I felt like I was leading a lamb to slaughter.
THE CREW TWEAKED the lighting. Rick was sitting in my sight line, behind Palin and the cameras. I’d told him not to make any sudden movements; when we were out in the field, he was always signaling me like a base coach to do one thing or another, and I didn’t want him distracting me.
The cameras started rolling.
We began with the financial crisis. Palin said that America was looking to John McCain to fix the system. I repeatedly asked her for evidence that he would lead the charge for more oversight and regulation. Palin offered a couple of non-answers.
Me: But he’s been in Congress 26 years; he’s been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee and has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.
Palin: He’s also known as the Maverick, though, taking shots from his own party and certainly taking shots from the other party…
Me: I’m just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point: Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.
Palin [smiling]: I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring ’em to ya.
I sensed she was getting rattled. Clearly, Palin wasn’t ready for prime time and a part of me felt sorry for her, watching her grasp for answers, trying to put sentences together that made sense. I kept going, asking why she thought Alaska’s proximity to Russia enhanced her foreign policy credentials.
Palin: Well, it certainly does because our next-door neighbors are foreign countries. There in the state that I am the executive of.
Me: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
Palin: We have trade missions back and forth. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America—where do they go? It’s Alaska.
Brian was sitting close enough to a press aide from the Palin team to see the message he was typing on his BlackBerry:
This is a fucking disaster.
BACK AT CBS, a puffed-up Rick walked through the newsroom pronouncing the interview, “Huge. Huge.” People barely looked up from their keyboards. We’d turn around some of the interview for that night’s broadcast. Rick also asked Lori to reach out to 60 Minutes.
“Tell them we’ll just drop some bread crumbs throughout the week and they can do a big piece on it Sunday.”
“No, thanks,” Bill Owens told her over the phone.
“Really?” Lori said. “It’s a fantastic interview.”
To which Owens replied, “Sarah Palin just isn’t that in-ter-est-ing,” o-ver-ly e-nun-ci-a-ting ev-er-y syl-la-ble, as he often did.
I didn’t get it. Rick was dumbfounded. He felt it was the most important political interview since 1979, when CBS anchor Roger Mudd asked Ted Kennedy why he wanted to be president. Kennedy’s rambling response pretty much doomed his campaign.
I heard later that a high-ranking producer had walked into Fager’s office and urged him to run a chunk of Palin on Sunday. Fager said he wasn’t interested in my interview. When pressed, he responded, “I don’t need her on 60 Minutes.” I’m not sure if he meant Palin or me.
The following Monday, I met Palin and her daughter Willow in the hall outside their hotel room in Philly—Nicolle had thought the scene would make good TV. I asked the 14-year-old if she was enjoying all of this.
“It’s so fun,” Willow said with a sweet smile. “I love it.”
I imagined her mom, standing a few inches away, might be feeling differently.
We headed for Ohio on the McCain campaign plane. Palin was up front on the aisle; Brian and I were seated several rows back. Brian glanced in the governor’s direction and noticed her manicured hand turning the pages of the New York Times. Funny—we hadn’t pegged Palin as a Times reader. It made me wonder what else she read on a regular basis to stay on top of the issues.
After a rambunctious rally where the crowd ate up her every word, Palin and I wandered backstage to continue our conversation. We needed some B-roll of us walking and talking, so I asked a few more questions, including what newspapers and magazines she read.
Palin: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media—
Me: But, like, what ones specifically? I’m curious that you—
Palin: Um, all of ’em, any of ’em that have been in front of me over all these years. Um, I have a vast—
Me: Can you name a few?
Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country where it’s kind of suggested, it seems like, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with the rest of what Washington, DC, might be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?”