I have a new theory. It puts me in the uncomfortable position of defending Governor Sarah Palin - something I swore I wouldn't do after I made a fool of myself defending her foreign policy experience by telling everyone about the trade trips she made to other counties only to discover that practice ended with Governor Frank Murkowski.
In reading Sarah's resignation speech, three times, it occurred to me there was something familiar in Palin's speech pattern. A light bulb went off in my head, and I think I have discovered the answer to the Palin riddle.
Let me preface my theory by saying that speech is something I actually studied at one of the best universities in the nation in that discipline. My education was supplemented by Channel 11 News training by the best television journalist coaches Gottstein could afford. Speech is not about diagramming sentences and using perfect English, it is about being able to convey a message by a verbal medium that the listener will find attractive enough to pay attention to. The emphasis is on how things sound, not how they are written.
Sarah went to school, okay several schools, and eventually landed a job as a journalist at Channel 2 News. This is the underlying reason Palin is beaten up so badly over her bizarre speaking style. Journalists are supposed to be fluent masters of the English language.
Here is where I am going out on a limb, I am going to suggest Sarah Palin may be the victim of misplaced expectations. Her journalistic dream ended with a goal she didn't obtain, being a ESPN sportscaster.
That is the tickle we have all missed, and it is a big one.
Sarah wasn't a reporter, she was trained to be a sports caster. Ever listen to the sports on the nightly news? Incomplete run-on sentences, crazy metaphors, transitionless topic jumping. One would have difficulty deciphering any given night's sports script because all the visual clues as to what the speaker is talking about are missing.
Sarah' speech has a rhythm, a beat, a timing of its own. I am quite confident that when Sarah steps up to the microphone in her mind's eye there is a video feed box behind her right shoulder illustrating what she is talking about. It is how she was trained to speak.
Unfortunately, there is no one running the tape for Sarah Palin.
