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.
On one of those interviews, the ladies all agreed that the one thing about Sarah that we all need to know is that - “she is honest as the day is long”.
Yup. We need to meet some more of BHO’s cronies from the “old days”. Where are they? So far, I haven’t cared a whole lot for the bedside manner of Wright and Ayers.
The MSM has “vetted” Obama so well that to me he is still just “The Mystery Man”.
Wasilla, AK, pop. 5,469
Tampico, IL, pop. 772
(President Reagan)
You tell me?
I'd say Gov Palin knows more about Russia than the "journalists" do.
Russian-bomber flights alarm NORAD 03/11/2008
Russian flights smack of Cold War June 26, 2008
NATO: No 'business as usual' with Moscow August 19, 2008
In comments Monday aboard her aircraft en route to Brussels, Rice for the first time placed the Georgian crisis in the context of what she described as Moscow's stepped-up military taunting of some of NATO's most powerful members, including an increase of strategic bomber flights near the Alaskan coast.
Flights by Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bombers into what the United States considers its "defensive air space" have notably increased during the past six months, U.S. officials have said. The Russian planes have been challenged by Alaska-based F-22s and F-15s and escorted in the other direction without incident, officials said.
"This is a very dangerous game, and perhaps one the Russians might want to reconsider," Rice said. "It is not cost free. ... This effort to somehow assert Russian power or influence by military means is something that we've been seeing for a while." Similar flights, she said, have occurred near the coast of Norway, another NATO member, which shares a border with Russia.
Welcome to the Office of Homeland Security Website Alaska
As an example, the Governor's Homeland Security Task Force has merged with the federal Anti-Terrorism Task Force to form the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council with a broad spectrum of members from Federal, State, and local agencies as well as members of business and industry. While we're moving forward in many areas, we simply cannot do it without the help of all Alaskans.
Current State of Alaska Threat Level - Elevated
Yeah, but then again what about Plains, GA?
That's it MSM! Keep driving the women voters away in droves from the Obama Camp and running toward the McCain Camp!
Obama has no friends.
Now how can I respond to that, maybe you and P. J. O'Rourke could get together and write something in NRO.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee181/goldeagle2111/258485d2eb854f96.jpg?t=1217446775
Obama's friends are all either dead or betrayed like Alice Palmer.
“ABC’s Lisa Fletcher: Can ‘Small Town’ Palin Deal With Putin?”
Lisa you ignorant slut...did you ever happen to notice that Russia and Alaska are next door neighbors? You must have skipped Geography while in Journalism School. I think Sarah Palin understands more about Russian politics that Lisa Fletcher could possibly contemplate.
...and besides that, folks with a clear moral compass ALWAYS no how to deal with tyrants —just ask the Russians when Reagan walked out of talks with them in Iceland.
I say too bad, so sad.
And Obama thinks he can.
To put the population size issue into perspective:
“In 1776 the population of the US was was 2,527,450.”
http://www.populationinstitute.org/newsroom/population-news/?id=42
That is one of the best replies that could be written! Poor Pootie!
Russian planes have been challenged by Alaska-based F-22s and F-15s (Palin's Experience as Governor)
The answer to this question is that i’m not sure yet. The real question though should be can Obama? I think we all know the answer to that.
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