David Pakman: Matt Lewis is a senior contributor for The Daily Caller, he's also the editor
of the new book "The Quotable Rogue: The Ideals of Sarah Palin In Her Own Words", which is
a title that to many of our listeners will sound scary, but I would love to hear from
you, Matt, what's the point of writing this book? Is it that you think Sarah Palin is
much brighter than many are giving her credit for? Is it that she's being misquoted constantly?
What is it?
Matt Lewis: Well, I think both. Probably the former is the most important. And it's not
just my book that pointed... that points this out. An interesting convergence, actually,
the release of those emails in Alaska which showed her to be more bipartisan than people
think, smarter than people think, more credible than people think, and also the movie "The
Undefeated", which is a little bit different because obviously that has a viewpoint and
it's edited, but still, I think that this book, it's interesting that those three things
were kind of coming out at the same time.
The other thing, too, you mentioned, the misquotes, I think that sort of the most insidious examples
aren't misquotes, it's when the press or the media focuses on something out of context,
not really a misquote. But the worst example is, "I can see Russia from my front yard,"
which she never said. But I think most people probably still think she said that, and that
was very much a caricature that made her, you know, made her appear to be this Caribou
Barbie-type person.
David: The thing with that one, and I watched the interview you did on "Morning Joe", and
I've just been reading some of the other interviews you've done. So you went on MSNBC and you
said a lot of people think Sarah Palin said, "I can see Russia from my front yard," and
she didn't really say that, but a lot of people think she did.
Fair enough, but the thing is, she did say, "As Putin rears his head and comes into the
airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right
over the border." And that was explaining to Katie Couric on September 24th of '08 why
Alaska being near Russia gives her foreign policy experience. So even though the quote
you mentioned is not actually her quote, she did say some nonsense about Russia and Alaska,
didn't she?
Lewis: She did say things, and I think the... more specifically, the Tina Fey quote was
from I think an interview with Charlie Gibson, which I think was like just a couple days
before the now-infamous Katie Couric interview, where she said something to the effect of
there is land in Alaska where you can see Russia from the land in Alaska. I think it
was probably a mistake for her to really point this out, because...
David: I'll say.
Lewis: [Laughs] Well, I think there's truth to it, but I think that in politics, it's
not just what's truthful or what's false, it's what's going to work and what's not going
to work. And she was trying to explain the fact that although she didn't have a tremendous
amount of foreign policy experience, that her background as being governor and coming
from the state she came from was sort of a unique qualification.
David: You said, "I think to understand Sarah Palin, it helps to understand that her tenacity
was foreshadowed in high school. In that regard, a very telling quote is, 'Everything I needed
to know, I learned on the basketball court.'"
And I'm trying to be completely honest, I've interviewed you a few times now, and our friend
Bill Scher speaks very highly of you, and you strike me as very different than a lot
of the Republicans we talk to. Are you... is this completely honest? I mean, do you
like Sarah Palin? You think she's a bright woman? I honestly am having a hard time convincing
myself this whole thing is for real, Matt.
Lewis: I do like Sarah Palin. I've gone through kind of ups and downs with her. I was a huge
supporter of Sarah Palin before she was ever picked.
David: Right.
Lewis: And I was encouraging her to be selected. My intern, Adam Brickley, actually, my intern
at the time at www.Townhall.com, actually started the Draft Sarah Palin website. So
I was a huge backer of hers. I think during the campaign, she did a great job. I think
that the McCain campaign really mishandled her. I disagreed with her quitting her job
as governor. Later I've come to sort of appreciate and understand why she did it. I still think...
David: And why is that, exactly?
Lewis: Well, I still think it was a political mistake, but I think she was focused on Alaska
and her family, which are kind of more noble things to be thinking about. I mean, basically
what happened is when she was selected to be John McCain's running mate, she had an
88% approval rating. So she was incredibly popular, and she was getting a lot of stuff
done.
And then she's picked as McCain's running mate. She becomes, you know, I believe an
existential threat to the left, and people, you know, really go after her, and it made
her much less popular. As we see, she's much less popular today in Alaska, for example.
David: You know, I have to... I completely disagree that she is this threat to the left
and that the left sees that. I would love it if she were the Republican nominee.
With regard to quitting the governorship for her family, right after quitting, she went
on essentially a non-stop around-the-country tour, she wasn't even spending that much time
in Alaska, so was she bringing her family with her? How is that more family-friendly
than sitting at the governor's office? I don't get it.
And you know, Matt, it's like she can't name a single newspaper she reads until years later,
she quits the governorship, she quits the bus tour, she's refudiating, she's accusing
people of misunderestimating, she's talking about our North Korean allies. The quotes
and the misquotes and all of that, we can look at individual examples, but the woman
strikes me as completely incompetent.
Lewis: Well, I... a couple things there. I mean, first of all, you know, I think the
excuse to spend more time with your family is always kind of dubious. So I don't know
that her reason was to spend more time with her family as much as it was just to sort
of remove them from that position where they were under this immense pressure.
And really, for no good reason, because frankly, her governorship had ground to a halt. She
really wasn't able to pass any legislation or change anything at that point, unlike her
early tenure, where, again, she had an 88% approval rating.
I think that in terms of the gaffs, I think there's a couple things. I mean, not to over-rationalize,
but, you know, if we held Joe Biden up to a similar scrutiny, I don't know how well
he would fare. A lot of politicians say a lot of stupid things because, you know, they're
on-camera a lot of the time, and their political opponents will use it, I mean, you know, Joe
Biden's jokes about 7-11, about... his point about Barack Obama being, what was it, "clean
and articulate", his point, you know, trust me, they will test this young... I mean, all
those things, but for some reason, nobody seems to care when it's Joe Biden.
I will also concede that I do think that some of what happened to Sarah Palin was the fact
that she was sort of plucked from obscurity. I mean, most people who get to the pinnacle
of politics do so over a long period of time where they kind of dip their toes in the water,
where they, you know, they run for, you know, U.S. Congress or Senate, not that many people
are paying attention.
I mean, even Barack Obama, who's obviously a really smart guy, but he was in, you know,
more than a dozen debates with Hillary Clinton that really didn't get that much attention
before the national spotlight was focused on him. You know, conversely, Sarah Palin
was really air-dropped into the middle of this thing.
And then lastly, and then I'll shut up for a second, I would also point out, I do think
that there is a cultural issue here...
David: I'll say.
Lewis: ... whereby people from Alaska especially, but I would even say other parts of the country,
the Midwest and the South, but especially Alaska, because it's so far-removed, where
people from New York and D.C., you know... let me find a way to say this without getting
myself in trouble.
But I think a lot of times, you know, politicians from places like Alaska become part of the
elite, you know? Over time, they learn to talk like the folks from D.C. or New York
and be part of, quote-unquote, "polite company". And Sarah sort of eschewed that model, that
paradigm. She is sort of a regular person from Alaska. And I think that her accent,
the way she talks, is a turn-off to some people, some of the elites, unfairly. So I mean, some
of it's legit, some of it's not.
David: I'm more turned off by the things she says rather than how she says them. You know,
I still... deep down, I really feel like this might just be... this might be satire, on
some level, this entire thing. But I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Matt Lewis, Senior Contributor for The Daily Caller. The book is "The Quotable Rogue: The
Ideals of Sarah Palin In Her Own Words".
Yes or no answer, do you think Sarah Palin will be the Republican nominee? I heard you
say on MSNBC she could be the next president. Will she be...
Lewis: Yeah. I think she...
David: You think so?
Lewis: I think she definitely could be. Today, if you asked me tomorrow I might have a different
answer, today I feel like she's not going to run. I'm like 51... I'm always like 51%,
and today I'm 51% she doesn't run. If she does run, she could win the nomination. Whoever
wins the nomination could win the presidency.
David: All right. I say 99 to 1 she does not run, and if she does, she absolutely does
not win, but we'll leave it there. Great to talk to you, Matt.
Lewis: Good talking to you.
David: OK, thanks.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations,
captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex
at subscriptorium@gmail.com.