Norah O'Donnell: Palin a "celestial guide post" as America is "headed in the wrong direction"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

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HARDBALL 1900 For September 1, 2010 MSNBC

MATTHEWS: We`re back.

Guess who is going to Iowa? Sarah Palin. "The Des Moines Register" reports that Palin will headline the Iowa Republican Party`s big Ronald Reagan Day fundraiser in September 17th. The paper notes that a party official said, after playing hard to get for the past year, Palin approached Iowa Republicans recently.

Well, Michael Joseph Gross has a big piece on Palin in the October issue of ""Vanity Fair." It`s called "Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury." And MSNBC`s chief Washington correspondent Norah O`Donnell also joins us.

Thank you so much, Michael.

And thank you, Norah, for joining us.

Norah is, of course, has been covering Governor Palin for all these months.

Michael, is she running for president?

MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS, VANITY FAIR: If you look at the connection she has with the crowds, if you look at the way that she compares herself to Ronald Reagan out there, if you feel the force of the connection, which is unlike anything I`ve felt since I saw Reagan give his last speeches, I don`t see how you can come to any other conclusion.

MATTHEWS: Your reporting is based upon everything you`ve seen. What -- is there anything out there that would be an impediment to her running, anything that would encourage her not to run, be it embarrassment, anything in a way of here just make a run for it? What`s she got to lose?

GROSS: Well, she`s got basically her whole history. There is a town full of people up in Wasilla. There is a whole crowd of people who she has alienated herself from who have been trampled, beaten down by this woman, who are so intimidated by her, that they have been too scared to speak out.

MATTHEWS: But they will speak out if she runs, you think?

GROSS: I think they will.

MATTHEWS: Well, let`s take a look at her. Here she is at the Glenn Beck rally on Saturday and then I want to hear what Norah thinks about after reporting on her all this time. Let`s listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: And I know that many of us today, we are worried about what we face. Sometimes our challenges, they just seem insurmountable, but here together, at crossroads of our history, may this day -- may this day be the change point.

Look around you. You`re not alone. You are Americans!

You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them.

So, with pride in the red, white, and blue, with gratitude to our men and women in uniform, let`s stand together. Let`s stand with honor. Let`s restore America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: Wow. You know, I -- Norah, every time I hear her in that sort of voice she develops there when she`s on the platform, I don`t think it`s her regular speaking voice, I hear Tina Fey. I hear Tina Fey doing her and it works for the crowd.

Now, the question is: Can you give us -- I know you have to be objective, but is there any way you can read through the lines? She`s going to Iowa. She`s an evangelical Christian. She`s playing the Christian woman, the grizzly -- the mama grizzly, but also with the religious overtone like she`s never played before. Isn`t that setting her up to really being the Christian woman running for president in Iowa where she could win that all important early test?

NORAH O`DONNELL, MSNBC CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. She`s different from the other Republicans who will run, who are white males who can`t make the same sort of connection with voters that she can. She`s both vulnerable, she`s both problematic, all of her family issues -- and that`s what connects with her.

I`ve been on the road with her. It sounds better in person than it does perhaps on camera. She does connect well with voters.

I think that she`s going to Iowa is significant. Not just because she reached out and wanted to go to this dinner, but it suggests she has an interest in 2012, after sort of feigning that, been more interested in selling books, making lots of money, I think she`s starting to like the adoration that she gets out there and she might be propelled by some of her--

MATTHEWS: Who wouldn`t?

O`DONNELL: -- might be propelled by some her staffers and those close to her to consider something bigger.

MATTHEWS: Yes. Let`s take a look. Here`s a line from Michael`s piece in the upcoming new issue of "Vanity Fair."

"According to almost anyone or everyone who has ever known her, including those who have seen the darkest of her dark side, Sarah Palin has a great gift for making people feel good about themselves."

Michael, I`ve been reading your piece. She has the ability to look you in the eye and be totally focused on you. That is an ability of all great politicians.

GROSS: That`s right. The problem is now, what she`s doing, instead of just telling people that they`re good, is planting in them the idea that they might not be good enough. What she`s telling them is: they don`t think you`re smart enough, the Democrats, Obama. They don`t think you know what`s going on. They don`t think you`re good enough.

MATTHEWS: Well, that question is pretty good, and I want to go with that very question, Michael, and your thoughts.

It seems to me that she has this sort of SDI, the strategic defense, that says, OK, I don`t have to know all the answers, I don`t have to answer to Katie Couric`s question about what I read, I don`t have to really read anything to be honest about it, as long as I am a mother who had a son in combat, I raised a family, I`m a regular person -- that`s sort of her force field and she just says, no matter what the question, I don`t need to know the answer to that because I`m an American mother.

At what point does that become not use -- not even -- well, even ludicrous when you`re asked a question about how are you going to deal with the Middle East peace problems, how are you going to deal with nuclear technology around the world, what`s a common sense solution when there are no common sense solution? It takes a lot of ingenuity to figure out what to do with these problems. When will the voters say, enough of this common sense line of yours, what`s the answer?

GROSS: Well, I feel like we should have reached that point a long time ago. The question has as much to do with when those of us who are sitting in these chairs and looking in these cameras are going to stop giving her the attention that feeds this fire. She`s proven that she is a person for whom there is no matter to small to lie about.

MATTHEWS: OK.

GROSS: There is no distinction between fact and fiction in what she talks.

MATTHEWS: We`ll see how your piece runs.

Norah, your thoughts. You`ve been through the piece, you`ve covered her. How do you react to the piece you read by Michael in the "Vanity Fair" edition coming out?

O`DONNELL: Well, I think it`s fascinating and it captures really what is the sort of complex person that Sarah Palin is. And that Palin brand is exactly what makes her so marketable -- why she can sell 2 million books and why people come out in droves to see her.

I also think what`s fascinating is her use of the North Star.

MATTHEWS: Yes. I know that.

O`DONNELL: I mean, that is a great narrative -- good presidential campaigns need a narrative. She can be this celestial guide post in a time when most Americans --

MATTHEWS: OK.

O`DONNELL: -- think the country is headed in the wrong direction. And that can be a powerful narrative. But she`s got to work on the substance.

MATTHEWS: Maybe we need David Broder to come back and really be strong, we need some gatekeepers again in this business.

Anyway, thank you, Michael Joseph Gross.

GROSS: Thank you.

MATTHEWS: The big piece coming out in "Vanity Fair," a hell of a magazine, by the way.

And Norah O`Donnell.

When we return, I`ll have some advice for Democrats about how they can prevent a big Republican victory this November if they play it right.

You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.

[HipChick]

1. Norah O`Donnell has always had a big hard on for Palin...

[scheming daemons]

2. Now THERE'S a mental image

..

[VAliberal]

3. I think I just vomited a little

[fascisthunter]

4. Nora O'Donnel Likes Tax Cuts for the Rich because she's a Greedy Shite Bag

[snagglepuss]

5. The Vanity Fair article is a MUST READ. Palin branding hersef as NORTHSTAR.

The article explains all the permutations of the term.

[Bitwit1234]

6. Celestial Guide Post ....telling people

if you believe in me you sure as hell AIN'T GOING UP more like DOWN.

[gulliver]

7. I think Norah is admiring the quality of the fantasy as narrative.

I think the "But she's got to work on the substance" is her main thrust. Using "this celestial guide post" is probably bordering on mockery of Palin. Would need to see the video.