Mediaite’s Matt Schneider outlines a chat yesterday between Chris Matthews and Frank Bailey, the author of Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years. Naturally, a Mediaite post is focused on the Palin-bashing, but as Kathy Shaidle writes, Bailey makes an interesting observation about another woman in politics (whether she knows it or not), Katie Couric:
Bailey says it was painful for him to have watched the Couric interview, but offered a unique explanation for Palin’s lack of an answer. Bailey argues “she didn’t want to seem too Alaskan” with what she read, and instead “wanted to be bigger than that.” A plausible theory since she was also so heavily managed by the poorly run John McCain campaign, that she was likely worried about saying the wrong thing, and less concerned with saying nothing at all. Strangely Matthews suggested that the moment was great for Couric’s career, yet given the fact that the CBS Evening News never rose out of third place in the ratings, there’s a legitimate argument to be made that the former CBS anchor’s high-profile handling of Palin may have been a primary reason why Couric couldn’t draw any new viewers after that.
Don’t forget the flip-side of that story — being either so clueless or so in the tank, or more likely both, Couric, right around the same time, let this classic faux-pas by Joe Biden go by without comment, creating a moment that will live forever on YouTube:
The double-standard between what a leftwing politician could get away with on CBS, versus the intense media wringer that Palin was forced to simultaneously be put through was immediately apparent to all. No wonder Katie lost the heartland so quickly afterward.
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