Glenn Bunting Discusses Sarah Palin on CNN
ROMANS: Sarah Palin back in the monologues and headlines. Her new book, “Going Rogue,” is out today. She was on “Oprah,” sat down with Barbara Walters as well.
So, how much Sarah Palin is too much Sarah Palin?
Joining us now to talk about it, public relations consultant, Ken Sunshine from San Francisco; media strategist, Glenn Bunting.
Ken, let me ask you first. What’d you think about her performance yesterday?
KEN SUNSHINE, VETERAN PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANT: It’s — she’s doing what she needs to do to sell books and appeal to her base. Look I work with a lot of people selling books. That’s what you do, go on Oprah, do Barbara Walters, you go to the people that are going to buy your book first and you — I don’t think there’s anything more. I don’t think she’s running for President by doing what she did, she might eventually. But has a long way to go to be taken seriously for candidate.
ROMANS: When she was a candidate for vice President, she had this famous interview with Katie Couric that many people said just stoked all of this, all of this concern among her base, but also derision among democrats that he didn’t know what she was talking about. Listen what she talked about that Katie Couric interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My friend opens the curtain for me to get backstage and there’s the perky one again with the microphone and the cameras rolling. And I’m like, dang; just give me a couple minutes —
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: The perky one, you mean Katie?
PALIN: With all due respect, yeah.
WINFREY: Because you’re pretty perky, too.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Glenn, was that a dig and was that too much? What did you make of that?
BUNTING: Yes, I thought it was too much. You know, this is a chance for Sarah Palin to reintroduce herself to the American people. And she ought not to squander it by taking shots at Katie Couric or the media or these anonymous McCain campaign staffers. You know, I think that the Katie Couric interview was a bad one for her. She should be honest and humble about it and she should move on and talk about the things that she wants to talk about.
ROMANS: You say her original advice to her after the campaign would be to go back to Alaska, to get more experience, to think more about policy. She did go back to Alaska, but she resigned the governorship. Now what do you think she should be doing and what kind of a — what kind of image should she be cultivating?
BUNTING: Well, you know, it depends whether she wants to be a pundit or whether she in the back of her mind wants to run for President? If she wants to be a pundit, sex sales and she’s got a lot of salacious things she can talk about.
But if she wants to be taken seriously, I think it’s an opportunity for her to sit down, figure out what her core convictions are, and really demonstrate to the American people a level of sophistication and intelligence that’s kind of been lacking. I mean I think she’s widely seen as a lightweight and I think this is a chance — many people get the opportunity to kind of rewrite and to start over. And she has that chance right now. So she ought to be studying things about policies and things that she’s interested in that show a different Sarah Palin.
ROMANS: And you know what Ken, we don’t know what she wants to do. We don’t know if she wants to right books or she wants to be a pundit or a TV host as some has said or if she has a future in politics. She was asked about 2012, she said, all I know for sure, and she’s said this before. All I know for sure is that my son is going into kindergarten.
Meanwhile, a CNN opinion research poll shows that 28% of Americans polled think she’s qualified to be President, ranking her below Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Hilary Clinton, and others. You can look at that poll a couple of ways. She’s not a candidate for office, you know, national office, yet 28% of the people think she is qualified, but a lot of other people think she isn’t. What’s next for Sarah Palin?
SUNSHINE: You know the fact that you’re guessing, publicly, and lots of other pundits are, makes her a winner here. You know, right now, I think she’s having a little fun zinging it to the people that she thinks didn’t serve her well. And also selling a lot of books and becoming a media darling. And she has become, in a weird way, a media darling.
I don’t think it’s conceivable she would ever become President, but she’s going to titillate everybody for a while and I think frankly she’s doing a masterful job.
ROMANS: Well she’s going to be a national figure, and so would you be recommending she do these sorts of things? That she does Oprah and Barbara Walters? Is she overexposed? Does she open herself to risk that there’s a gaffe or something?
SUNSHINE: To sell books, she’s doing exactly what she needs to do. To become President, she ought to — like Glenn said, she ought to study the issues and become a little more sophisticated. She’s not doing any of that.
ROMANS: OK, Ken Sunshine, public relations consultant. Thank you so much. And Glenn Bunting, media strategist, thanks you, both of you, Kiran.