AP: Palin Offers First TV Interview To ABC - - Politico: She Was Forced To, Afraid, And Still Shielded By McCain
AP’s Version:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin plans to sit down later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago.
The first-term Alaska governor has given speeches, alongside McCain and at the Republican National Convention, since McCain introduced her as his surprise vice presidential pick on Aug. 29.
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Sunday that Palin would be made available “when we think it’s time and when she feels comfortable doing it.”
Later, a McCain-Palin adviser said Sunday that an interview was offered several days ago to Charles Gibson of ABC News. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
The adviser said the interview was expected to take place later this week in Alaska. Palin is expected to return to her state at midweek after more joint appearances with McCain.
An ABC News spokeswoman said the network had no comment.
McCain, who appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said he expected Palin to start doing interviews “in the next few days.”
Davis complained that the media has focused too much on the 44-year-old Palin’s personal life. Many of those stories came after McCain’s campaign announced that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. News reports also have questioned her record as a reformer in Alaska.
“She’s not scared to answer questions,” Davis said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But you know what? We run our campaign, not the news media. And we’ll do things on our timetable.”
Palin won over GOP loyalists with her speech last week at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. But Democrats and even some Republicans have questioned whether she is ready to answer unscripted questions about national and international issues.
“Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?” Davis said. “So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment.”
Palin’s Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, a veteran of the Sunday talk show circuit, challenged Palin to sit for interviews.
“Eventually she’s going to have to sit in front of you like I’m doing and have done,” Biden said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “Eventually she’s going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually she’s going to have to answer questions about her record.”
Politico’s Version:
Under pressure for being shielded for questioning, Sarah Palin has a agreed to sit down with Charles Gibson of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” according to an ABC News official.
No other interviews are scheduled. It will be the first TV interview for Palin since she was named 10 days ago as running mate to John McCain.
Palin had planned to return to Alaska this weekend but is so popular on the stump that she is going to stay out a few more days before returning home. One of her sons deploys to Iraq on Thursday.
Palin plans to sit down with Gibson later this week in Alaska, the source said.
The McCain campaign kept her off Sunday shows this weekend and plans to be sparing with high-risk network encounters, which they contend are unimportant to voters despite the media’s fixation on them.
But McCain officials could see her reticence was feeding the narrative of her being unprepared for the job.
Joe Biden of Delaware, her counterpart on the Democratic ticket, challenged her Sunday to submit to network questioning.
“She’s a smart, tough politician,” Biden told Tom Brokaw in a “Meet the Press” interview live from Wilmington, Del. “So I think she’s going to be formidable. Eventually, she’s going to have to sit in front of you like I’m doing and have done. Eventually, she’s going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually, she’s going to have to answer on the record.”
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Palin is a special lady and I fully expect her to melt the screen when she get interviewed, just as she did with her speech at the RNC.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:24 pmThis is sort of kinda a good move.
To have gone to Fox first would have been seen as a negative.
NBC/MSNBC deserve no respect or a second of her time.
CBS comes in a close second to NBC/MSNBC.
CNN can’t make up it’s mind if it wants to follow Fox’s or MSNBC’s example … so they’re in a constant state of “transition” …
ABC appeared to be in the tank for Hillary and wasn’t happy when she lost to Obama … so they haven’t been carrying ‘as much’ water for Obama …
Palin [might] be treated fairly at ABC …
September 7th, 2008 at 12:36 pmJust watch, Gibson can be an ass just like the rest of the dolts in the lib media.
September 7th, 2008 at 1:00 pmNot to worry folks. Palin will rip these msm a new asshole. She knowes as we do who these people are. She will have no problem serving there shit right back at them.
September 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pmThe McCain campaign had to have “vetted” her for this this type of stuff. It would be suicide to pick a running mate that didnt know national issues well enough to be interviewed. Shit, the daily readers of THIS sight could give Obama and Biden a run for their money in a debate on foreign policy, and id imagine Palin could do better than us. After all, she is comfortable in front of an audience and a camera.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:57 pmThey keep underestimating her.
September 7th, 2008 at 8:28 pmShe should do her first interview with Olbermann and Matthews. Take the tiger head on. Take Trig and her pregnant daughter with her, and her husband.
Have the janitorial staff handy to wipe the piss off the floor.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:28 amPersonally I don’t think it is an issue of being afraid of interviewing but that she wanted to hub bub over her family to quiet down so she could actually speak on the issues. Now let’s see if Gibson will stick to the job at hand or tabloid it. I’m betting he can’t go 3 minutes without making it about her family and not the issues.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:45 amI seriously doubt the interview will be aired live, or even un-edited.
How many of her answers are going to be edited, and the stuff the lib.socialist,fascist media that acts like a front for anit- Americnaism, anti-semitism, pro-Taliban, pro- Al Qaeda, does not want the American public to hear, the stuff that would motivate all of us even more, and possible, quite likely motivate the military and another surge in patriotism, will end up on the cutting room floor?!?!
September 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am