I Wish Charles Gibson Had Interviewed Sarah Palin

I was up well before dawn this morning preparing for a road trip. I needed to refuel the car and I am worried about potential 30% increases in gas prices that could affect all of us motorists in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

Since I was up and traveling outside my normal morning routine, I was listening to Doug Stephan's Good Day on the radio instead of my normal diet of television cable network news programs. Change is good, It gives you more perspective on current events.

If you've never listened to Steffan's program he tries, but usually fails, to avoid politics and political issues. But his crew made a comment on ABC's Charles Gibson's interview with Governor Sarah Palin that was amazingly spot on: "What was with Charles Gibson last night? He looked like a curmudgeonly old school principal who caught a girl chewing gum in class."

I laughed until I cried. Stephan and his crew were so right.

As great as the pressure was on Sarah Palin, it was even tougher on Charles Gibson who has endured three days of particularly critical comment simply because he was awarded the first interview with Governor Palin. Gibson was as much under the microscope as Palin. And the pressure showed.

I wish the Charles Gibson I know and deeply respect had interviewed Palin. I'm certain the McCain camp wishes the real Gibson had shown up, too. Everyone would have looked a lot better.

Palin faltered a couple of times under Gibson's grilling. But Gibson acted like he was conducting an inquisition. It was difficult to watch. The normally relaxed and chatty Gibson would have gotten a lot more from Palin. This certainly wasn't the Gibson that recently interviewed Barack Obama and that will come back to haunt Gibson.

Sarah Palin's interview also showed the signs of the intense pressure she is under. Plus I get the feeling she is being terribly over managed. The McCain Palin team has got to relax. If she is over coached, she will not do well in the upcoming debate. Frankly, more live, unscripted interviews will prepare her better for the debate than any amount of coaching.

Over the next 72 hours there will be thousands of blog posts, interviews and television and radio commentaries about the Palin-Gibson interview. Some will claim she demonstrated she is totally unqualified for office. Others will claim, with video clips to back them up, that she was poised and rock solid. I sincerely doubt any minds were changed. Of course we have one more segment to watch tonight. That could be the atomic bomb.

I remain both impressed by and confident of Palin as a candidate. But it's early and I'm more than ready to change my mind (on all four candidates) as the cycle continues. We will see some really major mistakes from someone before we vote in November.

I'm hoping for a deeper and better interview with Palin before the election. Based on last week's compelling Obama interview, I'm hoping the McCain team will grant a Palin interview with Bill O'Reilly. That would be "must see TV."