I have this empathy for embarrassment. I’m one of those people who has a really tough time watching things like Crank Yankers or America’s Funniest Home Videos or a sitcom where it’s the episode’s big punchline moment where someone’s caught in something really embarrassing. I get all squirmy and can barely look at the TV.

It’s because of this reaction that I’ve had a hard time watching clips of Couric’s interview with Palin, but I finally suffered through this one in its entirety because it carried the promise of Cafferty being a grumpy old man at the end:

Talking Points Memo | Cafferty: Palin’s a Friggin’ Laughingstock

(Personal to M.G.: Why do I think Palin should be laughed off the public stage? This.)

This scares me because I know exactly what she’s doing. I do that. Hit the popular phrases and the right-sounding words. I have a general confidence that if I just start running my mouth, I’ll either shortly have enough of an idea what I’m talking about, or I’ll be able to present it well enough to fool non-savvy people into thinking I know what I’m talking about. But I don’t risk it unless I have a general understanding of the topic and when I’m under less scrutiny.

But when I do it, I also have the confidence that, if I don’t pull it off, I have the safety net of apologizing, saying “oh, sorry, I got confused there,” and promise to get a better answer later after some research. I can work a crowd well enough that I can keep goodwill through that if I don’t try it too often, and people’s bullshit meters are usually thrown off by an admission that you don’t have all the answers.

But of course Palin doesn’t have that luxury. She can’t possibly say “I don’t know”—well, she can maybe a few times, but the number of times she can get away with that is very small—so she has no choice but to barrel through. And that’s what she’s doing here. I’ve heard a lot of people say “this sounds like a bad interview” because that’s exactly what it is. It’s a job interview with a candidate who has no right to be there, but she’s trying to bullshit through the interview and hoping for the best. If you were hiring a Safeway regional manager and she answered a question like this, you’d kick her out the door.

You know JOBS. Jobs and 1 in 5 and immigration. And oh yeah taxes! Taxes so hard-working Americans can 9/11 and jobs overseas the economy strong Israel and Iran porkbarrel spending bridge to nowhere. Russia.

edit: this guy does that riff better.