To understand why Katie Couric's interviews with Sarah Palin so effectively exposed the Alaska governor's unpreparedness for high office, one must first understand the special powers of Popular Girls.
First, let's define our terms: Popular Girls are those girls all of us knew in school, even if only from afar. They possess a special aura, a preternatural confidence, an instinct for when to let others in, and when to shut them out. Of course they rarely need to proactively shut out others because those who are not wanted rarely try to enter. They are sometimes terrifying, but also thrilling: somehow they were chosen, predestined to rule. And they make it look so easy -- floating through the halls, finding each other (they share the same frequency), then laying claim to prime territory in the cafeteria.
Contrary to, er, popular belief, "Popular Girls" are not interchangeable with "Mean Girls." While most Mean Girls are indeed high-status, they are simply a subset of Popular Girls -- Popular Girls who have chosen to use their power for evil.
The most popular of Popular Girls at my elementary school was Missy Golden. She always had the best clothes and a great tan, and she was really good at gymnastics. But she was also really nice, a benevolent Popular Girl. And so niceness prevailed among her subjects. Because of Missy, I attended a kinder, gentler Wood Acres Elementary.
Mean or not, Popular Girls possess extraordinary perspicacity. They have a way of stripping you bare, finding you out. Masters of persuasion themselves, it's impossible for others to fool them. And if you cross them in any way, they can be ruthless. I'm convinced that it will be a Popular Girl who finds Osama bin Laden ... and kills him (unless of course, he's being guarded by Popular Girls).
Both Sarah Palin and Katie Couric were Popular Girls. They understand each other -- and this is where Palin miscalculated. Sarah knew that she would be unable to flirt with Katie as she has with her male interviewers (all three of them!). This was always going to be a minus.
But she presumed that Couric would honor the Popular Girl Pact and keep things easy -- maybe chat about "balancing work and family!" or kibbitz about "keeping in shape with a full-time job!"
Sadly for Palin, Katie never signed that Pact. From the start of the first interview it was clear that Katie's Popular Girl powers would serve a higher calling: she was determined to get answers to questions that matter -- not showboating gotcha questions, but questions that would give her audience the means to evaluate Palin's fitness for office, good or bad. In other words, Katie was there to do her job.
Palin was thrown. She could have gone sassy ... but that would never have worked. (Sarah might have been queen of her cafeteria back in Wasilla. But Katie's cafeteria was a helluva lot bigger.) Instead she had no choice but to nakedly face Katie's questions. No recourse to cutesy, no detour to folksy. Just questions and answers, unadorned with theatrics. In the process Sarah unwittingly revealed that she's not only misinformed about the world outside Alaska. She's uninformed. (Actually it was worse than that. Can you be deinformed or exinformed?)
Part of what so fascinating was how Sarah became so transparently desperate for Katie's approval, the beta to Couric's alpha. (Popular Girl dynamics are a whole field of study.) But Katie was not there to approve or disapprove.
As I've written before, my hope is that Katie and Sarah will continue their interviews after the election, even if Obama-Biden wins, on a whole range of topics. I can just hear the exchange about Bristol Palin's baby shower:
Katie: Governor Palin, what are you planning to serve at Bristol's baby shower?
Sarah: Well, Katie, we thought we'd serve a Waldorf Salad.
Katie: Why not a Cobb Salad?
Sarah (after a beat): We're also going to have quiche-
Katie: Governor Palin-
Sarah: And some fresh peach pie-
Katie: Governor Palin, why not a Cobb Salad?
Sarah (desperately): Maybe a watermelon lemonade-
Katie: Governor Palin, why not-
Sarah (finally breaking): Katie! Why are you always trying to undermine me?!
Palin has regained some ground with her debate performance, shamelessly flirting wtih both Joe Biden and America. But ill-advisedly Sarah has complained to Fox News that Katie's interview "annoyed" her. Ouch, one Popular Girl trashing another behind her back. Sarah is so gonna get it!
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
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Sarah and Katie: The Secret Language of Popular Girls
Posted Oct 4th 2008 10:50PM by Mo Rocca
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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. Well Mo, as you know Sarah Palin irks me more than Karl Rove and Sean Hannity combined. The mere fact that she brought up Barack's supposed connection to William Ayers is yet another step downward in the muddy game of politics, just another show of her blatant stupidity and ignorance. Just today, she managed to warp a New York Times article which clearly stressed the fact that Barack had little involvement with Ayers outside of a fundraiser. As she put it, Barack is "Palling around with terrorists." Well I guess everyone at the University of Northern Illinois, the employers of Ayers are also de facto associates of terrorists. Along with every student who has ever taken a class with Ayers, they too pal around with a terrorist. Let us not forget Chicago’s current Mayor, Richard M. Daley who has extensively worked on reform programs with Ayers to better the city.
All buddies of a terrorist. Yes, thanks Sarah Palin for enlightening us all with a petty scare tactic. May she continue her environmental genocide of wolves, caribou, and whatever else she has yet to kill when she returns home on November 5th.
I’m sorry, I’ve been bottling my discontent of Palin for some time now, I had to do it somewhere Mo. I apologize.
Blayze at 12:19AM on Oct 5th 2008
2. Mo, you've nailed it perfectly. The popular girls analgy is so surprisingly but so perfectly suitable to succinctly express the Couric-Palin interaction. Clearly Gov. Palin should have watched your CBSnews.com appearance with Katie.
In the process of the absurdity of Palin's candidacty, I've gained a new respect for Katie. Wow.
k.u.o. at 1:21AM on Oct 5th 2008
3. Mo, you make several good points and have many hilarious insights (as usual) but I just about died laughing when I read the popular-girl-name “Missy Golden”. Come on, you made that up, right? Was it her tan or her gymnastic skills that made her “golden”? You are too, too funny.
Uh-oh, I think I may have inadvertently crossed into “mean girl” territory here…sorry, Mo, if I offended you or your friend. I should probably be a bit more mature, since I’m practically old enough to be a “Golden Girl” myself, LOL!
SGS at 10:06AM on Oct 5th 2008
4. What a backstabbing Pit Bull!!!
When I read about The Mantis being "annoyed" on HuffPo, I was beyond ticked!
She's so shallow and dense that she doesn't even know how to be diplomatic. And forget about gracious or classy.
Bottom line- Pimped Palin can't think. And when someone intelligent, informed, professional AND beautiful (Ms. Couric) challenges her, she feels threatened.
giftedgirl at 11:37AM on Oct 5th 2008
5. And another thing.
If I were the Governor of a state with a rape epidemic, protecting women and their rights would be a major priority for me, and I would make sure that the victims of rape didn't pay for the rape kits.
That Mantis makes me sick.
giftedgirl at 12:03PM on Oct 5th 2008
6. Ha, EXINFORMED. Funny.
I'm a maverick (insert sarcasm here); in elementary school popular girls thought that they were all that. I so desperately wanted to be invited into their little "clique", instead of being alone with all of the eccentric and off-the-wall people (not that I hated them by the way; they were my dear friends), but the popular girls made me feel insignificant, you know?
Rebecca at 6:00PM on Oct 5th 2008
7. Barack is "Palling around with terrorists." And it would not surprize me if some at the University of Northern Illinois, or employers of Ayers are also de facto associates of terrorists. And Let us not forget Chicago’s current Mayor, Richard M. Daley who has extensively worked on reform programs with Ayers to better the city - oh they better the city putting tons of money in their pockets! No Bamanation - Bible-Micah 1-7 I dare you to look that one up! who's your daddy now! And yes you should be afaid - you who think you are safe.
Ann Thompson at 9:33PM on Oct 5th 2008
8. Katie Couric is as lame as you can get - how does one get to be her in news is absurd, my guess she slept around. Katie can not hold a candle to Palin, looks, brains or otherwise! The fact that Katie is an Obama supporter, she should not have been allowed to interview Palin. I never once heard Katie asked Obama tell me about your Muslim roots or your racist church of 20 years . Palin has not flirted with Joe Biden or America I watched the debate Palin is charming. Strong woman can wink if they want too. Watch Katie's rating go down....
Ann Thompson at 9:36PM on Oct 5th 2008
9. Katie Couric should not be doing serious news- maybe Entertainment Tonight- I think she should be Fired.
Ann Thompson at 9:40PM on Oct 5th 2008
10.
And one more thing.
Katie Couric is pretty darned cute as well....she just doesn't play on her looks.
mac at 10:18PM on Oct 5th 2008
11. Strong woman can wink if they want too. Watch Katie's rating go down....
Ann Thompson at 9:36PM on Oct 5th 2008
----------------------
They can't get much lower...honey.
Why is it OK for Gov. Palin to be strong, but not Ms Couric??
You seem to embody the double standard, babe.
Yeah, yeah, I know...the honeys and babes were put here for effect....don't get upset, please- unless youre Ann Thompson, then get upset, I don't care :-)
mac at 10:20PM on Oct 5th 2008
12.
And just so you know, Ann, Katie is cute as well.
(I don't want you going 'round thinking I don't care ;-)
mac at 10:22PM on Oct 5th 2008
13.
Katie's colon is cuter than Sarah's colon...
Andrea at 1:25AM on Oct 6th 2008
14. 8. Katie Couric is as lame as you can get - how does one get to be her in news is absurd, my guess she slept around.
------------------
so a woman who makes it to the top only does so by sleeping around, huh?
but wait, let's follow this line of reasoning for a minute and see where it takes us...
if katie couric made it to her position in the news, she must have been sleeping around. so if sarah palin made it to the position of running mate she must also have been sleeping around.
and guessing by the rate of sarah's rise to the top compared to katie's i'd say not only was sarah sleeping around, they were running a train on her! maybe even double teaming it!
now surely, ann, you can see that this is just ridiculous. and i don't just mean it's ridiculous to think this about sarah, but also to think this about katie.
but if you must continue to think in this idiotic manner i must congratulate you on creating a whole new kind of discrimination, "double-standard sexism".
i'm sure it'll be a big hit with the conservatives this fall.
Richelle at 12:52PM on Oct 7th 2008
15. 7. Barack is "Palling around with terrorists." And it would not surprize me if some at the University of Northern Illinois, or employers of Ayers are also de facto associates of terrorists.
xxxx
getting all mavericky with the truth here, are we? Could it be caused by witches? just askin'.....they do more than traffic accidents, right?
Clif Kuplen at 5:45PM on Oct 7th 2008