Charles Gibson Passes His Audition

Last week, Charles Gibson got an exclusive interview with John McCain at the Republican National Convention. This week, he'll get an exclusive interview with Sarah Palin. Did the one influence the other? Gibson wrote in the World Newser blog last week—did you know Charlie Gibson blogs?—he decided in his McCain interview to forgo some of last week's more incendiary questions about Palin:

It took some time in thinking about it, but I finally decided not to even bring up the issues with her family, for they are issues of family and should remain so. Once you know about her daughter's pregnancy, once you know about her husband's political interest in the Alaskan Independence Party, once you know about special nature of their latest child, I think that's enough.

The relevant questions about Governor Palin, the questions that go to her suitability to serve as vice president, all relate to her experience, or lack thereof, and her policy positions as a mayor and governor in Alaska. Once I decided to restrict the Palin questions to those areas, the interview kind of formed itself.

That said, Gibson also defended the rest of the media's coverage of Palin:

I don't think the stories about Governor Palin stem from any kind of malice. Nor are they improper. To the contrary. She's a great story. A PTA housewife, hockey mom who gets involved in politics and winds up in just a few years governor of her state, and who is extraordinarily popular in that state.

Who is she? What is she? And does she have the experience and capability to be vice president, much less president? Those are valid questions.

It's odd for Gibson to judge the Palin stories as "not improper," when they include the very kinds of stories that he wrote "are issues of family and should remain so." That said, at this point Gibson's main concern ought to be the more substantive questions—what Palin believes and how well informed she is, e.g.—and if it takes this kind of, well, politic answer to land the interview, it's hard to blame him.

All of this, in any case, shows how Palin is as much or more of a celebrity than Obama. Real celebrities play hard to get with the media and make the press court them for access. They give just enough of themselves not to appear reclusive, and little enough to remain fascinating.

In the words of a certain campaign commercial I recall seeing not long ago: Life in the spotlight must be grand.