Dear Sarah,
I bet you’re scratching your head right now trying to figure out why all this is happening to you. That Tina Fey is mocking you every week on SNL. Reporters continue their demands that you answer questions and dream of a day when they’ll be peppering you with questions at a press conference. McCain staffers are wringing their hands during your mock debates. I’d imagine it’s all pretty frustrating and painful, so I wanted to drop you a little note that might help you understand all this a little better.
The first thing I’d point to is your answer to Charlie Gibson during your first national press interview. When he asked you about deciding to join John McCain’s run for the presidency, you said you didn’t hesitate to answer yes. You said you didn’t even blink.
If that story is true, it immediately sent up red flags for many people around the United States. People surely asked themselves, “What if John McCain asked me to be his running mate? Seems like there’s a real chance of that now.” These people likely thought about their families, their home, their friends. They wondered if they could do it. Could I stand the scrutiny of my party, the public, the bloggers and a voracious press corp? Do I actually have the skills to do that job?
They realized it would be a really tough decision to make, because it IS a tough decision. If you’re actually “wired in a way” that made you say yes without blinking, people around the country–Republicans, Democrats and Independents–all began to wonder about you and the way you think.
Your speech went over really well with the Republican faithful. You really took it to Obama and that crowd just ate it up. And I loved how you nailed the intonation of “Thanks, but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere” line so well that you repeated it exactly the same way for the cheering throngs at least 20 times.
The problem is that the more you repeated that line, the more people wanted to look at the history of your earmarks for Alaska. Reporters and bloggers dug up documents showing you celebrating the millions you got for your city and your state. Now the “Thanks, but no thanks” still ringing in our ears started to sound hollow. You claim to be a big reformer up there in Alaska, but looking at how many of my tax dollars you Alaska folks get makes us start to wonder about you.
Do you really think people enjoy hearing about how people living in Alaska get nearly twice the amount of federal tax dollars per capita as those of us in California or New York? So you’re enjoying the benefits of that old, indicted crony Ted Stevens… but you’re against earmarks. Hmmm.
So now that you’re settling in each night with a briefing book the size of a microwave in order to get prepared for your debate with Biden, are you starting to understand how much you need to know and how issues are complicated?
Reading and curiosity about the world are things that help one understand what’s going on and enable one to come up with new ideas. Not having done a lot of reading and being incurious likely didn’t matter much when you ran for Mayor of Wasilla. Just spew a few talking points and have your staff whisper about whether John Stein was really a Christian and, bam, you’re Mayor. Things work a little differently for national office.
I could write on about your letting Troopergate get out of hand up there in Alaska, but I thought I’d leave you with one final thought. At the Republican convention, when you came out swinging as you read that speech they gave you, we all thought, “Wow. She’s tough. Oooh. That’s a zinger.” We thought you could take it. We hoped you had more to say.
But I’ve watched your interviews lately, and I’m afraid I’m not hearing anything from you that I wouldn’t hear from one of McCain’s surrogates on the morning news shows. Americans watch this and think there are two possibilities: you have no new ideas or your ideas are so out-there that McCain doesn’t want you saying them. Either way, people are worried.
I hope this helps you understand a little more about why we’re watching you so intently. Being Vice President is serious. We take the election seriously and you’ve got us concerned.
Good luck in the debate.
Sincerely,
Rotophonic