When you're Sarah Palin and you know everybody is waiting for "The Big Gaffe" the key to any interview she gives from now until November 4th is to not make the big mistake. With Charlie Gibson, she survived because there wasn't a glaring mistake. Let's face it, if she gives ho-hum interviews without any serious problems then that's a win for the McCain campaign. The biggest fear for Palin and the McCain campaign is for a major interview flub to end up as the top headline on Drudge. If that happens then we have a game changer.
As for the interview itself, we saw the same Palin we've been seeing for weeks now. You can tell she is very confident and her body language in that first interview was very agressive in the sense that she was leaning forward quite a bit. She clearly wants to be seen as someone who is take charge and like it or not, for a female candidate that element factors in because of the chauvinism in our society.
Her answers seemed short, not full of policy depth but the bet here is that since her answers seemed to cut to the heart of the matter she'll probably get a pass on a lot of them. Plus, when she answers questions you really don't get the sense that she is a typical politician who bloviates for 3 minutes and doesn't say a thing. You can tell that she doesn't hang out in Washington. That may be the best thing that comes from her interviews.
I thought she struggled somewhat on the Bush Doctrine question but it wasn't a flub. She made her way through it but it wasn't as decisive an answer right away that she probably should have given. I did think she turned a negative into a positive when she talked about how she had never met a foreign leader but then steered the conversation toward national security issues. On the "task from God" question regarding the war in Iraq, I think she did what she had to do there because people are taking the line to think she's a kooky Christian rather than just understanding that when you're a "saved" Christian like she is, you actually think that God is in control of the universe. Heaven forbid! If she had played it up, the media would have torn her to shreds. It was the right political play without dismissing God's role in the affairs of men.
As for Charlie Gibson, overall I thought his questions were fair and straight forward. I didn't feel he was playing any sort of gotcha game. At times he did come across as the father figure griling his daughter but I think that's more because of the age of both of them. Some may call it condescending and maybe there was a little of that but Gibson is a pretty straight shooter and I think that's more his style than anything else.
Look, the bottom line this this. Sarah Palin's challenge over the next few months is two fold. First off, don't make a major gaffe but also show enough understanding of domestic and foreign events and policy where people feel comfortable ENOUGH with having her as VP. Ultimately this is going to be about whether voters can envision her as a VP. Normally we ask that question about a presidential candidate and of course that question is crucial for McCain and especially for Obama. But in Palin's case, this is the bar she must cross. Enthusiasm for her will get her only so far. It helps her with the base but she and the campaign need to worry about Independent and moderate voters out there in the swing states who are undecided on the "Is she ready?" question. So far at least it's full steam ahead.
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