Jonathan Martin brings us yet another former McCain adviser stepping forward to accuse Sarah Palin of being a dunce. In this telling, Palin canceled a sit down with Spanish-language channel Univision because she felt uncomfortable talking about Hispanic issues. A campaign aide described it as “a near-crisis situation, with McCain officials worried that [Univision anchor Jorge] Ramos would say on the air that Palin wasn’t appearing because she was not capable of discussing” the issues.
I can see why a campaign adviser might think that this would constitute a “near crisis,” but I think the anecdote is actually sort of redeeming. After all, what always irked me about Palin was how brazenly confident she seemed in her own ignorance, the way she championed her mothering skills as a qualification for the presidency, and that she “didn’t blink” when offered the VP slot (she only winked.) But here’s an instance of her taking a step back and recognizing the limits of her knowledge on an issue and then refusing to speak publicly about it. Of course, she should have followed this self-correcting instinct a lot more frequently (which probably would have meant not accepting McCain’s offer in the first place) but I still think it’s nice to see that, in at least one instance on the campaign trail, she was struck with self-doubt.
On a similar note, Glenn Thrush flagged a rare flash of introspective thought from Michele Bachmann in an interview with the St. Cloud Times today. “I wish I could be more artful in the way that I say things,” she said. She continued:
But the other thing I’ve noticed that is kind of interesting is it seems like there’s also a double standard and bias in the mainstream media.
Polls today say that the American people more than ever think the mainstream media is biased in favor of the liberal position. And so conservatives, especially conservative women, are held to a completely different standard than liberals.
Well, one out of two ain’t bad.