Saradise Found - Chapter Two -- Charlie Gibson Scores Sarah

According to the Associated Press reporter, David Bauder:

[Governor Sarah] Palin will sit down for multiple interviews with Gibson in Alaska over two days, most likely Thursday and Friday, said McCain adviser Mark Salter.

Apparently, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis kept shopping around:

until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference.

Maybe he misspoke. Maia, from Own the Sidewalk, suggests he meant "reverence." Here's how the audition, with John McCain at last week's RNC went:

During that interview, he did not question McCain about Palin's family, a decision that he fretted about for hours, Gibson said in a Web log posted last week.

"Once you know about her daughter's pregnancy, once you know about her husband's political interest in the Alaska Independent Party, once you know about the special nature of their latest child, I think that's enough," Gibson wrote.

The relevant questions about Palin all related to her experience and policy positions as a mayor and governor of Alaska.

ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said he did not believe Gibson's stated stance about family questions was key to securing the interview.

Yeah, right, Jeffrey. And, as Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall observes:

Political interviews are never done like this. Because it makes the questioning entirely at the discretion of the person being interviewed and their handlers. The interviewer has to be on their best behavior, at least until the last of the 'multiple interviews' because otherwise the subsequent sittings just won't happen. For a political journalist to agree to such terms amounts to a form of self-gelding. The only interviews that are done this way are lifestyle and celebrity interviews. And it's pretty clear that that is what this will be.

"A form of self-gelding," eh? Here's how some media observers graded his moderation of an ABC candidate debate back in mid-April:

Following the April 16 Democratic presidential debate on ABC, moderated by ABC News senior political correspondent George Stephanopoulos and World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson, numerous media figures have criticized the moderators or the subject matter of the event, in part or in whole, as "shoddy [and] despicable," "specious and gossipy," "cringe-worthy," "banal," consisting of "tabloid trivia," "flat-out repulsive," "embarrassing," "seem[ingly] slanted against [Sen. Barack] Obama," "shameful," and "an outrage."

Looks like they've picked the right guy. I'm sure Charlie will be in totally deferential, reverential, self-gelded, flat-out repulsive - Saradise.......

hat tip to Josh Marshall