Ben Smith says a “rough bit” of Sarah Palin‘s interview with Katie Couric is when she can’t name an instance of John McCain calling for more regulation, and says “I’ll get back to ya.” That may be because McCain can’t figure out where he stands on the issue. But there are actually several “rough” moments, despite Couric’s failure to follow up on several of them.
The first one is her response to Couric’s question about Rick Davis‘ lobbying firm receiving payment from Freddie Mac after lobbying was supposed to have ceased due to the federal takeover of the two mortgage giants:
PALIN: My understanding is that Rick Davis recused himself from the dealings of the firm. I don’t know how long ago, a year or two ago that he’s not benefiting from that. And you know, I was — I would hope that’s not the case.
She hopes that’s not the case? They don’t know? Because McCain already flat-out said there was no activity. Now that’s been downgraded to the plausible deniability of they “hope” it’s not the case? The video is even worse. Palin clearly isn’t sure how to answer the question without lying. That may be because journalists were closing in on the fact that Davis has remained treasurer and director of the firm until this year, despite McCain’s insistence that he has had “nothing to do” with the mortgage giants since 2005.
Palin equivocates again on Davis, then tries to hype her anti-lobbyist bonifides:
PALIN: Again, my understanding is that he recused himself from the dealings with Freddie and Fannie, any lobbying efforts on his part there. And I would hope that’s the case because, as John McCain has been saying, and as I’ve been on a more local level been on a much more local level been also rallying against is the undue influence of lobbyists in public policy decisions being made.
Palin didn’t rally against the “undue influence of lobbyists.” As mayor of Wasilla, she hired a lobbying firm and secured $27 million dollars worth of federal earmarks. The lobbyist she hired, Steven Silver, was a former chief of staff to indicted Senator Ted Stevens and had as a client convicted felon Jack Abramoff. Then, as governor of Alaska, while lowering earmark requests from previous years, still sent a 70-page request to Stevens requesting over $200 million in earmarks. How is that rallying against their influence, rather than reaping the benefits of it?
Then there is this complete gibberish flagged by Matthew Yglesias.
COURIC: If this doesn’t pass, do you think there’s a risk of another Great Depression?
PALIN: Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on. Not necessarily this as it’s been proposed has to pass or we’re going to find ourselves in another Great Depression. There has got to be action — bipartisan effort — Congress not pointing fingers at one another but finding the solution to this, taking action, and being serious about the reforms on Wall Street that are needed.
What does that even mean? The Vice Presidency is not a pop quiz. It’s not something you cram for at the last minute.
–A. Serwer
