I Want to Give Sarah Palin a Hug

I want to give Sarah Palin a hug. I really feel bad for her. She has gotten in way over her head. And it shows.

Do you remember the interview where the Governor was talking about that she didn't know what a vice president did? I really think she was serious. Sure, she tried to play it off later during the debate as if she was joking, but it became very apparent the more face time she got on camera. She must have thought it was going to be a breeze, I guess. I mean, how hard could it be to be a vice president, right. Nobody ever sees that person. For all she knew that person just gets to travel the world and promote education and smile. That reminds me of that movie, "Dave" where the vice president just was sent to Africa on trips to "look around." Who knew that the VP actually had to know stuff about what was going on in the world.

That is what I think the problem is, primarily. Governor Palin probably was one of those candidates in Alaska that was "Jane Citizen" who went up against the system and everyone liked what she was saying and she was elected. Then because she was able to do a good job in a city that has less people than the company I work for, she felt that she could take on the system at the state level. And that is the benefit of corruption. People don't like it, and when someone stands up against it, they can probably get voted in. So she became Governor. She didn't have to know much outside of what was going on in her state.

Then she got the call. Ring, ring. "Hi, do you want to be the Vice President?" To which she was like, "Sure, why not." She was amazingly confident at the Republican National Convention. This would be easy, she thought. Just trash talk. They had pumped up her ego. But then she met Katie Couric.

Katie did not show her the mercy that Charlie Gibson did. She got right down to business with the woman who would be one heart beat away from running one of the most powerful offices in the world. Katie had to make sure she was up to the job. But Sarah's bad college study habits of cramming before the test did not suit her here-- not when Katie was asking for specifics. Governor Palin struggled with those questions. She could only give high level surface answers. I could feel her pain. I remember being in college and not getting a chance to study very well for a big test on subjects that I was not necessarily interested in. The test was covering 9 chapters that were about 140 pages each. I had two nights to study for it, as well as go to work. It was very difficult to dig deep and get a real conceptual comprehensive understanding of the topics. When I got to the test sure I could give some "BS" answers for the essay questions, and even take a chance on some of the multiple choice options. But when I got to the questions asking for me to name 5 examples of "such and such" I was in the dark. This is what happened to Sarah in her interview with Katie. Katie kept asking for specific examples. It flustered Governor Palin to not be allowed to give her studied and rehearsed answers. It was awful to watch... painful even. It throw all that RNC confidence out the window. She could not even answer a simple question on what magazines she liked to read. Her answer was vague, something like " There are lots of magazines that cover various topics and I read lots of them." What?

Everyone was in stitches when Katie asked Sarah for specific examples of Senator McCain's "maverickness" and after Katie got tired of going around in circles, she said, "Governor Palin I am only going to ask you one more time for specific examples..." To which the Governor answered, "Well Katie, I will go and get the answers and get that back to you." Someone must not have informed her that it was not a "take-home" interview.

I think that she is in over her head and she knows it. I think that she wants to quit but have reached the point of no return. She has been hurting her party rather than helping. It was awful. It got down to the point that the expectations of her was so low that all she had to do was show up for the debate and not say something stupid she would have considered to be a success. I am sad for her. She is trapped and she wants out. She has to watch herself on Saturday Night Live, and have people dog her out. They try to compare her to Hillary Clinton, which is the biggest joke of all. At least Hillary is qualified. People laugh out loud at this comparison- and they would probably do it in her face. I know it comes with the territory, but I don't think that is terrain that she actually wants to be in. She needs a hug. But it probably won't help.