrix.
Let's look at this excerpt from the Greta Van Susteren interview on Fox:
VAN SUSTEREN: Did he pop the question? Almost sounds like getting — you know, like — I mean, how do you ask someone? I mean, what does he say? Does he turn to you and say, you know, Governor Palin — I mean, what — how does he do this? How does he ask you?
PALIN: He just looking right in my eyes and saying, Are you ready for this? Would you like to do this? And I said, I would be honored to run with you. Absolutely. And I thanked him for taking the chance on me also.
I mean, just talk about — that was the epitome of being the maverick, somebody bold, somebody thinking outside of the box, not going with, no doubt, what a lot of the — more of the conventional wisdom would have dictated, you know, go get somebody who's already on the national scene and perhaps it would be a safer type of pick.
Palin's response seems like gibberish, but only if you refuse to play along. I think it's pretty easy to play the game and fill in the obvious missing words. Then the whole thing makes perfect sense. Let's give it a try. In fact, I'll even fill in some of Van Susteren's words as well. Added text is in boldface:
VAN SUSTEREN: Did he pop the question? Almost sounds like getting married. Oops. Sorry, that's awkward. — you know, like — I mean, how do you ask someone? I mean, what does he say? Does he turn to you and say, you know, Governor Palin, you are totally unready for this, but ... Ooops, sorry. That's awkward too. — I mean, what — how does he do this? How does he ask you?
PALIN: He was just looking right in my eyes and saying, Are you ready for this? Because nobody is going to believe this pick. Would you like to do this? And I said, I would be honored to run with you. Absolutely. And I thanked him for taking the chance on a completely inexperienced and unready person like me also.
I mean, just talk about balls! That was the epitome of being the maverick, somebody bold, somebody thinking outside of the box, not going with, no doubt, what common sense or what a lot of the experts and — more of the conventional wisdom would have dictated. A cooler, more rational person would, you know, go and get somebody who's already on the national scene and perhaps it would be a safer and more presidential type of pick.
I don't think I have gone out on a limb in filling in the blanks. The problem is not that Palin's speech doesn't make sense. It's just that once she starts talking, she gets one hasty, ill-formed idea after another, and repeatedly changes course, without ever finishing a thought. She gets close sometimes, and then realizes that the end of that thought will be embarrassing. So she changes direction and rushes down another blind alley. It has the feel of a person frantically rifling through a set of drawers, looking for the one tool that will complete the job she has already started.
It's sort of amazing that she could be looking ahead to 2012 when she can't even think ahead to the end of her sentence.