Prepping Eliza
So the rumors are flying about the upcoming Vice Presidential Debate that Sarah Palin will be wearing a sound bud in her ear and someone will be prompting her on the answers. The posts say watch her hair If it is down instead of her 1970's prom top, she is wearing a wire.
The image of her trying to listen to the question from Gwen Ifel, listen to a voice on a wire while trying to still the voices in her head, just brings me to laughing. Now it is true that parents need to be able to multitask and parents who also hold jobs multitask even more and certainly politicians are always formulating the next thought in their head into a cohesive sentence. But Sarah Palin having the ability to pull off being prompted via an ear bud and not tripping over her self or getting caught, just seems too preposterous. Even Mark Salter and Joseph Chappel, McCain speechwriters and advisers, wouldn't risk whispering into Sarah's ear what to answer. But then again what are they risking by letting her go on her own? She went on her own with Katie Couric.
The first Palin interview with Couric was painful. Then came the second with Couric following Palin like an Entertainment Tonight reporter around a hotel hall, through a group of admirers and onto a plane. There was a day when this kind of activity was not considered journalism, but I digress. Couric asks Palin what newspapers she reads to form her world view and even the Christian Science Monitor pointed out "People can debate all they want about "gotcha' journalism" and whether Palin has been a victim of it. But asking someone what newspapers they read cannot be stretched even by the most radical of partisans to be in that category. That would truly be a bridge to nowhere. Not even Rush Limbaugh would try to cross that one." And what did Sarah do with that simple question? She answered "Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years." Couric went on two more times to try to get a specific answer out of Palin on this simple question. I could see McCain's aides rushing out to buy her a New York and Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and a Washington Post, maybe even a London Times. Poor gal, her thumbs will be all black from the cramming.
Almost all of us know people who never speak in specifics. I like to think that their ethnic origin is a tribe called the generalists. Their native land's social structure is based around a lot of maybes, as in, "will you come to my party, Bat Mitzvah or wedding," and they answer "maybe" or they don't answer at all and leave you to thinking well maybe they will show up. They have a difficult time conducting actual business that makes something concrete, but they do very well in the investment and finance worlds. Suggestion, guess, well-massaged statistics and alchemy are of greater importance in those worlds than actual facts and substance. The generalists do not worry themselves with facts and specifics. They have people to do that for them. They also have a unique insight into the atmospheric mood of an issue and can gleam from the cold and warm fronts of other talking heads what side they should take. Some can do this very quickly, only taking their cues from one or two shifts of the wind. One might call these people mavericks.
It is disconcerting to believe that there are no actual facts residing between Sarah Palin's ears, but evidence seem to be pointing that way. We can hope the questions she will be asked at the debate will be specific. We can hope Gwen Ifel will press her when she gives her generalist's tribal answers. Will Gwen follow the Couric and Gibson rule of asking three times and then giving up? Will Sarah offer a specific or two from her ear bud prompts if the rumormongers are proved correct? And, will she be able to recite facts without tripping? I would not want to be in the shoes of the McCain advisers in Sedona today, cramming and prepping her. It must be like prepping Eliza Doolittle for her debut with another tribe. I wonder if they have shouted out yet "By Jove, I think she got it!"