For well over two years, the liberal media have made fun of how Sarah Palin answered Katie Couric's ridiculous question concerning what she reads.
On Thursday, Chris Matthews, along with MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe, made it clear that no matter how the former Alaska governor answered that question, she was going to be ridiculed (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Here she is telling Barbara Walters what she reads, a dangerous area. Let’s listen.
(LAUGHTER)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: I read a lot of C.S. Lewis when I want some divine inspiration. I read Newsmax and "Wall Street Journal." I read all of our local papers, of course, in Alaska, because that’s where my heart is. I read anything and everything that I can get my hands on, as I have since I was a little girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: I just love Barbara Walter’s face, that discerning look: I have seen you people come and go. What is this number all about?
I could just see her looking at this candidate.
Your thoughts?
NEWTON-SMALL: Well, I mean, if you read "America By Heart," I think this book is actually a giant sort of tribute to Katie Couric. And, essentially, it’s like, here, Katie. You asked what I read. Here is a giant list of everything that I have read. And it’s just excerpts of every single thing that she’s read in the last two years.
MATTHEWS: But Newsmax. Explain Newsmax, why she would say something like that. That’s a digest of conservative to right-wing thinking. You don’t have to read. They just tell you the little items you’re supposed to know.
NEWTON-SMALL: I mean, that’s her base. That’s exactly her base, is Newsmax, people who read Newsmax, people who watch Newsmax.
MATTHEWS: Well, why would you say that’s among your reading every day?
Your thoughts about that? Why would you say something like that? It’s like I’m getting ingested. I don’t read.
WOLFFE: It’s not reading it for the news in Newsmax, is it?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Just looking for one-liners.
WOLFFE: All "The Chronicles of Narnia."
(LAUGHTER)
WOLFFE: Look, divine inspiration from a series of kids books? I don’t think C.S. Lewis would really want Newsmax in --
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: But I wouldn’t put down C.S. Lewis.
WOLFFE: No, I’m not putting him down.
MATTHEWS: Right.
WOLFFE: But divine inspiration? There are things she could have said for divine inspiration. Choosing C.S. Lewis is an interesting one.
And Newsmax, yes, it is playing to the base, but this isn’t a source - - look, she could have spent the last two years boning up on policy and showing she was serious to answer the Katie Couric question or to deal with the 40-odd percent of Republicans who think she’s not qualified to be president.
This is not doing it, is it?
Pretty clear there is absolutely NO answer to this question that would satisfy the likes of Matthews and Wolffe.
As Alex Pappas at The Daily Caller noted shortly after this aired, "[T]he acclaimed British academic and creator of childrens’ books [C.S. Lewis] was also a noted writer of works on Christianity."
These included "Mere Christianity," "The Problem of Pain," and "Miracles."
Readers are advised this ignorant display occurred on "Hardball," a program that according to the host is "absolutely nonpartisan."
