Sarah Palin will be missing from action Sunday a.m.

As is The Ticket's custom, a post listing the entire roster of appearances on this Sunday's interview programs will pop up Saturday at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT).

But here's an advance heads up, in part because of who WON'T be found on any of the chat shows.

Three of the four now-official candidates on the major-party presidential tickets are scheduled to sit down for questions: Democrat Barack Obama on ABC's "This Week," his running mate, Joe Biden, on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Republican John McCain on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Absent from this list, of course, is the GOP's star of the moment, the not-so-long-ago obscure governor of Alaska who is McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin.

Since she was thrust onto the national stage a week ago, her appearances on it have been tightly regulated by the McCain campaign: a few side-by-side campaign stops with him and, of course, her big speech to the GOP's convention Wednesday night.

Today, top McCain aide Rick Davis indicated the campaign isn't in any hurry to slot Palin for a Sunday show appearance -- and will do so only if he and other strategists determine it serves the ticket's purposes, not because some may view it as a required initiation for a major political player.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, Davis said, "I'd never commit to anything in the future. ... Our strategy is in our hands, not the media's. We're going to do what's in our best interests to try to win the election. If we think going on TV news shows are [sic] in our best interests, we'll do it. If we don't, we won't."

Palin still will be busy this weekend. She'll campaign Saturday with McCain in two key states -- Colorado and New Mexico -- and she'll deliver his campaign's weekly radio address. That's one of those trappings of the presidency McCain has borrowed (notwithstanding the barbs his forces like to sling at Obama along these lines).

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Jay K Bhalla]

Wake up America and expose GOP. They believe we all are fools and they can feed us anything. It appears they want to give her crash courses and scripted answers before they will put her on any show. Shame on this corrupt party who cares only about making money for them self at our expense.

Palin is a puppet with no credentials.

[BJ]

Keep going people. The more you put her down and judge her before you know how she will do, the better her chances will be when she finally does!

So many pundits and commentators on networks that are losing their audiences have done this before they even gave her a chance, now they have to eat their words after her speech.

Obama and his campaign are so stumped by her, they have to call on Hillary to rescue them! If I were Hillary, I would tell Obama, "you didn't think I was even good enough be to your VP, so you take care of her yourself". BUT knowing Obama and his DNC bullies, they will force her to confront Palin for them. Bullies are the biggest cowards.

[LaRae]

Here is the REAL reason why McCain chose Palin. He has no shame... Check it out, it's a pretty unique perspective from a religious point of view - surprising.

http://www.newsflavor.com/Opinions/McCain-Hijacks-Christianity-Via-Palin.240929

[Deena Larsen]

The reason Palin won't appear is that they don't want her to sound like the silly, vindictive person she is. Look at her previous "leadership" interviews when she allows shock jocks to call a cancer survivor a "cancer and a b****" :

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=sara+palin+bitch+cancer&hl=en&emb=0#

The Anchorage Daily news reported this on January 25th, 2008 http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/293639.html

[Clarence Haynes]

I agree with the decision for Palin to skip the Sunday morning hack-job shows. Those blowhards are so full of themselves, they can't conceive of a canidate being elected without their approval. In fact, I think it would be best if all the canidates stopped appearing on these self-inflated talk shows. I get so tired of the "talking-heads" trying to influence the outcome of elections for their own personal gain. When we went to Iraq, they were riding along and praising the effort. When things got tough and they thought they could sell more air time by pandering to the angst of the America people, they turned tail and ran the other way. Now, concerned their historic candidate might not win, they are attacking Palin and her family like rabid dogs. Anything to get the canidate they want into office eIected. I hope she never goes on a single Sunday morning show, so we can watch the blowhards, consumed with their own egos, continue to twist in the wind.

[JAS]

And what happens when you take away Obama's teleprompter, "You know, you know, you know....."

[RRT-MD]

I believe John McCain knows what he is doing - he'll use Ms Palin as his campaign requires, not to satisfy the curiosity of Democrats. BTW, if you read the above comments, you can't help but notice how mean spirited and small minded the Democrats are!

[Stephen McCurley]

McCain's choice of Palin for V.P. was absolutely brilliant. Barack Hussein was totally blindsided by this move and may not recover. McCain took all of the hype and steam from a much anticipated, scripted speech prepared by a team of speech writers from Barack Hussein. McCain is a brawler. Barack Hussein's oratory skills may not bail him out from a brilliant V.P. to be - Sarah Palin!

[Kent]

Isn't She Wonderful....

If your against her... You just want to work for Washington
If your with her... You want Washington to work for you.

Let's get the old Washington Political Thieves out,
all of them and get Legislators in Washington
who haven't learned to steal our money yet.

[Jones]

So everyone wants to have her on media talk abouts for what reason? Is she going to say anything? A single thing that will change the venom that most of you are injecting?

Put your efforts into raising who you believe and less time in trying to take down who you dont.

Silly Rabbits. We have our mind made up and so do you. Go find a hobby that helps you shed some of this anger.

[Russ Jenkins]

Please, she is a new mother and has many other children. She is a Christian and will be praying for direction and spending time with family.
Thank God someone who is normal in politics.
It's about time

[Eric]

Keep it going.... Lets continue to slam the unknown. Don't forget, Obama was an unkown just 2.5 years ago. He is only a puppet and if you think otherwise, it only shows how easily you are swayed by the media. By the way, the only reason the media is upset about Palin is because the media did not invent her. The media and the rest of the country was taken aback because everyone thought they knew who McCain was going to pick. Well, I was suprised as well but after thinking about it, I too was scared at the first announcement but since I like to think I am open minded, I think she has something that the rest of you clowns are to scared of. Somebody NEW!!! Well so was Obama....COME ON PEOPLE... Start using your mind and stop following the media hype.

[done already]

Let's face it - as much as the Republicans would like to say Sarah Palin is more experienced in those areas that presidents and vice-presidents should be proficient at, she knows very little about national and international policy decisions and is probably spending this weekend in a crash course on those things so that she doesn't give way how ill informed and unprepared she is to be a heart beat away from the presidency. In the meantime, this woman with a BS in Communications and a minor in Political Science will be trotted out for those controlled speeches that McCain doesn't do so well - sort of like a Stepford wife V.P. :)

[dennis]

Palin''s refusal to step out from behind her handlers and speak publicly with other adults should be a huge concern to all Americans. Someone a stroke away from the Presidency, hiding from the citizenry? Frantically being "packaged," maybe, by anonymous hacks? My god, who could possibly consider making such a person our President?

This is terrifying. If this potential Leader of the Free World lacks the courage or skill to have a conversation with a reporter in public without others having to program her first, she is not in control, she is in no way a leader, and she has absolutely no business running for this office. She needs to stop hiding NOW!

[dougX]

Wow.... So many sexist liberals and their feminist hypocrites. Feel the hate....

Boggles the mind. Who would have known.

[judy]

Sarah Palin is not meant to do or be anything-but retain the White House for the Republicans. If Senator McCain were to die they would deal with her exactly as they have dealt with George Bush-limited exposure-not included in high level meetings(he had other things to do) and whoever ran George would run Sarah. That gives them the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court gives them total power. And if you think differently you are probably an enemy combatant and need to be questioned somewhere privately.

[Gwen]

She's McCain's VP pick. If you don't like the way her interviews are being handled, don't vote for McCain. Otherwise, get over it.

[Did you forget?]

Did you not listen to her speech? She's not interested in pandering to the media... Sunday talk shows are NOT the end-all-be-all. Pomp and circumstance is not what the vice presidency is all about. Action, experience, substance -- that's what it's about.

Besides, how many of you even really watch them? I've watched many sleezy politicians charm their way on a Sunday talk show. Making it through one of those interviews is not my first concern. Sorry.

[richard b]

"Ok... she is not ready for the media." Think about what you're saying. If she's not ready for the media what possible leap of logic would make you feel she's ready to take over for McCain if something should happen to him. You dismiss this so cavalierly. And try to imagine if this was the situation with the Dems. You just know your reaction would be 180 degrees different.

[PulSamsara]

America will not reward complete Republican failure.

Not this time.

[Eddie]

Personally (and I'll ignore the anti-republican bias on this blog), I don't think she should go on Sunday AM and neither should McCain. The media has dropped even the appearance of objectivity and is 'All Obama, All Time'.

When Tim Russert died we lost the last real journalist in the Main Stream Media... The rest (Including Charles Gibson) are Partisan Hacks...

[fjfjdvdv]

Apparently, McCain thinks that women should be seen but not heard.

Actually, he doesn't seem to have an issue with her reading canned speeches written by someone else. So maybe the best analogy is that she's the campaign's "spokesmodel."

Women deserve a better representative than Sarah Palin. And republicans deserve better leaders.

[Eddie]

Personally (and I'll ignore the anti-republican bias on this blog), I don't think she should go on Sunday AM and neither should McCain. The media has dropped even the appearance of objectivity and is 'All Obama, All Time'.

When Tim Russert died we lost the last real journalist in the Main Stream Media... The rest (Including Charles Gibson) are Partisan Hacks...

[talent]

Palin has an obligation to voters and more importantly to herself to tell the public what she intends to do in terms of policy to improve our standing. Avoiding the media is a coward move and exposes Palin to criticism and scrutiny, and possibly investigations into her background.

[We know better]

Now that Hockey Moms and pit bulls are only differentiated by lipstick...seems like McSame & Co are now trying to convince us that just by putting lipstick on the pig we'll fall in love and in line.

Sure there are people you can fool some of the time, but as good ol' Abe once said, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time…." Lipstick on a barracuda, a pit bull, or a pig does not qualify as an extreme make-over.

Sarah Palin just doesn’t have what it takes and her canned speeches won’t carry the day for her. Horrors! What will the McSame/Rove advisers do when she needs to look as if she can think? What’s next? A photo op in front of a library with a banner stating “Mission Accomplished?”