Sarah Palin Hedges On Agreeing To A Debate With Al Gore

First Posted: 12-10-09 05:24 PM   |   Updated: 12-10-09 05:50 PM

Huffington Post

Against the backdrop of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, former Vice President Al Gore and former sometime Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin have been nipping and tucking at each other over climate change science. Gore, referring to Sarah Palin's recent Washington Post op-ed, said that denialists "persist in an air of unreality," and then Sarah Palin responded by poking Gore on Facebook, or something. On today's edition of the Laura Ingraham show, Ingraham asked Palin if some sort of great climate change debate may be brewing between the two public figures. Palin said no, for every reason she could think of in the next few minutes. ThinkProgress has the conversation:

INGRAHAM: Would you agree to a debate with Al Gore on this issue?

PALIN: Oh my goodness. You know, it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum. Because Laura, as you know, if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators I'll get clobbered because, you know, they don't want to listen to the facts. They don't want to listen to some reasonable voices in this. And that was proven with the publication of this op-ed, where they kind of got all we-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers of changing weather patterns and climate conditions. Trying to make the issue into something that it is not.

INGRAHAM: But what if it's an Oxford-style, proper debate format. I mean, he's going to chicken out. I mean, if you challenge him to a debate, do you actually think he would accept it?

PALIN: I don't know, I don't know. Oh, he wouldn't want to lower himself, I think, to, you know, my level to debate little old Sarah Palin from Wasilla.

So, there you have it, if you find a venue for this debate where the odds are totally stacked in Sarah Palin's favor -- like maybe a dogsled race that you quit halfway through? -- she's game! Otherwise, she'll get clobbered. This was "proven," you know! Totally "proven!" When she was afforded the opportunity to write an op-ed in the Washington Post -- free from any editors who might normally say things like, "No, this is wrong," or "Sorry, we actually would prefer to not insult or readers intelligence because we'd like them to keep buying our newspaper" -- and when said op-ed wasn't universally showered with praise and accolades, it absolutely "proved" that the media and Al Gore's friends and "commentators" were just out to get her. Millionaire lady gadabout just can't catch a break!

This is sort of Palin's de facto setting for media appearances. May I remind you, she hasn't even bothered to go on any of the Sunday morning political talk shows. Not even Fox News Sunday! She was a candidate for vice-president!

So, per Palin, Al Gore can either agree to a debate set up according to the rules and customs of Alaska's Miss Teen Wordpower, or refuse to do so and be called an elitist who won't "debate little old Sarah Palin from Wasilla."

Meanwhile, I have to imagine that the primary reason that Al Gore will probably never agree to a debate with Sarah Palin on climate change policy, is because what would be the point? Sarah Palin does not, and will not ever, have anything at all to do with climate change policy. But hey, if Al Gore turns out to have some unrevealed, yet deeply-felt opinions on bowling, we can do this.