Palin on Oprah

I recently watched Oprah's interview with Sarah Palin that aired a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty interesting to watch. Half the purpose of the interview was to promote her new book, but it also painted a very different picture of the Sarah Palin everybody got familiar during the 2008 election. This interview showed a complete opposite side of her, a side that had nothing to do with the whole "hockey mom" routine. Of course she mentioned how she loved her family, but it wasn't really about that. A big thing with Sarah Palin is the way she always talking about being a victim of the media, and how she always felt like they joined forces to paint a negative picture of her. Oprah, who is generally sympathetic to all her guests, gave her a fair, neutral place to say how she felt. I'm always intrigued by how much of what we see in an election is scripted and staged. In this case, she was totally unscripted, and I found myself drawn to her and actually liking her even though I fiercely disagree with most of what she stands for. Media and politics are two fields that usually go together like oil and water, and while I'm glad that I got to see another side of Palin, I'm even more confused now. I'm less and less sure which personality is fake. She could easily be a redneck hockey mom and just happened to tone it down for Oprah, but she could just as easily be a normal person, and put on the polarizing republican hat to attract voters. It just shows how that in the world of politics, the individual has so little say in how they are portrayed.