Palin–Couric interviews

[1][2][3] The interviews were widely seen as a disaster for Palin's image and for the McCain campaign, and were cited by many as the cause of a turning of the tide of public opinion against her.

The Couric interview was preceded by heavy media scrutiny over the McCain campaign's alleged unwillingness to allow press access to Palin.

Palin's account in her memoirs states that Nicolle Wallace, a senior McCain staffer, pushed for Couric and the CBS Evening News.

"The campaign's general strategy involved coming out with a network anchor, someone they felt had treated John well on the trail thus far.

My suggestion was that we be consistent with that strategy and start talking to outlets like FOX and the Wall Street Journal.

I really didn't have a say in which press I was going to talk to, but for some reason Nicolle seemed compelled to get me on the Katie bandwagon," wrote Palin.

"[6] "We were initially supposed to interview her—sit down with her in Philadelphia on Sunday and travel with Senator McCain and Governor Palin on that Monday," Couric recalled.

"And then the campaign felt they didn't want a week to go by without hearing anything from Governor Palin because they were doling out the interviews very selectively.

So they decided when she was visiting some world leaders at the UN, that that would be an opportunity for her to sit down that morning and talk to me and it was very serendipitous for us, because we could—that opened the door to a lot of interesting foreign policy questions.

Then, we had scheduled an interview the following Monday, during which we were going to talk about a lot of domestic and social issues, so they gave us tremendous access.

We— we do— it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where— where do they go?

Couric asked Palin her opinion on the emergency economic bailout the Bush administration was proposing: COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families, who are struggling with healthcare, housing, gas and groceries, allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: I've read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media, coming f— COURIC: But like which ones specifically?

[10]The interviews aired on CBS Evening News showed ratings increases on both nights and clips posted on YouTube garnered more than 10 million views.

[8] National Review editor Rich Lowry called Palin's performance in the interview "dreadful.

[14] While helping Seth Meyers write the sketch, Fey decided to use Palin's answer regarding her opinion on the bank bailout nearly verbatim.

Fey later said on the Late Show with David Letterman that, in answering that question, Palin "got lost in a corn maze," noticeably struggling to find an answer and meandering between several seemingly unrelated topics such as health care, job creation, lowering government spending, international trade, and lowering taxes, ultimately not stating a clear position for or against it.

[15] CNN commentator Jack Cafferty was particularly critical of Palin's answer to the bailout question, saying that if McCain wins, Palin will be "one 72-year-old's heartbeat away from being President of the United States, and if that doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should" and that in all his years of covering politics, "that was one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen from someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country.

"[16] The airing of the Couric interviews coincided with a collapse in her approval ratings and a loss of McCain's gains among white women.

In those Katie Couric interviews, I did feel that there were a lot of things that she was missing, in terms of an opportunity to ask what a VP candidate stands for, what the values are represented in our ticket.Palin also criticized Couric's question on what newspapers and magazines she read:[18] My response to her, I guess it was kind of filtered.

And I was taken aback by that because I don't know, the suggestion that this was a little bit of perhaps we're not in tune with the rest of the world.According to campaign manager Rick Davis, Palin thought the questions would be softer than they were: "She was under the impression the Couric thing was going to be easier than it was.

"[19] "I knew it didn't go well the first day, and then we gave her a couple of other segments after that," Palin said in a retrospective with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler on the Couric interview.

"[20] After the election, Couric appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and discussed her interviews with Palin, especially in regard to her question on what newspapers or magazines she read to "stay informed and to understand the world":[7] COURIC: I'm not sure whether she was afraid to offend certain people, by, she would offend conservatives by saying she read the New York Times.

"What really happened here is that Katie Couric showed Governor Palin that she had an agenda on the abortion issue," Ziegler said.

I was so mindful of my personal affect, knowing every head tilt, expression, and follow-up question would be carefully dissected for any evidence of bias.

So a journalist, a reporter who is so biased and will, no doubt, spin and gin up whatever it is that I have to say to create controversy, I swear to you, I will not my waste my time with her.

I didn't like, though, the way that, forever then in these seven years, that interview has kind of been stamped on my forehead as, 'she's an idiot.'