Global Courant
On this day: September 24, 2008
The event
Sarah Palin became a political rock star overnight when Republican presidential candidate John McCain introduced her as his running mate in the 2008 election cycle that ultimately carried President Barack Obama to the White House. However, his victory did not seem certain when Palin introduced himself to the public on September 3, 2008. In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, the then governor of Alaska thrilled the audience with a lively 45 minute speech where she promoted her conservative credentials and family values in small towns. As one commentator put laterit was “the best speech of her career” and seemed to promise a long and fruitful political career.
But that career crumbled weeks later when Palin sat down across from then-CBS Evening News host Katie Couric for a wide-ranging interview that immediately entered the halls of TV infamy alongside Richard Nixon’s disastrous debate performance opposite John F. Kennedy and Michael Dukakis’ tank ride. It was a conversation the McCain campaign had hoped to avoid, largely keeping Palin away from one-on-one conversations with reporters. According to Palin’s memoirs, senior advisor Nicole Wallace became the loudest voice in the room because she allowed the Couric interview to go ahead and told the candidate, “Katie really likes you.” (Wallace disputed Palin’s version of events.)
Campaign staffers said as much later that Palin shrugged off the idea of extensive preparation for her conversation with Couric, which lasted more than 40 minutes. The first excerpt from their conversation broadcast on the September 24 edition of the CBS Evening News, with subsequent segments airing in primetime and on The Early Show. From the beginning, Palin’s lack of preparation was reflected in her hesitant, sometimes contradictory answers. Asked by Couric for “concrete examples” of where McCain was pushing for more regulation of Wall Street, Palin responded vaguely: “I’ll try to find some for you and I’ll bring them to you.”
But more damaging moments were yet to come. On September 25, Couric aired the part of their interview in which Palin discussed her foreign policy bona fides and memorably cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as an experience in international relations. ‘Our neighbors are abroad’ Palin saidand adds: “As Putin raises his head and enters the airspace of the United States of America, where are they going? It’s Alaska. It’s just across the border. It’s from Alaska that we’re sending them out to get there to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to our state.”
And then on September 30 came Magazine-gate. In an interview recorded after their first conversation, Couric asked Palin what her media diet was like. “I have re-read most of them with great appreciation for the press,” the governor replied, notably declining to specify newspapers or magazines. “I also have a wide variety of sources that we get our news from.”
What happened next
Couric will interview Palin on September 24 in New York City. (CBS via Getty Images)
If Rotten Tomatoes had collected reviews of political interviews, Palin’s performance opposite Couric would certainly have landed on the “Rotten” end of the scale. “Ms. Palin’s answer was surprisingly shaky,” wrote New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley, referring to the exchange about Alaska and Russia. “Her words came out fast and jerkily, like an outboard motor coming loose from the stern.”
“She can’t get the point across effectively, and the result is a bit like watching someone with stage fright in the early episodes of American Idol,” opined Chris Rovzar of New York Magazine. “It just made us feel sick and a little sorry for her.”
Within conservative circles, reactions were equally mixed. “The interview with Katie Couric shows that she needs to be more informed about certain aspects,” said Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer. told The New York Times. “She must demonstrate that she has the knowledge and ability to be president if the need arises.” And Rich Lowry, the editor of the National Review, cringed at Palin’s “terrible” appearanceand added: “She risks damaging her political brand forever.”
In turn, the McCain campaign tried to downplay the self-inflicted damage. “We had our plan and we stuck to it.” Wallace told The New York Observer. ‘We’re very happy we did it. We thought Governor Palin did a great job.” But polls showed Palin’s various media appearances eroding her initial support. In one pollonly 40% of respondents felt she was qualified to be president.
And then Tina Fey entered the chat. The 30-something rock star returned to her Saturday Night Live stomping grounds to play Sarah Palin, made her first debut on a September 13 episode opposite Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. The duo reprized their double act on September 27, this time with Poehler playing Couric opposite Fey’s fawning Palin. “In an effort to further develop foreign policy, I went to the Times Square area to see a movie called The Bush Doctrine,” Fey joked. “It wasn’t about politics.”
Fey’s Palin also memorably addressed how Alaskans like her were keeping an eye on Russia. “Every morning when Alaskans wake up, one of the first things they do is look outside to see if there are any Russians hanging around. If there are, you should go up to them and ask, ‘What are you doing here? ?’ And if they can’t give you a good reason, it’s our responsibility to say, ‘Shoo, get back there.'”
In the weeks leading up to the 2008 election, Palin and the McCain campaign attempted to put the Couric chat in the rearview mirror with additional interviews and a better-rated debate performance opposite Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden. But her increasingly divisive presence dragged down the ticket. On Election Day, Obama and Biden won a decisive victory, winning 365 electoral votes And 53% of the votes. Palin went back to Alaska… but she didn’t stay there long.
Where we are now
Palin attends the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In July 2009, Palin officially resigned as governor of Alaska and returned to the national political stage, eventually embracing the nascent Tea Party movement. Although she did not run for higher office herself, she sought to become an influential backer and ultimately support former President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign. In 2022, Palin campaigned in a special election to unseat Alaska congressional representative Don Young, but again lost decisively to Democratic candidate Mary Peltola.
Although Palin still has supporters within conservative circles, she is also followed by personal and political issues which have largely made her a marginal figure in American politics. And the shadow of the Couric interview still hangs over all her media appearances. In 2010Palin accused Couric of “creating controversy” and ruled out ever speaking to her again. But five years later, she acknowledged that she had a less than ideal answer to the “newspapers and magazines” question. ‘Was it an honest question? Of course. I had a crappy answer, but it was an honest question.”
Couric, for her part, has always stood by the interview, while also making clear that she was not looking to end Palin’s political career. ‘The questions weren’t questions,’ she told Howard Stern in 2013two years after leaving CBS for a stint at ABC and then Yahoo before founding her own production company, Katie Couric Media. “I went in with the attitude that there was a lot that wasn’t known about her. I really approached it like I would have approached any political candidate who wasn’t that well known.”
“On a human level, I felt bad for her because she was clearly going through a hard time,” Couric noted this in a 2018 interview. “On the other hand, I couldn’t understand why John McCain hadn’t done more, or why the McCain campaign had thoroughly vetted her in a much more serious way. It was clear she wasn’t ready for primetime – she was off balance. depth.”
