[earthboundkid]

I always felt like Palin got done dirty when they asked her what she read. Like obviously this is a trick question, and she hadn’t prepared a good answer for it. Who cares? OTOH, she is a nut, so maybe it was fair to stress her out and see if she cracks.

[DiogenesKynikos]

It's difficult to detect sarcasm online, so here goes:

"What do you read to follow the news?" is an incredibly easy question. Even if she doesn't read any newspaper, she could have just named one. "USA Today" is a pretty safe answer that won't offend anyone. Watching Palin struggle with this basic question was painful.

[earthboundkid]

It is 100% a trick question.

- "I read the Alaska Daily News" ← Small timer, not ready for national stage

- "I read the New York Times" ← Liberal bias, piss off your base

- "I read USA Today" ← A newspaper for babies

- "I read everything" ← Cop out answer and nobody buys it (which is what she said)

- "I read the Wall Street Journal" ← Actually this would be a really good answer because it's national scale and non-liberal, but it's hard to come up with in the moment

The whole point of the question is "reveal something about yourself" but whatever you reveal has positives and negatives that you need to weigh out beforehand. The point of being in the limelight longer is you can burn all your bad answers earlier before anyone cares about them and figure out your strategy.

[DiogenesKynikos]

Someone who feels challenged by the question, "What newspaper do you read?" is not ready for national politics. This is one step above, "What's your favorite food?"

Nobody is going to be that offended by what paper you read. I suggested "USA Today" because it's about the blandest paper you can pick, and nobody can really object to it. Your suggestion, the Wall Street Journal, is not at all difficult to come up with in the moment. It's probably the 2nd or 3rd most influential paper in the US.

Instead of just naming a newspaper, she froze like a deer in the headlights. That just confirmed what many people already thought - she probably reads nothing.

[earthboundkid]

She absolutely read the Alaskan newspaper. It’s silly to suggest otherwise. She may be a nut, but she managed to get elected, and that involves understanding local politics.

[DiogenesKynikos]

Trump doesn't read the news (he watches cable TV), and he got elected.

Palin doesn't come across as much of a reader, and it would not surprise me at all if she really didn't read the news.

[nonethewiser]

“The news is garbage, you shouldnt read it” is probably the best answer.

[dtornabene]

asking a vice presidential candidate what they read is not a trick question and if you think it is I'm super curious what you think a vice president does