Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Anchorage Daily News: Questions For Palin

The Anchorage Daily News, the most widely read newspaper in the state of Alaska, has "Questions For Palin" as its lead editorial today and says "The nation deserves to hear Palin's unfiltered answers to serious questions."

It's about time some mainstream media attention is paid to the fact that the Republicans have a nominee to be one step from the presidency who has been kept from direct examination by the media as if she were in the federal witness protection program.

"There's no polite way to say it: Sarah Palin has been hiding out from hard questions," reads the editorial. "It took 10 days from when John McCain announced his pick until the McCain campaign agreed to schedule Palin an unscripted interview with a serious journalist."

Palin will be interviewed this week by Charlie Gibson of ABC's Good Morning America.

Here's some excerpts of the questions the Anchorage Daily News says Palin should be able to answer:
  • You present yourself as a Republican maverick who took on your own party's corrupt political establishment. In November's election, your party is running an indicted U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, who is awaiting trial on charges he accepted more than $250,000 of unreported gifts from the state's most powerful lobbyist. Will you vote for his opponent? Will you urge Alaskans to help you change Washington and vote him out of office? If not, why not?
  • As governor of Alaska, you have not pushed for laws or regulations that put your personal views on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism into public policy. As vice president, will you push to outlaw abortion, restrict same-sex marriage and require the teaching of creationism?
  • McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough "deference." How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?
Republicans have been whining ever since she was selected that Palin is somehow getting a raw deal from the media… How will they react once she's actually expected to start answering some real questions?