Posted by Jed Lewison on Mon Sep 8, 2008 at 1:17 AM Pacific

Not Really An Interview

Looks like I need to modify the countdown widget to track the time until Sarah Palin sits down for an interview without preconditions, because as Josh Marshall observes, the Charlie Gibson interview isn't really an interview after all.

For starters, it will take place in multiple sessions over multiple days, giving Palin incredible leverage over Gibson -- if she or her handlers don't like a question, they'll just cancel the remaining sessions, all but insuring that Gibson won't ask any tough questions.

Moreover, Gibson has already preemptively agreed to the McCain campaign's demand that he not ask questions of a personal nature, writing last week that "Once you know about her daughter's pregnancy, once you know about her husband's political interest in the Alaska Independent Party, once you know about the special nature of their latest child, I think that's enough."

It's simply breathtaking that Gibson would make such a statement. How can he possibly take off the table questions about her and Todd Palin's involvement in the Alaskan Independence Party? (Perhaps he doesn't know that the party advocates Alaska's secession from the U.S.A., given that he doesn't know how to spell it.)

Also worth noting: the interview is scheduled to take place on both Thursday and Friday, September 11 and 12. Given that her son is scheduled to leave for Iraq on 9/12 (not 9/11 as she claimed last Wednesday), it's hard to imagine Gibson won't ask her about that -- as he should. But if he's going to ask about her son's military service, why isn't it okay to ask about her own ties and her husband's ties to the secessionist movement? And why isn't it okay to ask other questions of a personal nature?

So my bottom-line here -- unless Charlie Gibson proves me wrong by conducting a no-holds barred interview -- is that this does not meet the criteria of an interview without preconditions, and I'm going to update the widget to reflect that fact.

Update (4:47AM): Here's what I've decided to do with the widget -- I've changed the title The Sarah Palin Sequestration Watch and will track the total # of interviews she's given with national journalists until she reaches a reasonable number.