Terry Tate: Reading Is Fundamental

You are right: I think Sarah Palin did a terrible job in that interview and was not qualified to be Vice President. That said, I still believe Katie Couric and the rest of the media acted unprofessionally.

Hi. I'm Sarah Palin. I want to be a heartbeat away from Commander In Chief? What do I read regularly? Unfair! Unfair! What is the Bush Doctrine? Unfair! Unfair! What to I interpret the Bush Doctine to be? Unfair! Unfair!

That was a fairly easy question. Blaming Couric doesn't excuse her inability to address basic iissues throughout the campaign. This was just the tip of the iceberg.

All she had to do is to tell Couric what she regularly read. And, she could have told Gibson what she thought of the Bush doctrine instead of looking like a deer in headlights. When he next asked her what she interpreted the Doctrine to be, she simply had to tell Gibson what her interpretation of the Bush Doctrine was. It was obvious she had never heard of the Bush Doctrine. Shouldn't we ask both difficult and easy questions of candidates and expect answers instead of dodges?

When the question is trivial, yes, it is unprofessional to pursue it after an answer -- although a poor one -- has been given. The media did not treat Palin like they would treat Obama or any other political candidate; they asked arbitrary questions (e.g., "What do you think of the Bush Doctrine?") and simple questions ("What do you read?") that demanded no further response. They were upset that McCain picked an obscure candidate and acted like whiney children in response.

Romney could have answered that question. Huckabee could have answered that question. Obama could have answered that question. Biden could have answered that question. I could could have answered that question. About anyone who keeps up with current news could answer that question. Sarah Palin couldn't answer that question.

Yeah, it's unprofessional to continue to pursue a simple answer to a simple question when someone is sidestepping your question. All Sarah had to do is to name a few sources of news she regularly reads. The fact that she couldn't probably means she wasn't reading anything regularly at that point. An answer to that simple question was the correct path for Sarah to take unless the true answer was "Nothing at all, Katie."

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