Video of Sarah Palin Debut on Fox News Channel with Bill O'Reilly

Sarah Palin made her debut as a contributor/analyst on Fox News Channel yesterday in an interview with Bill O'Reilly. Her analytical debut was short; it was actually in the form of an interview with Fox News Channel flagship/"bigshot" Bill O'Reilly and lasted a mere 15-or-so minutes divided into two segments. The breadth of the interview and Palin's resulting analysis were quite mundane as the usual topics of interest in current event news were covered, though the pacing of the questions on which Palin could offer analysis was pretty speedy, thanks to O'Reilly. These were in order: Palin's analysis of why liberals hate her so much; why Obama's poll numbers are in unstoppable free fall; if she and McCain could've brought down unemployment by now; what she thought of Nancy Pelosi; Harry Reid's racism; Iran policy; the Game Change Book; Steve Schmidt; and upcoming events.

Palin gets asked right off the bat why the liberal establishment is so petrified of her to the point that it manifests in the most insanely virulent attacks on her and her family. To make his point, O'Reilly emphasis in good-natured jest that he (Mr. 6-foot-4-inches tall) doesn't feel threatened by her at all! Palin speculates the liberal hatred is because she's a conventional conservative who faithfully espouses true, conservative beliefs, yet O'Reilly cuts in and reminds her that other mainstream conservatives who do the same thing as her haven't suffered the severity of the viciousness of the attacks that she's had to stomach.

The analysis next switches over to Obama's seeming impotence at doing anything to successfully prevent his free fall in his poll numbers. Palin immediately picks up on the fact that Obama's dying numbers are the direct result of voter dissatisfaction over his unpopular policies and his refusal to listen to the American people who don't want Obamacare.

When asked what she and McCain would've done to bring down unemployment faster by now, Palin astutely goes to the argument of private sector-stimulation-in direct opposition to the egregiously failed Obama policy of misspending stimulus money on government initiatives-and how tax cuts to small businesses and the private sector would make the economy grow and lower unemployment.

On the topic of Nancy Pelosi, Palin curiously and unexpectedly cuts her some slack by alleging that even her constituents-that's right, her San Fransicko, liberal base of progressives-find Pelosi out of touch with them! Now, I would think that Pelosi's constituents-if they have complaints about Pelosi-would only complain that she's not doing enough to socialize America faster, not that she's out of touch with her own base in the way that Obama's policies are out of touch with average Americans.

As the conversation switches to Harry Reid's racist comments, Palin dutifully cites the double-standard of the GOP always getting unjustly hammered in the case of Lott, yet when the Dems perpetrate racist soundbites, they give themselves a pass.

The 1st segment wraps up with Palin saying that in regards to Iran, US policy should move from mere words to more action involving sanctions.

The 2nd segments starts off instantly with O'Reilly confronting Palin with another round of criticism, this time in the form of the scandal-mongering book Game Change. Palin comes out of the gate with guns blazing and immediately calls a claim by one of the authors, John Heilemann, that she didn't know the difference between North and South Korea a total lie. When challenged by O'Reilly about other claims by the author, she steadily knocks them down each in turn, attributing their dubious quality to the fact that the authors never spoke to her and are "political establishment" gossip-mongers who love to provoke controversy.

Dovetailing with this, O'Reilly next turns the interview to accusations that RINO Republican and McCain adviser, Steve Schmidt, was launching at her on 60 Minutes, primary among them that Palin was unprepared and disorganized during her debate with Joe Biden. This Palin knocks down as false, but when is repeatedly pressed by O'Reilly whether this qualifies as a "lie" on Schmidt's part, always declines to use that exact word. The two of them then proceed to marginally disagreeing with each other on the importance of said phony accusations against Palin, with Palin dismissing their relevance while O'Reilly keeps reminding her that it'd be in her best interest to aggressively knock down said character assassinations that are designed to make her look "dumb," especially now when she has the Fox News Channel forum.

The analysis interview ends with a plug for Palin's upcoming appearance at a Tea Party event and a more "ominous" promise from Palin: that she will in fact be doing a lot more setting the record straight now that she's a Fox News Channel contributor.

This writer was a bit disappointed that the interview was quite short and the topics covered given such a brief attention. The interview itself seemed almost like it was a tad pressed for time, and O'Reilly certainly helped this perception by rapidly asking her many questions as he quickly jumped from topic to topic. Nonetheless, it would've been nicer to perhaps reduce the amount of topics covered by O'Reilly to allow for more in-depth reasoning and analysis by Palin. On the whole, I'd give this interview a 7 because of how tersely they tore through each subject instead of taking their time.

To send Marc questions, praise or criticism, you can email him at marc_schenker@telus.net

Additional Reading: Islamic Terrorism on the Rise Domestically and Internationally since Obama Became President in 2009, A Year After Obama and Romer's Recovery Plan, 3 Million Jobs Lost and 10% Unemployment, Barack Obama Top Ten Bloopers of 2009

Sources:

Frazier Moore, Sarah Palin makes debut as Fox News contributor, AP

Jim Vandehei, Obama, Dems sharpen personal attacks on Palin, Politico

Toby Harnden, Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years, Telegraph

Jonathan Martin, Steve Schmidt: Sarah Palin has trouble with truth, Politico