Beauty And The Geek

Complete with a contrived New York setting that includes a view of both the Statue Of Liberty and "Ground Zero", a pre-tapped Beck/Palin interview aired last night to what had to have been a salivating tea-bagger crowd.

After visualizing people like Rich Lowry sitting in their leather Lay-Z-Boys with their open robes, warm lubricant at the ready, I noticed that Palin seemed a little uncomfortable. I'm not entirely sure why, as the editing suite occupied by the Fox"News" producers would do any and everything to ensure that she didn't come off as the rank amateur that she still is.

The start of the interview set the overall tone - of Beck doing his smoothest R&B vocalist impersonation while spoon-feeding Palin those juicy tidbits that only he can conjure up. Truth-be-told, it was rather creepy watching Beck essentially profess his psycho-sexual fantasies of her in a diary entry that he read to her. It was like the nerdy kid in high-school professing his love to the head cheerleader during open assembly the last day of senior year.

The interview was largely predictable - glittering generalities from Palin and talks about how the modern conservative has the market cornered on patriotism.

From talks about the symbolism of Lady Liberty to the location where the interview was taped ( and Palin let is slip that this most certainly wasn't live ) on down to who her favorite founder was ( guess what her answer was - "all of them" ) Palin didn't seem too thrilled to be with the man that stakes his very livelihood on manufacturing the conspiracies that Palin herself thrives on from time to time. She was simply there to gain exposure, period.

But more to the pre-taped atmosphere that Beck and Palin were in. Beck always does his program live, always. This isn't Palin's niche, as she has known to shove her foot vertically down her flag-sucker on more than one occasion. She was in the same situation with O'Reilly and every time that Greta felt it necessary to jaunt up to Alaska and stalk her family while her husband gave Sarah political advice. Simply put, it's the Fox"News" way of making sure that Palin's image is polished to a refined shine so she can come off as a successful television personality.

At the end of the interveiw, the average voter - Republican or Democrat - came away with absolutely no new knowledge about Palin. She's still the same gimmicky superstar that conservatives believe has the capacity to run this country. And to that end, they are still as wrong and delusional as day one.