'SNL' Producer: Sarah Palin 'Most Confident Person I've Ever Met'

May 10th, 2009 6:20 PM

Stop the presses! 

A member of the mainstream media actually said something nice about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

I kid you not: "Saturday Night Live" senior producer Marci Klein said during an interview last week, "This is the most confident person I've ever met."

Certainly not the impression created by CBS's Katie Couric or ABC's Charlie Gibson, wouldn't you agree?

Appearing on Julie Menin's "Give and Take," Klein had absolutely nothing but nice things to say about the press's current public enemy #1 (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, relevant section at 2:25):

JULIE MENIN, "Give and Take": Let's talk about Sarah Palin, because she was really the gift that kept on giving. So, what was she like when you first met her on the show?

MARCIE KLEIN, SENIOR PRODUCER "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE":  Well, the first, I actually was the first person to meet her. She, one of the NBC pages, or someone in my office brought her up to the eighth floor, and I was standing there, and I, I, I thought, "Oh my God, she looks just like Tina." I mean, I couldn't believe how much she looked liked Tina. And, Tina was happened to be in my office, and I ran into my office, I shook her hand, and she had incredibly strong, you know, handshake, but I was overwhelmed by how much she physically looked like Tina, and how -- Tina Fey -- and how a lot of people come to our show, actors, musicians, and they're nervous. I mean, you know, "Saturday Night Live, I watched this my whole life." She was not nervous. I thought, "This is the most confident person I've ever met." I walked into my office and said to Tina, "You're gonna freak out, she looks exactly like you, or you like exactly like her." She said, "She's prettier than I am." 

MENIN: Do you think that maybe she wasn't nervous because she hadn't watched the show before? Did she say if she'd watched the show before?

KLEIN: I'm sure she watched the show before, I don't know, but I think she's just a person with a lot of confidence. And I think when you see people with confidence, you like that. You know, you trust, you know, you, there's something, there's something to confidence that, that people respond to.

MENIN: So she was very likable? 

KLEIN: Well, she was certainly lovely to deal with on our show.

Refreshing, wouldn't you agree?

Readers are encouraged to continue watching the video to its conclusion as Menin and Klein actually discussed the possibility that Vice President Biden and his gaffes will become a staple on "SNL" much like Chevy Chase's regular lampooning of former President Gerald Ford three decades ago.

Also, this is part III of a five-part interview. Those interested in the other four parts should go here