Maybe Sarah Palin has finally answered one of those Katy Couric stumpers, telling a faux-Sarko what she didn't want to tell the American voters: the simple truth.
Last night, French national television, “France 2”, ran a story concerning the U.S. presidential election. The nightly news reported on the exploits of a Quebecois comedy team of hoaxers that have tricked up the mighty of the world more than once. On this election eve go-round they managed to contact Sarah Palin and impersonate French Président Nicolas Sarkozy. They made no attempt to sound anything like the man, and the call was full of give-away tips that they weren’t Sarko at all, the waxing warmly over the idea of shooting wolves from helicopters, for one fairly clear example. France 2 reported that the real Palin confessed to the faux-Sarkothat she intended to be the Republican candidate for president in 2012, and that she intended to win. In truth, having been chastised for even mentioning 2012 earlier in the week, Palin stood by her candidate and concentrated on 2016 instead. It was all in fun, apparently, with Palin ultimately wiping the egg off her face with a self-deprecating shrug of the shoulders. “C’est la vie!” was the comment of her communications staff.
It seems like just another trivial moment in an endless campaign, and surely it was, but it did answer a question that had been posed before and never satisfactorily answered: What does Palin read? Surely not Foreign Affairs Quarterly, The Economist, or anything more scholarly, technical or esoteric; she reads People Magazine. Maybe Palin doesn’t know Sarko’s voice, perhaps she can’t tell a president from a pig in lipstick, but she knows that the president of France married former top model Carla Bruni after a summary divorce and a whirlwind romance. Now that’s being up on foreign affairs.