Has Palin Matured As a Candidate? Brian Williams Says No

We missed one spot where NBC anchorman Brian Williams whined about having to wait 55 days for an interview with Sarah Palin, an October 22 appearance on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. When Maddow generously asked whether the big news out of the Palin interview was the "lack of a major gaffe" and "the maturing of the candidate," Williams basically said no, Palin did not "mature," that "There's a lot, I think, people will find embedded in this conversation," like his questions on the definition of a terrorist and the definition of an elite.

Williams seemed to greet Maddow’s question as an invitation to admit he didn’t lay a glove on Palin, that his mission was not to elicit information for the voters in the audience, but that it was his mission to create another "disastrous" anchorman interview for the Alaska governor. So he lamented that the commercial demands of television ownership didn’t give him enough time to really embarrass her:

MADDOW: That said, as you pointed out, you have to wait a very long time to get an interview with Sarah Palin. And after her other network interviews which were politically, fairly disastrous, is the lack of a major gaffe sitting in that chair, talking to you in this interview today, is that actually the big Palin news out of this interview, the maturing of the candidate?

WILLIAMS: Well, first of all, and I do someday want to talk to you about the world of television ownership, but perhaps for another time. As we say in television, there's much more of the interview. Rachel, we're going to take this, pretty much the way it transpired, we had, I guess, a total of 28 minutes with the two of them. I think I had eight minutes on camera, alone with Sarah Palin after we took a walk into a courtyard.

And so, over the next two nights on "Nightly News," we just have too much television to fit in a 30-minute newscast. We have to kind of serialize this interview. And I also want people to just see it and see what they think make up their own minds.

There's a question, she misunderstood, an honest mistake, wanted to correct the record. It was about 9/11, the role of the vice president. We did get her to go on the record saying she will release her medical records. There's a lot, I think, people will find embedded in this conversation. Heretofore hasn't been. We talked about the definition of a terrorist. We talked about the definition of an elite. So, I think, there's a lot here as we get to it. And again, this is not standard marketing but it's just too much television for time allotted.

It’s also worth noting that in no way would Williams blame Maddow (or Keith Olbermann, or Chris Matthews) for the infliction of emotional distress that was his 55-day wait for a Palin interview. Perhaps that’s also one of those quirks of corporate ownership:

MADDOW: Brian, it is an honor to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us.

WILLIAMS: Oh, thank you. Back to you, longtime viewer, first time caller. Rachel, you set the scene so nicely. In addition to calling me Mr. Williams in the opening segment, which I'll demand a dub of on tape or DVD. So, here, you've got a campaign, 10 down in our poll of last night. Fifty-five percent of respondents now saying Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president, which, of course, is the ultimate, possible responsibility of number two on the ticket. And then, after, quite candidly, we have waited a very patient 55 days, as the number one network evening newscast, for our chance to sit down and spend time with the vice presidential nominee of the GOP. That was the backdrop and we sat down today with the ticket in an auditorium, here inside Green High School.

Do you look "very patient" when you're still complaining about how "very patient" you were?