This is not the first campaign where we’ve heard whining about “gotcha” –type questions from reporters. Usually, these complaints come from Republicans; George W. Bush has a record of complaining about them. Now Governor Palin makes the same claim. Perhaps it’s not a matter of party affiliation; it could just be page 31 of the Karl Rove playbook.
Both Bush and Palin are correct—among the softballs, fastballs and curves the media throw at you, there are some “gotcha” questions mixed in.
But, remember—in the White House, they’re ALL gotcha questions.
Issues don’t reach the White House unless they’re at some critical point.
Spin-meisters aside, there are no questions you can “hit out of the ballpark.” There are going to be thousands of decisions that make winners and losers—you balanced your budget but cut funding for pre-school kids; you shored up our military, but left in money for failed weapons systems; you pushed through a plan to bail out our financial institutions, and in doing so abandoned your own administration’s economic plans and promises.
The questions you’ll have to deal with, as President, are going to be much tougher than “What’s your foreign policy experience?” and “Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?”
Those are questions for sophomores. Those questions are in “Politics for Jocks.”
The job requires that you constantly give your answer to questions that don’t have answers. Even if that means you begin by saying, “I don’t know,” a phrase that neither the President nor the Governor feel confident enough to say.
Both Bush and Palin are correct—among the softballs, fastballs and curves the media throw at you, there are some “gotcha” questions mixed in.
But, remember—in the White House, they’re ALL gotcha questions.
Issues don’t reach the White House unless they’re at some critical point.
Spin-meisters aside, there are no questions you can “hit out of the ballpark.” There are going to be thousands of decisions that make winners and losers—you balanced your budget but cut funding for pre-school kids; you shored up our military, but left in money for failed weapons systems; you pushed through a plan to bail out our financial institutions, and in doing so abandoned your own administration’s economic plans and promises.
The questions you’ll have to deal with, as President, are going to be much tougher than “What’s your foreign policy experience?” and “Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?”
Those are questions for sophomores. Those questions are in “Politics for Jocks.”
The job requires that you constantly give your answer to questions that don’t have answers. Even if that means you begin by saying, “I don’t know,” a phrase that neither the President nor the Governor feel confident enough to say.
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