The Uncurious Sarah Palin

Courtesy of Elizabeth Snead's "The Dish Rag," a Los Angeles Times blog, here is the transcript of the portion of Katie Couric's interview with Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin in which the candidate is asked about the source of her "world view":

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.
Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: 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, "Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

(You can view these comments beginning at 3:45 of the youtube video.)

Here are a few suggestions for Mrs. Palin:

a)magazines- the traditional, relatively objective newsweeklies, Time or Newsweek; the conservative Republican standbys, The Weekly Standard or The National Review;

b)newspapers- among those distributed widely, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal (she'll like the editorial policy), Washington Post (from the nation's capital, where she hopes to take up residence in a few months), Los Angeles Times; those with a more limited distribution, including the Des Moines Register (which we hear constantly about every fourth autumn and winter in the runup to the Iowa caucuses), Manchester's Union-Leader (same as the last, but for the New Hampshire primaries); the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (which periodically includes items about current events in Alaska); the Anchorage Daily News.

Any of them- Governor Earmark could have mentioned any number of newspapers or magazines- a conservative-leaning magazine or newspaper to buttress her conservative credentials; a New Hampshire or Iowa newspaper to signal that she always has been interested in national politics; a newspaper nationally known, suggesting that she is sophisticated or cosmopolitan to counter the stereotype of the small-town hockey mom; or a weekly magazine to prove that she is well-rounded. Anything, and her claim to read it need be no more true than her claim(s) to have adamantly opposed the Bridge To Nowhere. Something to demonstrate that she has an interest in an event occurring anywhere outside of Juneau, Anchorage, or Wasilla, asode from victory for the Palin and McCain ticket.