An Interview There Will Be

Talk Left is discussing the pressure on Sarah Palin to do an interview. They basically have covered the bases so I'm just going to let them have their say. Pretty smart for a bunch of lefties. If you want to stop reading this post now let me just give you the short version. Those clamoring for an interview by a major Shrinking Media outlet have been pwned.

Here is a person who thinks that all the "she is afraid to be interviewed" stuff in numerous comments on the 'net have worked in Palin's favor.

Lowered the bar again. by Chisoxy on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:35:31 PM EST

And we played right into it. Let's say she passes this test and comes off as competent on matters, where are we then

I know the answer, ask me ask me. A little farther behind. Of course it does help ∅bama, it takes the spotlight off Biden.

Now here is a commenter who understands PR. Give kredwyn a cigar.

Isn't it a rule of PR... by kredwyn on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:40:49 PM EST

that you make the thing that everyone wants unavailable until the calls hit a point...and then you pump it up a bit more by offering a few of that item?

Hollywood PR by dailygrind on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:21:47 PM EST

You not only limit access you control who gets to talk to you. You control what gets to be asked. Liberals are so dumb. I say that as one. The same things we know in other context, we go brain dead in the political setting. The Republicans long ago mastered the art of media management. Meanwhile, we are happy just to get them to stop blocking us. It's quite sad.

Well yes it is. For Democrats. For Republicans - not so much.

The McCain campaign is playing this by tootired on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:47:18 PM EST

like a violin. And it's a Stradivarius. Underestimate them at your own peril.

What digby Said by kaleidescope on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:00:03 PM EST

Here's what she said:

They are going to work themselves into a frenzy over this. And the right will hold Palin off just long enough for the outcry to become deafening. And then Palin will appear in front of a gargantuan television audience (again) on something like 60 Minutes --- and do quite well. They are already working the media hard to make sure they don't go for the jugular -- and they won't.

As usual, digby makes depressing sense. All the clamor for Palin to be interviewed succeeds in setting the bar so low that when she performs relatively well on a toothless interview, she'll be spun as the second coming. Who's going to be interviewing her? Mr. capital gains tax cut, Charlie Gibson. Remember how he performed during the Democratic debates? Wanna take any bets on whether he gives Palin a serious grilling, showing clips of her telling Congress, "thanks but no thanks" about the bridge and then pulling up all her statements in favor of it? Gibson will be eating out of Palin's hand.

Since in politics as in warfare moral forces prevail, getting the opposition in a bad psychological state is the first step to a win. And if you can get them in a bad enough state, an easy win.

In StrategyBHL Hart suggests that the best tactic is to hold off your offense until the defense is frothing:

It was Lenin who enunciated the axiom that 'the soundest strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the delivery of the mortal blow both possible and easy.'

I think press access to Sarah will be rationed. This gives the campaign the leverage to choose the interviewer and makes the rest of the press start behaving better in the hopes of an interview. Sound tactics. As one of the commenters alluded to above: these guys are no ordinary fiddlers.

Now here is a commenter that notices something important.

This is why the GOP by Salo on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:07:01 PM EST

do not select lawyers as their Chief. They select professional actors instead. The main legacy of Reagan if you like

Even if he's done the research to grill her she'll do what she needs to do. The expectations are so much lower than Bush in '99--she's the No2 and she's a former beauty queen and she's a novice and she's only just popped onto the radar--and fatally for Obama chances in November, the media piddled on Hillary Clinton in a completely disgusting and unfair way. The GOP clearly have teh momentum and if she's just professional, demure and cleverly echo's a few of Clinton's rhetorical tricks she'll crush any attempt to ambush her.

So how about the Dem ticket. Well if you want to score it that would be 2 lawyers to 0 lawyers. Which clearly puts the Democrats behind. Which reminds me of a joke I read in a comment today in reference to Sarah Palin being a pit bull with lipstick. The commenter said "They put the lipstick on the wrong end of the pit bull". OK. Back to serious stuff.

The downside? by Donald from Hawaii on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:31:03 PM EST

That would clearly be if said interview is conducted by Charles Gibson.

Charles Gibson is the one that... by Maria Garcia on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:34:14 PM EST

...George Bush favors when he wants to do an interview.

Welcome to the downside. by Donald from Hawaii on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 05:37:56 PM EST

The New York Times September 7, 2008

Palin Interview Goes to ABC News - "ABC's Charlie Gibson is scheduled to interview Ms. Palin in Alaska sometime later this week. The McCain camp did not say why it chose Mr. Gibson, but it had selected him last week as the only major journalist to interview Mr. McCain himself during the Republican convention in St. Paul. After his interview with Mr. McCain had aired, Mr. Gibson posted on his blog that he had 'fretted' about how to approach the many personal issues that had come up about Ms. Palin and decided to ignore them."

Ruh, Roh.

Now here is some really bad news for Democrats

Historically, by tootired on Sun Sep 07, 2008 at 06:45:10 PM EST

after both conventions are over, and we move into the general election, Republicans gain in the polls, and Democrats go down. Obama has no margin. The full bounce for McCain has probably not been reached yet. It doesn't mean that Obama will lose the election, but it does say that he not yet on a roll.

Well as of today the candidates are tied, even steven, although some polls give McCain/Palin a slight but statistically insignificant margin.

Now I have a theory as to why the polls tend to go in the Republican direction as it gets closer to election time. Pollsters cheat. When the election is at hand they want to be as close as possible because it makes them look good. But in the early stages of the election season they want to demoralize the Republicans. The bad thing though is that it gives the Democrats over confidence and they can't figure out why they lose elections. You know, it is the old "but we were way ahead in the polls" refrain.

Baring some catastrophe it looks to me like the Democrats have lost the election. I expect the ∅bama campaign to get more frantic as time goes on.

Cross Posted at Classical Values