Reactions to Palin-Couric interview mixed

In only her second sit-down interview on network TV, Gov. Palin talked with CBS's Katie Couric about the struggling economy. Along with the rest of the nation, Alaska political players watched and reacted.

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By Todd Walker

Story Created: Feb 23, 2011 at 4:19 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Feb 23, 2011 at 4:19 PM AKDT

Original article posted Sept. 25, 2008

In only her second sit-down interview on network TV, Gov. Palin talked with CBS's Katie Couric about the struggling economy. Along with the rest of the nation, Alaska political players watched and reacted.

"I thought overall this was a fine interview," said former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman. "There were no major gaffs, I think it was a decent projection of her command of issues." 
 
Former democratic gubernatorial candidate Eric Croft disagreed with Leman's view, "I still enjoy and like Sarah Palin, but I didn't hear the answers I was looking for."
 
Croft says although he is not an enemy of Palin he doesn't think she is knowledgeable enough yet.
 
"You don't have to have been there forever," he said. "In fact it's good to elect people who haven't. But you do have to trust that they understand the issues in some depth, and I think we are all still waiting for that."
 
Leman says Palin is trying too hard to be an expert on all subjects when she has only been on the national stage for a few weeks.
 
"You're learning a lot when you are going from a small population state to the national and international stage in just a few weeks," he said. "There's a lot to learn, a lot of people to meet and lot of issues to learn about, and she's doing a good job of getting up to speed on a lot of those."
 
Croft says while she doesn't have to be an expert, she should be able to give some answers.
 
"No, she doesn't have to be an expert, but you'd want some sort of depth on it that a person who reads the paper regularly would have."
 
Leman says the financial crisis is a tough subject for anyone, but she did fairly well.
 
"One of the points that the governor made that was good is we shouldn't reward bad behavior either by the consumer or the lenders."
 
Croft said it was unclear if Palin knew what some of the questions meant.
 
"I think the distinction Katie made between the credit situation and the foreclosure situation is something that most Americans know about, but I wasn't sure if Sarah did."
 
Leman said this is where Palin needs to improve.
 
"She probably needs to do a better job of just saying 'I don't know but I'll find out' or 'I'll have people around me to help me with that.'"

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