Forgetting Her Lines

I was chatting tonight with my wife about Governor Palin's interview with Katie Couric. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty tough to watch. Palin struggles to put together coherent responses to Couric's questions, even when Couric gives her a second (and sometimes third) chance to pull it together. Witness this exchange:

Katie Couric: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundry that we have with Canada. It's funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don't know, you know … reporters.

Couric: Mocked?

Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state.

The video of it is actually even more remarkable. I honestly could not figure out how it was possible for her, a woman who must have gone through hours and hours of preparation, to botch this interview so badly.

My wife had the best take on it I've heard so far. She and I both did a bit of theater when we were younger and she said that Palin's responses reminded her of nothing so much as someone forgetting their lines in a play. She characterized it this way (I'm paraphrasing my wife here):

There are two kinds of actors when it comes to forgetting your lines. The first type is the actor who has internalized the meaning of the lines, the bigger ideas and flow of the scene and therefore, if she forgets the exact line, she can ad lib her way through even if the words aren't precisely what was in the script. The second type is the actor who just memorizes the words themselves, not the words' place in some larger thematic picture. For this actor, if he forgets the words, he's lost, and can't get through the scene because he hasn't really learned what the scene is about or where its going. This actor tries desperately to remember the exact lines and begins spitting out any words he can remember from the script in the hope that he'll jumpstart his memory.

Palin is like the second type. Of course she's been given lines to repeat. All candidates have lines to some degree. Her problem is that if the interviewer throws a curveball, or frames a question in an unfamiliar way, or if she simply forgets her script, she's lost. Clearly, Palin had some talking points floating around in her head about Russia and its proximity to Alaska, but she couldn't quite pull them out all together, and because she hasn't actually internalized the structure of that argument, or the overall theme of that argument, she couldn't save herself and instead offered a jumble of words that don't make much sense together.

This problem is even clearer in other parts of the interview. So, does this disqualify her for the Vice-Presidency? I don't know, but it certainly raises some questions about her supposed reputation as a "quick study." Memorizing (and then forgetting) your lines without understanding the ideas behind them is not a good strategy for an actor, and its not a good strategy for someone aspiring to the number two office in the country.