Sarah Palin On Being Interviewed By "The Perky One"

In her interview with Oprah Winfrey which was broadcast on "The Oprah Show" Monday, Sarah Palin refers to Katie Couric as "The Perky One":

Oprah: ...been in a situation where you leave and you say "I wish I had said something different." So when you finished that interview did you think, "I wish I had just named some magazines?"

Sarah: Absolutely! Then we probably wouldn't be talking about it today.

Oprah: So you are saying now that the reason why you had the responses to Katie Couric is because you were annoyed with her?

Sarah: Well, I was annoyed with where we were, what we were doing at the time, and all these segments too. We had just come off the most amazing rally, working the rope line for I don't know how long, these energized awesome people, and I'm pumped up, over the top pumped up with energy, and I'm so happy and running back stage. And my friend Betsy opens the curtain for me and there's the perky one again, with the microphone and the cameras rolling, and I'm like, hey, you know, give me a couple of minutes to gather...

Oprah: Perky meaning Katie.

Palin: With all due respect, yeah.

Oprah: You're pretty perky too.

Sarah: I talk a lot about the Katie Couric interview in the book because I want the transcript, too, to speak for itself, to show that she asked me twelve different times my position on abortion and the morning after pill. She did not want, I guess, to hear my first candid, truthful response about being pro life and wanting to usher in a culture of life and empower women to know that they are strong enough and smart enough to have that child. I gave my answer and she asked it again.

A video clip of this segment of the interview is here, courtesy of "Real Clear Politics. The Oprah Show's recap of the full interview is here.

Not included in that clip, but just prior to it, according to NewsBusters.org, Sarah Plain had said that some of her annoyance with Couric stemmed from what she perceived as an elist attitude on Couric's part:

"Well, and, obviously, I have, of course, all my life I'm a lover of books and magazines and newspapers," Palin said. "By the time she asked me that question, even though it was kind of early on in the interview, I was already so annoyed, and it was very unprofessional of me to wear that annoyance on my sleeve, but it was like ... ‘Are are you kidding me? Are you really asking me?' To me, it was in the context of, ‘Do you read? How do you stay informed, you're way up there?' It seemed like she was discovering this nomadic tribe, a member of a tribe from some Neanderthal cave in Alaska, asking me, ‘How do you stay in touch with the real world?'"

She said she thought Couric was indicative of the state of journalism today and the fundamental problems with it.

"That's how I took the question, so I kind of-- well, didn't kind of, I did. I rolled my eyes and was annoyed with the question and thought, ‘You know, I think that this is a problem with the state of journalism today, is no matter what I say to her, it will probably be twisted, perceived as a bit negative.'"

- JP