Posted on 09/09/2008 2:36:07 PM PDT by pissant
ABC reporter Lisa Fletcher interviewed friends of Sarah Palin for a segment on Monday's "Nightline" and grilled them on whether a "small town mom" will be able to "sit down with Putin and deal with foreign issues?" Fletcher, who herself was a small town reporter before joining ABC in December of 2007, mostly avoided friendly queries and instead grilled the Alaskan friends of the Republican vice presidential candidate.
At one point she asked pal Sandy Hoest, "She's spent less than two years as the governor of Alaska. Why should Americans have any confidence whatsoever that this woman can fulfill the duties of vice president of the United States?" Later on, the journalist challenged, "Is it possible to be pro-choice and vote for Sarah Palin?" When a few of Palin's friends identified themselves as pro-choice, Fletcher pounced, "Does that put a strain on your friendship with Sarah?"
A slightly alternate version of the segment aired on Monday's "Good Morning America." For that piece, Fletcher added questions such as "What percentage of Sarah Palin don't you agree with?" and "Are there major issues that you disagree with her on?"
Fletcher did let the group of friends expound on subjects such as their Christmas ornament exchange and how they all met each other. But, considering that "Nightline" has an extensive history of going very easy on the 2008 Democratic candidates, it seems remarkable for friends of a candidate to receive such a grilling.
For instance, on January 30, 2008, "Nightline" co-host Cynthia McFadden sympathetically queried Hillary Clinton, "When you lie awake at night...what worries you?" And on December 19, 2007, McFadden mused to the New York senator, "There's never a night when you go back to whatever hotel room, whatever city you're in that night, and crawl in a ball and say, 'I just, this just hurts too much?'"
Fellow "Nightline" co-host Terry Moran is perhaps best known for stopping just shy of endorsing Barack Obama on November 6, 2006. On that day he rhapsodized, "You can see it in the crowds. The thrill, the hope. How they surge toward him. You're looking at an American political phenomenon...And the question you can sense on everyone's mind, as they listen so intently to him, is he the one?"
A transcript of the September 8, 2008 "Nightline" segment on Sarah Palin follows:
TERRY MORAN: Well, for all the hoopla, our polls show, as George just mentioned there, that voters have their doubts about Sarah Palin's credentials, but one place you won't find any questions about her ability to lead is among the so-called elite six, Sarah Palin's inner circle up in Wasilla, Alaska. Her friends, they don't all agree with her politics, but they do vouch for her capability, as you might expect. Our Lisa Fletcher sat down with Palin's friends from home.
LISA FLETCHER: So tell me where the name elite six came from.
AMY HANSEN (friend of Sarah Palin): Well, that came because we used to have a big ornament exchange with lots of my friends from work and so there were six of us meeting at six. So it was just a joke.
PATTI RICKER (friend of Sarah Palin): We'd get together and do our aerobics and go have coffee and then the ornament exchange. It was just, we always looked forward to it. It was fun.
FLETCHER: The last time they gathered was for a baby shower just days before john McCain asked Palin to join his ticket.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.
FLETCHER: Did you sense anything different with her? Was she acting different at all?
ALL: No. No.
FLETCHER: Is that typical of her to be able to, really, compartmentalize and hide whatever-
HANSEN: Oh, yeah.
RICKER: She's our friend, you know? And business is different than friendship for Sarah.
FLETCHER: Yet questions still remain about her experience. This is a woman who spent six years as small-town mayor. She's spent less than two years as the governor of Alaska. Why should Americans have any confidence whatsoever that this woman can fulfill the duties of vice president of the United States?
SANDY HOEST (friend of Sarah Palin): Because she's the one who has executive background off all the other ones. She is very confident. She's very intelligent. And if she needs to learn something, she'll learn it.
FLETCHER: How does a small town mom with character and integrity sit down with Putin and deal with foreign issues?
HANSEN: You know, Sarah is a very, very, very good communicator. She's a very good listener. And she goes to these native villages in Alaska, which is like going to a foreign state. Some of them don't even speak English.
FLETCHER: And when it comes to the Alaska governor's more conservative stance on the issue, that's where she and some of her friends part company. Is it possible to be pro-choice and vote for Sarah Palin?
HOEST: I am.
FULLER: Oh, I am pro-choice
RICKER: Okay, I just need to clarify something. I support Sarah as a friend. So, politically, I might not agree with Sarah, like I said. But, as a friend, I support her.
FLETCHER: Does that put a strain on your friendship with Sarah?
RICKER: No, not one bit.
JUANITA FULLER (Friend of Sarah Palin): You know, this friendship is not about politics. What you believe of what you don't. We're friends because we like each other's personalities.
RICKER: Sarah wouldn't want it any other way.
FLETCHER: But politics aside, they say they'll always be friends. Can you guys tell me something about her that nobody knows?
HANSEN: She's killed, skinned and eaten moose. You already know that.
FULLER: She doesn't- well, she doesn't care for cats.
HANSEN: Oh, yeah. She's afraid of my cat.
FULLER: So she loves her hair to be done and played with.
HANSEN: She's just a really good, kind, real person that you don't always meet.
RICKER: Just like all the rest of us, except for she's got a lot more energy.
FLETCHER: This is Lisa Fletcher for "Nightline" in Wasilla, Alaska.
Can Muslim Nobomba deal with Al-Queda?
TheIraniaNutjob?
Syria?
Why aren’t these questions being asked?
Oh yeah, we have to makeup one of those Chuck Norris type things.
BTW, good to see your still around Pissant, are you still behaving? ;-D
With her location, I am sure she is more aware of Putin and his history than Obama is.
Sarah Palin may have the small-town heart of a neighbor who genuinely cares are the well-being of her friends and constituents, but she also has the political savvy of being governor of the richest state in the United States.
In case the liberal lefties haven’t figured it out yet, there’s gold under the Alaskan earth, and there’s oil and natural gas aplenty.
Palin can’t be put into that smalltown box that the lefties are trying to make her fit into. Won’t happen. Her mentor, Mr. Cain understands that oh so completely and he has her back.
Palin has been tough enough to deal with the media trashing her family...no doubt Putin will be a pushover. She will expect sh@t from him, but no doubt the venom of other so called Americans must have shocked her. It did me!
Hey, if I got booted for supporting Duncan Hunter here, then you would have known that FR was going to collapse.
Lets see, Obama is wortha sh## without a teleprompter so he couldnt, the mumbling and stumbling would be hiilarious. Joe’s “foot in the mouth” approach would also bring respect to the office of the president. Fletcher should do her homework. Palin is far more accomplished than both of these idiots! With the right information she can take it to the next level.
Well, Clinton did have a lot foreign experience as governor in dealing with the Chinese through his association with the Lippo Group of Indonesia. Collected a pretty fair piece of change from them too, as I recall.
“Besides, the PRESIDENT would deal with Pooty.”
You know, this is why I think Putin is causing so much trouble these days. He’s really ticked off about that nickname! :-)
I would venture a guess that Dixon, Illinois, with a population now of just around 15,000 was close to the size of Wasilla when hometown boy Ronald Reagan ran for President. The “small town” association as a negative is another example of the idiocy of the left.
so that is where lisa fletcher ended up after phx
Can God deal with the devil? Question answered.
Consider their campaign into Georgia. They played the striped pants set and the media like a Stradivarius. Their integrated media and diplomatic plan will likely be taught at war colleges across the world. Look at the skill in which those two fronts - diplomacy and media - were used to buy all the time they needed to accomplish their military objectives. It was a work of art.
Putin knows just what Barry will do at every turn. Obama will embolden the Russkies. Sarah & John will not be so predictable.
Every time they bring up Governor Palin’s experience they bring up Obama’s as well. And the comparison is not in the least helpful to Obama.
Can “small mind” 0 deal with Putin?
A guy from Dixon, Illinois (a town of 10 thousand) did pretty well when it came to dealing with the Soviets. Before moving to Dixon at age 9, Reagan lived in Tampico, a town of one thousand.
They did interview them. But everyone who new the "One" kept talking about the drugs he did as a kid and, well you know, that just won't do for his water carriers in the media.
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