Palin Debut: Good, Not Great

I watched the complete Palin Fox debut with O'Reilly via FireAndreaMitchell. She gave O'Reilly the perfunctory bow, calling him the BMOC. That might get harder for her with O'Reilly, unless she's willing to pass for just another female good luck charm on O'Reilly's bracelet at Fox. While I'm far from a sensitive liberal male, he's never impressed me much with the way he handles himself with women on his show. He too often comes across as a boor, rarely if ever giving them credit for being much beyond eye candy to brighten up his show. A woman can be bright and be eye candy, too. But when they want more respect than O'Reilly seems ready to give a woman, problems have been known to occur.

Sarah Palin’s Debut On Fox News With Bill O’Reilly on the O’Reilly Factor was a good one.

As for Palin, her remarks on the Nashville Tea Party event disappointed to the extent that nothing she said told me she understands the movement behind the movement very well.

Allah writes:

O’Reilly asks her about the other accusations in “Game Change” — whether she really couldn’t explain the differences between the two Koreas or who the enemy was in Iraq, etc. — and accepts her denials without asking her to elaborate too much, which is too bad for Palin since I’m sure she was prepared to answer. Alas.

I've no idea why allah is confident she's prepared to respond in depth. Hopefully she will bring more depth to her experiene, positions and opinions going forward. This first go round was hardly the best forum to do it. But it seems to me Palin is at something of a pivot point.

People are bound to assume I'm trashing her, though honestly I'm really not. She has everything she needs to be a bright star both at Fox and for the Right in general terms. I'm not questioning that at all. And I believe she has the potential to do tremendous good.

My open questions go more toward any future for her in electoral politics, assuming she wants a future there. I'm unconvinced. But if she wants that kind of future anytime soon, she's going to have to start getting down below superficial talking points like, she stands for what's right, for what amounts to common sense.

Those are easy words to get conservatives on board with you. But as for what types of policies they might translate to in some future Palin administration, we can't really know, as beyond energy, Sarah Palin hasn't gotten around to telling us very much, yet. If she does want a political future, hopefully she will.

It's going to be fun to watch her develop an on air presence at Fox over time. I've no doubt she's going to retain tons of fans. But voters and fans are two entirely different things. My political reaction to her so far probably lines up fairly well with those of Brit Hume. You'll have to tolerate O'Reilly running on for two minutes to get to the part with Brit.

Comments

[Gary Ogletree]

Darling Sarah seemed nervous, looking like a deer in the headlights. I suspect she realized that once again she had given away the power to define herself to someone she can't trust, Pompous Bill. Glen Beck knows how to handle Bill, maybe Sarah will take charge in the future. I think it was less than good. To have pundits immediately discuss her performance was very poor form, the media hack showing through. She's not a government official nor a candidate. O'Reilly may have done this out of a need to confirm himself as top dog. However, Sarah has a habit of learning from her experience and adjusting accordingly. The upside is this venue will really test and hone her skills. One of these days she will own O'Reilly. Recall how she put a collar and a leash on Letterman.

[Fred Zeppelin]

Be good to see her on Beck tonite at 5p.

Be nothing better to see Begala, Combs, and the Editorial staff of the NYT go Scanners over her success.

[spwbt]

http://texas4palin.blogspot.com/2010/01/sarah-palin-no-financial-gain-from-tea.html

Sarah Palin: No financial gain from Tea Party speech

*
Once again, a number of pundits on both the left and the right were wrong about Sarah Palin. The former governor has been the subject of considerable criticism from many, including some widely respected bloggers in conservative circles for demanding, they alleged, a six-figure dollar amount for the speech she will deliver to the Tea Party Convention. Gov. Palin debunked that notion in her discussion with Bill O'Reilly tonight.

Here's the transcript of that discussion (from about 5:30 in the second segment):

BOR: Finally, you're going to do a Tea Party event in Nashville, Tennessee in February. Now, I predicted that you may run on the Tea Party ticket in [2012].

SHP: Well, there is no Tea Party ticket.

BOR: There could be.

SHP: I am so thankful for the Tea Party movement, for people having a place for their voice to be heard. I can't wait to do this event, and there are a lot of Tea Party events...

BOR: keynote, here right?

SHP: I believe I am the keynote. There will be other speakers, too, though, but I can't wait to get to hear from those who are so concerned about our economy and about our national security issues and share with them what I believe the solutions are.

BOR: They'll love you at the Tea Party, boy. They will love you!

SHP: Well, I can't wait to be there, and there's always that controversy it seems surrounding whatever it is that I announce I'm going to do. There's controversy involved in this one because the Tea Party offered me a speaking fee. I will not financially be gaining anything from this.

BOR: You should, though. You have a family to support. Take the money.

SHP: You know what's more important? More important than money in my pocket from an event like that is being able to turn it right back around and contribute to campaigns, candidates and issues that will help our country.
There are some apologies owed to Sarah Palin. This is what happens when otherwise very smart conservative bloggers take for granted the crap in articles from left wing sources such as Politico. You can understand how the nutroots left would run with any old BS they get from the lamestream media that they think they can use against Sarah Palin, but conservative bloggers should know better.

[bishop]

It was an initial intro, bogged down by having to respond to ludicrous claims, propounded by interested parties like Schmidt, who wanted to cover up his ineptness. Her foreign policy and
debate team, Beigun and Schueneman, defended her back in November 2008 when similar claims were
put forth, and will likely do so again. Politico has proven as bad as MSNBC in pushing the Democratic
spin, as with this tea party thing, the NRCC dinner, the Wisconsin RTL speech, the Anchorage Speech, etc, etc, plus they are teeming with hard to vanquish malware

[Huey]

I've never been too greatly impressed with Palin's ability to speak off-the-cuff. She does okay, generally, but doesn't have the ability to speak with authority on subjects that people such as Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly et. al have -- an ability honed through decades of practice in front of the mike. Her strengths are more in tune with what she's done for most of her adult life, speechifying and running things, i.e., convincing people to vote for her by preparing (and then giving) speeches which set forth her beliefs/values and then doing the job for which she is elected in accordance with those beliefs/values.

If she's going to be just another talking head amongst other talking heads, she'll be diminished. If she does more "specials" where she sets the agenda, maybe it'll be good, not just for her, but for the conservative movement.

Time will tell.

[Fe]

Bill O is insufferable. What bothers me about this Steve Schmidt guy is he seems to be telling me I'm stupid, a dupe, and using liberal media with a wink and a nod to do it. Just as James "measure my penis" Carville told the college kids on C-SPAN that Obama was deemed the most marketable by msm newsrooms, and therefore, they were pushing his candidacy, Schmidt seems to be equating Palin "rabid" supporters as to those who fell for Obambi's veneers -- Schmidt alone manufactured Palin and the public fell for it by giving the ticket more votes than McCain could have gotten without her because McCain was the only smart candidate with a known track record, and wasn't gafftastic.

It's as if Schmidt has blind faith the public hasn't checked out Palins record for themselves and are only relying on msm hit pieces to be informed voters. Not. So Palin's past record of not tolerating corruption on either side of the isle was just a ruse to propel her into a position to take advantage of the real money available on a national Chicago Way stage? Not buying it. Everyone knows McCain is a RINO, and all of Schmidt and the mainstream medias use of him will not change it.

[Jack Okie]

How many of you pontificating about Palin's ability to "speak off the cuff" or if she understands "the movement behind the movement" (whatever that means) have watched, really watched, the debates during the last Alaska gubernatorial campaign? How many of you really understand the long standing issues in Alaska, like the pipe-line or oil company compensation, that she got done when others before her failed? Was taking on the corrupt old guard in her own party, and winning, just a fluke? Evidence of her ability and competence abounds. You peck-sniffs ought to do your research.

Dan, I keep trying to believe you don't have an agenda, but the way you defended Keene and the ACU make we wonder. Keene is a "part-time" chairman, so it's OK if shenanigans happen under his watch? That's pretty lame. I have had part-time responsibilities too, but I never felt "part-time" meant I wasn't on the spot for knowing what was going on.

Dan, one thing I think you're missing is that the Tea Party movement happened AFTER SP appeared on the scene. She provided the inspiration for millions of us to get off our butts, ditch the fatalism, and get to work. As a tea partier myself, I think she understands a hell of a lot more than you do.

[alwaysfiredup]

I like the idea of Palin as Fox contributor, but I also thought her debut less than stellar. TV is a fast-paced medium, but her responses were slow and stilted. She's got to pick it up to make it a success, hopefully that will come with more experience. This would get no more than a C from me and I've seen her do better in book tour interviews.

And please, can we hear Palin on some other topic than Palin? Sheesh.

[Jack Okie]

alwaysfiredup:

Tune in to Beck today for another look at Palin.

[Huey]

Jack Okie: I'm basing my opinions of Palin's ability to speak "off-the-cuff" on watching her do so in her many interviews -- especially those given to friendly reporters.

She does an okay job. Nothing to be ashamed of, but nothing to be crowing about either. She just doesn't have that honed presence that one gets by doing it for decades. She comes off as what she is -- someone who doesn't do this for a living.

Don't get me wrong. I love Palin. I think she's very smart and has good ideas, and, when she has time to prepare and practice a speech, she does as good a job at giving one as anyone in living memory.

But, that's a different set of skills than is required for being a consultant.

(And, I agree that she did a wonderful job in the debate as she did in her debates in Alaska. As I said, she's very bright and informed -- but, frankly, what she's informed about may or may not be related to what she's ASKED about as a "commentator." It doesn't matter how smart you are or how informed you are if you're being asked a question about a subject you simply don't know much about -- you're going to come off badly unless you have the skills to deflect the question and still seem smooth doing so.)

[Jack Okie]

Huey:

Point taken. Punditry does require a somewhat different skill set.

It will be interesting to see how things develop. Beck's show starts in about 45 minutes.