Hotline After Dark -- Reliable Sources?

More of Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin and John McCain aired last night on CBS' "Evening News."

Couric: "When it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?"

Palin: "I read most of them, again, with a great appreciation for the press, for the media..."

Couric: "But, like, what one specifically, I'm curious, that you..."

Palin: "All of them. Any of them that have been in front of me over all these years. I have a..."

Couric: "Can you name a few?"

Palin: "I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country where it's kind of suggested, it seems like, 'Wow, how could you keep in touch with the rest of Washington DC, maybe thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?' Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America."

More after the jump, including VP debate expectations.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

GOP strategist Bay Buchanan, on whether it's odd Palin didn't give Couric specific newspapers and magazines she reads: "No. I don't think it's anything. ... She could have answered it more specifically, but she answered the question: lots of them. And she obviously reads different magazines and newspapers or whatever" ("AC 360," CNN, 9/30).

Dem strategist James Carville: "Look, it has nothing to do with being from Alaska. Alaska has the Internet. You can read anything. She can read anything she wants. From everything we have heard and seen of Governor Palin, she's a woman who's supremely uninterested in the world around her. She may know a lot about Alaska. She may know a lot about moose hunting or fishing or even governing Alaska. But she has no demonstrable interest in foreign policy" ("AC 360," CNN, 9/30).

More from the Palin/McCain interview:

Couric: "Governor Palin, I know you'd like to see drilling take place in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And Senator McCain, you oppose this. ... Who's right?"

McCain: "Did you expect two mavericks to agree on ... everything? Look, I ... we just have, we'll be talking more and more about this issue. We do agree on the off-shore drilling and other means of limiting our dependence on foreign oil. But for us to agree on everything would make us, I think, a little boring. You can say a lot about us, but we're anything but boring."

Couric, on Palin saying she's heard Joe Biden's Senate speeches since she was in the second grade: "When you have a 72-year-old running mate, is that a, kind of a risky thing to say, insinuating that Joe Biden's been around awhile?"

Palin: "Oh, no, it's nothing negative at all. He's got a lot of experience and just stating a fact there, that we've been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas, and he's got the experience."

Palin, asked if global warming is manmade: "There are man's activities that can be contributed to the issues that we're dealing with now, with these impacts. I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate because the world's weather patterns are cyclical, and over history we have seen changes there. But, kind of doesn't matter at this point, as we debate what caused it, the point is it's real, we need to do something about it."

Couric: "If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion. Why?"

Palin: "I am pro-life, and I'm unapologetic about my position there on pro-life. And I understand good people on both sides of the abortion debate. ... I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country, but I want, then, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported, for adoptions to be made easier" (CBS, 9/30).

And during an interview with FNC's Van Susteren, Pakistani Pres. Asif Ali Zardari was asked about his meeting with Palin.

Van Susteren: "In your engagement with Governor Palin, do you get the sense that she asks the right questions and that this would be an area which she could conquer?"

Zardari: "I think she's very intelligent. She's very smart. She's a governor. She's not a governor for nothing" ("On the Record," 9/30).

THE MORE BORING, THE BETTER

In addition to the logistics of a bailout bill, much of last night's TV was focused on the 10/2 VP debate.

Pat Buchanan: "What I would recommend the McCain people, who I think have mishandled her, is really let Sarah be Sarah. Let her get her information down on the issues of Iraq, Afghanistan, the rest of it, and then let her be herself, because I think she's extraordinarily fresh. ... People like and love her. They know she's from Alaska. And I don't think they're expecting to her to really give the details of the Georgia-Ossetia conflict" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 9/30).

FNC's Sammon: "Sarah Palin has a demeanor problem, where she freezes up and looks like a deer in the headlights. And I think conservatives are almost ready to say, look, loosen up and relax. If that means even making a substance error, we would almost be reassured if you could demonstrate that you can parry and deflect and finesse tough questions. There is a certain skill set involved there that she doesn't seem to have. ... She has gone from a spectacular rollout at the convention ... to this perception that is gradually congealing that she is a Dan Quayle. I think it's unfair, and she has to get out of that on Thursday night" ("Special Report," 9/30).

New Republic's Crowley: "I think my advice for Joe Biden is basically ignore Sarah Palin. You want this debate to be pretty boring. The risk of going after her and failing is high because when a man confronts a woman too strongly in politics, it often backfires. Just go after McCain. Lay out the differences. Don't make this a big dramatic debate. You don't want people talking too much about it. Let her burn herself down if that's what happens" ("Election Center," CNN, 9/30).

Bloomberg's Carlson: "The luck of the draw is [Palin] has Gwen Ifill as the moderator on Thursday. So she's got a woman. It's much harder to accuse somebody of Gwen Ifill's personality of being gotcha" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 9/30).

NPR's Liasson: "I think that you will see Joe Biden not disappear, but he is not going to engage her. Somebody said he is not going to 'moose bait' her. He is going to, I think, be extremely careful. Joe Biden has his own problems to watch out for, and I don't think he is going to be aggressive. ... He has to watch out for himself. He doesn't have to worry about going after Sarah Palin. I think the feeling inside the Obama campaign is that she's doing fine just by her very own self, in other words, doing poorly. And he doesn't have to help her along" ("Special Report," FNC, 9/30).

Dem strategist Hilary Rosen: "I think, in the end, the debate will be interesting as a character study, but I don't think it's going end up making much difference. People are going to focus right back on the future of the economy again" ("AC 360," CNN, 9/30).