My Conversation with Sarah Palin

John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket for the White House. Here is an excerpt of my conversation with Palin from October 2007.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Comments

[lmrgreen]

I can't load the video - getting the dreaded "this video is no longer available" - can't load it from youtube either. Anyone know where I can view it again?

[sonnysj76]

Did I hear her say she is "undecided?"
What has she heard about John McCain's energy policy today vs back then?
The only thing John McCain has come up with is... ready ? "drill", "drill right here"..."drill right now"..

Is that an energy policy? I can't believe this woman... She was undecided then...now she has made up her mind about John McCain... What a JOKE!

[lapinbrim]

HuffPost's Pick

After watching all 1 minutes and 11 seconds of that video clip, I fully confident that I have all the information I need to feel comfortable and confident with McCain's VP selection. I realize that I didn't really need to watch the whole clip. I could have paused it 0:20 and it would have been more than adequate, but I figured since C.R. took the time to post it, I should watch the whole thing.

Maybe, with any luck, the McDonald's version of VP vetting will set a new trend. Perhaps future Republican presidential candidates will out do McCain, by matching my 1 minute and 11 second vetting process. Hell, maybe they can get it down to 20 seconds, as I would have, had I not felt obligated to Charlie Rose.

[MaxTaylor1]

If the dems want to have a debate about inexperience and lack of accomplishments in terms of this election,, more power to ya. BO will lose every time.

[SaltySaltillo]

No, you want to have this debate. I want to talk about rash, reckless, hasty, impulsive capitulations to Radio Talk Show Hosts who arguably represent the worst in humanity. Ready for that debate? On your marks, get set, go:

[YunekFlava]

They might not attack her, but they sure are going to put that in an ad.

[JPaul2008]

I'm a progressive, I'll vote for Obama, but I'm concerned that once again sexism is rearing its ugly head. I don't know if Palin is qualified or not. But I know that had Tim Kaine been selected as Obama's VP we wouldn't be condeming it even though he's had no more experience than Palin. I was watching Bill Maher last night and he referred to her as the "stewardess." When you look at her experience and achievements, the truth is it probably is as strong or stronger than Obama's although I doubt she is as smart, certainly is not as eloquent, and clearly she's on the wrong side of most of the issues that I find important. Having said that, she's still impressive and doesn't deserve the ridicule that she's been getting from folks who have been so protective of Obama.

[Purobi]

Can you please tell us a bit more about her being "impressive" to you?

[sirpatty79]

Of her 12 years of experience in elected office, over 10 of them were as a mayor/city councilwoman of a town with 8,000 people. That's proably a block in Chicago. Compare the size of their constituencies.

She has a four year degree in journalism with a minor in politics.

Maher is known to make rather sexist comments from time to time, I agree. But I've been watching his show for a long time and he has lots of women on whom he seems to deeply respect, especially Arianna.

[GrandmaSue]

JP I get what you are saying and agree with you, up until the experience. We treat the concept as though having lived through it you are good at it. There is no way to tell if Palin is a good governor yet.
This city council and mayor position in this small town setting doesn't tell me enough, and she has not had enough time in the more major position for me to know this. I may love her in 5 years but there is no way for me to know this now. It is not fair to take someone who the majority of us have just heard of and ask us to make a decision in less than 62 days as to her ability to run the country if John McCain dies. Obama has 2 books, and 4 years of national public scrutiny. I've been able to check him out and digest what I know. Being elected president of the Harvard Law Review gives me more confidence about a person than being mayor of Wassila AK. It takes time to decipher these things. So I resent that McCain put the country in this position. I feel all over again we are being "rushed to war".

[DrCahill]

JP, if anyone has been protective of Obama, it is because - as you obviously know - he has been very unfairly criticised by the mainstream media! The Rev. Wright issue was a case in point. McCain, on the other hand, has flip-flopped on practically every issue and the MSM lets him get away with it! If Obama had picked someone like Sarah Palin to be his running mate, what do you reckon the outcome of that would have been? Every single minute of every day until November 4, we would have been bombarded with media hysteria condemning his judgement and decision. McCain does it, and he is called a tactical genius!!? Please!

[lmrgreen]

The point is Obama DID NOT pick Kaine! Despite Kaine being one of his earliest supporters in the prez race and the possibility of his bringing VA on board Obama did not pick him. He went with Biden. He made an educated, thoughtful, and INFORMED executive decision based on THOROUGH vetting. McCain on the other hand went with inexperience in order to pander to the right wing. Had he wanted real experience and been less concerned about his so-called "base" he had PLENTY of more experienced choices in the repub party, including several very experienced female legislatures and governors. He went with the eye candy and the one he and his handlers think they can control. And yes, I said "eye-candy" - and yes, I'm a woman. You can't tell me that looks and appearance didn't have anything to do with McCain's choice. Consider this: if Palin were a man would she have even been in the running?

If you are going to defend McCain's choice you need to come up with something better than comparing her to the person Obama didn't pick!

[mulderstruth]

Nice gal. Wrong party. Wrong policies. Wrong War. Wrong Way Feldman!

[mulderstruth]

Jojojo,
Dems won't attack her because they'll look like bullies?
C'mon now....it's the big leagues now and Sarah better step up.
Joe will be a gentleman, but he's not going to be gentle.
As far as experience goes, her resume lacks any real credibility to become vice president and I think the majority of Americans will see that in the next few months.
Besides, it's all about Obama and McSAME.

[rblackbird]

A few months ago, Obama responded to Hillary's valid observation that he was inexperienced. I watched him on television state that judgement was more important than experience, leaving aside that good judgement only grows out of experience.

Now, Obama supporters attack Palin as having no experience. It looks like political hypocrisy remains alive and well.

It is hard to argue that Palin's experience is not equivalent to Obama's, regardless what we think about her politics. If the Obama campaign tries, it will re-ignite the Obama experience issue, with the Republicans making point by point comparisons.

[lmrgreen]

Well then, let's have that debate: judgment. Troopergate comes to mind. She supported the bridge to nowhere then claims that she said no, thanks - but the truth is she supported it while running for governor, then canceled the project because it was going to cost more than originally thought and KEPT THE MONEY! What has that money been spent on? She supported the Iraq war from the beginning with the only caveat being "this better not be about oil". She is suing the federal government to keep polar bears off the endangered species list because it would interfere with exploiting Alaska's natural resources and thinks that global warming is a myth....good judgment? Her husband is deeply involved in her administration and sits in on meetings, policy sessions and seems to be at the heart of some strong-arming for her administration. Can she make a decision without him? And she would deny an abortion to a 12 year rape victim. That's not good judgment - that's just sad.

[mcfried]

Interesting - good questions but isn't she supposed to provide the answers !!!!! What the H was that sounded like babbling to me

[suzyhein]

She had me at "Undecided"

[RealityCheck101]

I think she is well spoken and seems extremely confident. She has a major in journalism so she seems to be able to handle herself well with the camera. Not to mention she's not that hard to look at. If see seems confidant on the stump all these questions of is she ready to lead will go out the window, just like Obama.

[cinemabon]

I am a big fan of Charlie Rose. However, his show simply is a showcase for people to express their opinions, albeit most intelligent ones. Face it Charlie, you do not ask hard hitting questions. One only need use Condi Rice as an example, as you allowed her an hour to espouse her opinions on everything Bush with hardly so much as a challenge to her 'arranged' facts. Ms. Palin, while an elected official, is hardly experienced to take on the White House. She can barely run a state whose population equals the city of Austin, Texas!

[ajax2]

Her flag pin won me over, Nash McCabe.

[WesSmith]

She had an interview with Charlie Rose? I thought she was an unknown. Maybe she was just an unknown inside the Beltway.