Palin to Not Answer Questions from Media During Campaign

by: Matt Stoller

Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 10:40


Jay Carney reports.

According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace -- in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough's show -- the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.

I don't believe this.  I think they are just setting up another dramatic moment when Palin can come in and exceed expectations again.

Still, is there any precedent for this?
Matt Stoller :: Palin to Not Answer Questions from Media During Campaign

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Palin to Not Answer Questions from Media During Campaign | 24 comments
the emperess has no clothes (4.00 / 3)
It makes perfect sense to me. She is totally unqualified for national politics and is a tabula rasa on most issues especially foreign policy. They want to hide that fact from the media and the public as much as possible. I predict she does eventually go on Fox Noise.  
I saw somewhere that Palin isn't going to do any press avails until next week (0.00 / 0)
Or maybe the week after.  Still very brazen, but not nearly as over-the-top as saying that she won't answer any questions for the rest of the campaign.  Is that really what Nicole Wallace was claiming?
For the 'soft bigotry (4.00 / 4)
of low expectations' being a major selling-point of a VP candidate?

I think you're completely right that this is trying to set the bar down low again.

But if they really intend to keep her away from the press, I can see that working, too. She'll become a major, major 'get'. So make the press work to deserve that kinda prize. Reward good coverage with access. Is there any reason to think that wouldn't pay off for the McCain campaign?

cue Hillary (4.00 / 7)
Hillary should go out there and remind people what it's like to have a female candidate who can talk intelligently about the issues.  Hillary has the potential to deliver a huge smackdown.
A thousand yeses (4.00 / 2)
She actually had a good statement on all this nonsense.

"The two party conventions showcased vastly different directions for our country. Senator Obama and Senator Biden offered the new ideas and positive change America needs and deserves after eight years of failed Republican leadership. Senator McCain and Governor Palin do not.

After listening to all the speeches this week, I heard nothing that suggests the Republicans are ready to fix the economy for middle class families, provide quality affordable health care for all Americans, guarantee equal pay for equal work for women, restore our nation's leadership in a complex world or tackle the myriad of challenges our country faces. So, to slightly amend my comments from Denver: NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN-PALIN."

She'll be campaigning for Barack, Monday in Florida.


[ Parent ]
Ready to Lead - - - but not ready to answer a reporter's question (4.00 / 4)

Queens Don't Give Interviews (4.00 / 2)
They give commands.

And speeches only when necessary.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
we need a Palin interview clock n/t (4.00 / 1)

An interview clock with a contrast count of how many times Biden has spoken to the press (0.00 / 0)
since her announcement

Bet they could get the number high enough Biden and her no show long enough that there is an ad there

With the words: Can face the press and answer questions, ready to Lead day 1

'I'm Barack Obama I approve this message'

[ Parent ]
especially with Biden (0.00 / 0)
guy loves the camera :)

vodamusic.com
[ Parent ]
This is bad news for McInsain (4.00 / 2)
If this is true they  are terrified of this womans lack of experience and what she might say. they will try to get around the charge of boycotting the media by scheduling softball interviews on Faux, Politico and othe rightwingnut outlets and pundits. This will tick of the TM, and how!
They won't do this (4.00 / 3)
They'll try to stage manager her appearances as much as possible but at some point they know she's going to have to get out there and field questions from the media.

I'm tired of the meme, kind of btw, that we should let Palin self destruct on her own. This woman is dangerous, unqualified, manipulative and unlikable. Of course the campaign shouldn't say this but the rest of us should stay on her.

Of course they won't do this (0.00 / 0)
The clip cited in the original link simply does not support the claim that Palin will not answer questions, and it would be absurd to believe that.  Of course, they'll try to manipulate the media and limit her exposure; but refusing outright to answer any questions ain't gonna happen.
[ Parent ]
Which Is Why My Diary--Just Posted--Doesn't Make That Claim (0.00 / 0)
I think this is a feint to see how far they can go in this direction.  But it's clearly not an official campaign announcement.

Still, if they could get away with it completely, I don't think there's any doubt that they would.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Todd Harris (0.00 / 0)
just said on Hardball a "couple of weeks" and anticipated negative "process stories" about it.

vodamusic.com
[ Parent ]
So, basically, Palin is irrelevant according to the GOP (4.00 / 1)
Fine, then ignore her and deal with the candidates that actually have something to contribute to the campaign and to the country.

Biden should go out of his way to be available for all the kind of public appearances that Palin eschews. Doesn't have to mention her beyond comments like, "Sarah who?", "My virtual opponent", or "I can't speak to Palin's views, because I don't know what they are".  

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

You're correct not to believe this. (0.00 / 0)
Carney is speculating with no evidence.
http://hotair.com/archives/200...
"is there any precedent for this?" (4.00 / 3)
Yes. George Bush. Not as a campaigner but as president. Most of his public appearances consisted of tightly scripted events with hand-picked audiences. Interview opportunities and access to him were doled out as a privilege for "good reporting." Maybe they are just setting her up for another "hero moment" like she had at the RNC. But it's conceivable that they genuinely feel that they can handle her way into office, as Bush was handled through his presidency.
Yup. H.W. was... (0.00 / 0)
..also prone to gaffes, like this one from 1988: "I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, anti-racism."

"This ain't for the underground. This here is for the sun." -Saul Williams
[ Parent ]
if the msm (0.00 / 0)
does their job this no answering questions won't fly, do you believe in miracles, well i don't.
Unless she's more of an empty suit than we even imagined (4.00 / 1)
this is insanity for them.  She made huge waves this week.  If McCain wants to win, she needs to be in the media as often as possible, making statements and getting her face on TV.  People are excited about, and interested in, her.  

Sequestering her will do nothing but force mcCain's other surrogates to the forefront, and as we saw this week, they largely range from 'ok' to 'boring' to 'horrible'.  

The only explanation of this is that she really doesn't know anything about the issues that she would get questioned on.

a little indian history (4.00 / 1)
Still, is there any precedent for this?

When Nehru died in 1964, there was really no one prominent to take over.  And when his successor died in 1966, the men in the backroom appointed his daughter - Indira Gandhi - who they thought they could control (she was called a "doll" or something).

I think there is a similar dynamic at play, where an extraordinary conservative and patriarchal institution has found a pretty face with some political skills but want her boxed in, controlled, and used as a doll.

Here's what happened with Indira Gandhi:

As it turns out, they couldn't control her, and she eventually divided the party into two (one of which they named after her--Congress (Indira)) and had to deal with the worst economic and political period in India's history and eventually became a constitutional dictator fronm 1975 to 1977, and then held an election where her party - nehru's party - lost national power for the first time since independence.  Then she regained power in 1979 after two short years, and then was assassinated in 1984.

Anyway, this is a very complicated situation and it depends on what Palin is really like - she could go quietly into the night after this campaign or flame out in a blaze of ill-spoken glory, and that would probably be unsurprising.  But another possibility is that she ends up acquiring enough clout (if she wants it) to create a splinter party.  She's like Huckabee, but more entertaining and they've given her more power than she probably knows what to do with right now.  And given that she's managed in a little less than two years to rise from the governor of a tiny town to a vp nominee - regardless of the many many ways in which it had nothing to do with her - and that she's successfully defended herself among more scandals in a week than most politicians deal with in a year, she could have a somewhat scary but ineffectual future.

There is something about her fast rise to prominennce.... (0.00 / 0)
.....with little real accomplishments to justify it, that suggests to me some kind of grooming process by party elites.  I'd say they rolled her out one or two election seasons earlier than planned, but she is not just coming out of the blue.

The question is, who is backing her?  Is she a tool of the corporate party masters?  The connections with AIP, and the fact that she was apparently careful not to become a member herself, suggests more worrying possibilities.

Not that her bullying vindictive borrow-and-spend Cheney-esque tendencies don't worry me plenty as well.  Even Cheney didn't force his gay daughter into a marriage of convenience.

[ Parent ]
i don't know if it's as planned as that (0.00 / 0)
I agree she's not coming out of the blue - if I heard her name before the nominating process, I can pretty well assume that some discussion was there, even if the vetting process etc was, um, non-existent for this cycle.  The myth of the undefeatable and conspiratorial Republicans is accurate, I think, to some extent, but I think it's overdone.

I think what might have happened is that the process of adapting to the new class-emphasis environment (which is only going to increase) necessitates the "folksy" for the pro-rich but not responsibly pro-market party (anymore).  She's what's the matter with Kansas.  The batshit insane pseudopopulist who isn't just using the tropes of the working class, but actually genuinely believes them (which is what makes her frightening).  

So she's following in the tradition of Huckabee, George Wallace, etc.  Because the Republicans are out of options until they can readjust by 2016.

Just speculation.  Fun :)

[ Parent ]
Palin to Not Answer Questions from Media During Campaign | 24 comments
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