Katie Couric

Skepticism about Palin has been growing and for a good reason.

I've watched the segment where Sarah Palin talks about Roe vs. Wade and I have to tell you, I think it is one of the most insightful commentaries to come out of her mouth. I think she did a really good job at sounding level headed.

Yet listen to it very closely and what you can hear is an extremist taking her political views for a little mainstream spin and, fortunately for us, coming short.

So let me back track here a bit and go back to and issue that popped up a few weeks ago : Under then Mayor Palin, Wassilla was one of a handful of cities in Alaska that charged victims for rape kits. And what has been most astounding about this policy is Palin's response to the allegations : She claims to have not know about the practice. This from a woman that was voted into office in Wassilla by less than 7,000 votes.

There was a hysterical moment during The Situation Room. Blitzer asked Gergen what did he think of McCain's appearance and defense during this second "interview" between McCain and Palin. He was dumbfounded. It was awesome!

Gergen didn't have a response and said just that. Afterwards, Roland Martin and the othersagreed that the interview was an embarrassment. It wasn't because of Katie Couric's behaviour. The woman has struck gold with these Palin interviews. It was the patriarchal and condescending nature of McCain's appearance.

Which takes me to disagree with Maegan's comment about this interview : Couric couldn't smack Palin about her feminism because Palin has none. 

C is also for Couric and Clinton, and that, apparently, is good enough for Rebecca Dana. It’s not often that one reads in Slate something that looks like an elementary school assignment, but today’s the day. Dana’s “write a compare and contrast article about two famous women for International Women’s Day assignment” has netted us, “The KatieShow: Does Couric’s rocky start at CBS spell trouble for Hillary Clinton?”

The bases for the comparison:

But they've both staked claims in the same middle ground, taking pains to appear strong but not mannish, ballsy yet maternal. Both are bottle blondes (perhaps in an effort to mute their tough streaks). Both have gone on "listening tours" around the country, have undergone ambitious style makeovers, have opened their private lives to public scrutiny. And Couric and Clinton also share the occasional counsel of Matthew Hiltzik, a major New York City publicist who specializes in managing the public images of powerful and difficult women. (Despite these efforts, Couric and Clinton still ruffle feathers: Both are subjects of unauthorized biographies by Ed Klein, neither our era's greatest feminist nor our greatest historian, but a man with good taste in material.)