“You’ve been waiting, I’ve been waiting and she’s finally here!”
Thus Oprah Winfrey introduced her interview with the polarizing phenom from Wasilla, Alaska. Palin, who spent her time since she inexplicably resigned as governor of Alaska posting Facebook missives and working on her memoir, is now on a media blitz, pimping said memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life.
The title of the book gave a hint to what Palin loves talking about the most: those people who would hold her and her all-American normalcy back. The phrase “going rogue” is a reference to a disgruntled McCain staffer’s worries that Palin, in the waning weeks of the campaign, was making too many of her own decisions and ignoring the campaign staff’s advice.
After clearing up that there wasn’t any beef between the two of them dating back to Winfrey not inviting Palin (or any other candidate) on the show when she was nominated, Winfrey started chronologically. She asked about the call during which John McCain offered Palin the nomination and then the vetting process, which went over all sorts of details of Palin’s personal and professional lives, including Bristol’s pregnancy. Palin claimed that she thought the vetting would be “the extent of controversy of Sarah Palin’s life.”
After some light prompting from Oprah, Palin began to criticize the McCain campaign, accusing them of “glamorizing” Bristol’s pregnancy and putting out a statement which neither Palin nor her husband Todd signed off on, saying they were happy to be grandparents. This would not be the last time that some nefarious force would prevent Palin from “speaking her heart.”
Pivoting off this initial foray into her family, Palin started criticizing the media for delving into her family life, and said that she was “naïve to think that the media would leave my kids alone.”
Winfrey, briefly treating Palin like one of the put-upon, victimized women that are so often her guests, mentioned that the McCain campaign told her “how to dress, what to say, what not to say, who to talk to and even what to eat.” Palin made it clear that the infamous $150,000 shopping spree to outfit her and her family was totally at the behest of the RNC and the McCain campaign, which made her feel like she was “starring in an episode of What Not to Wear.” The video footage of Palin working out and preparing for Halloween in Wasilla made sure to capture her in the most quotidian — for Alaska — possible duds.
At this point, we had only seen the charming, spunky Palin who was really excited about maybe being vice president and was being constantly condescended to by imperious campaign staffers. Where was the Palin that was so starkly polarizing, the one that is, for some, the future of the Republican Party and for others, a walking joke?
Oprah soon zeroed in on the defining moment of Palin’s brief time as vice presidential nominee: the Katie Couric interview. When Oprah broached the subject, saying “Let’s talk about the interview with Katie Couric,” Palin giggled and said “must we?” Palin’s version of the story casts Couric as a dishonest manipulator who originally said the interview was “supposed to be working mom talking with working mom about the challenges of having teenage daughters.” This is an interesting notion for someone who had recently accepted the vice presidential nomination. Like anyone who gives a bad interview, she made the typical excuse, that “those few minutes were edited and packaged together from hours” and even admitted that she didn’t “blame people for thinking that I was unqualified and unprepared.”
The most surreal moment of the interview came after Oprah showed the infamous “what books and magazines do you read up there in Alaska” clip. “Obviously you’ve read books and magazines. Why didn’t you just name any books and magazines?” Palin responded, “Obviously, I have been a lover of books, all my life.” At no point did she name a book (or magazine) she had read. But apparently the disaster of an interview was all “the perky one’s” fault because “She did not want to hear, I guess, about my pro-life views.”
After some discussion of Levi Johnson’s, Bristol’s ex, forays into the media, including an upcoming spread for Playgirl, Oprah rolled some footage of Palin at home, with her family in Wasilla. Filmed on Halloween, we saw Palin help out her young daughter Piper assemble her BMX biker Halloween costume and then watch over Piper as she trick-or-treated. Best I can tell, trick-or-treating in Wasilla really sucks. Palin had promised to “keep her distance” and was watching over Piper from an SUV as she went to the house — all this while the sun was still up.
Oprah, after some discussion of Palin’s relationship with her husband Todd, returned to the campaign, specifically to election night, where Palin had prepared a speech that McCain and his handlers wouldn’t let her give. Circling back around to the theme of silencing and victimization, Oprah empathetically asked Palin about her being “silenced” and mentioned that she “looked sad.” Palin was upset that she “didn’t take one last opportunity to remind Americans that together we have to move forward.” This coming from a candidate whose first major national speech brimmed with contempt for people from the coasts and is one of the most divisive figures in recent history.
As for her inexplicable decision to resign as governor of Alaska, after repeating her usual lines about being hampered by ethics investigations and not wanting to be a lame duck, Palin said that her dad explained it best, “she’s not retreating, she’s reloading.”
Palin then dodged any questions about her running for president in 2012, saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing in 2012.” Oprah mentioned that Palin was thinking about starting a talk show, to which Palin dutifully responded that “Oprah, you are the queen of talk shows, so there’s nothing to worry about,” once again blatantly avoiding the question. Or was she just reloading?