Oprah Winfrey is no Katie Couric. Which, for Sarah Palin, has got to be a blessing.
The former vice presidential candidate has completed her much-hyped interview with the openly Obama-favoring queen of daytime, and although the highly anticipated summit won't air until Monday, we got a taste of their sit-down today.
Based on the clips and transcripts, it looks like Winfrey managed to get in the questions inquiring minds want to know without Palin pulling off her microphone and sitting silently in protest.
Like that infamous, potentially campaign-costing Couric interview. Palin admits it wasn't her proudest moment, but didn't take the bait when asked if she regarded it as game-changer.
"I did not. And neither did the campaign. In fact, that is why segment 2 and 3 and 4 and maybe 5 were scheduled. The campaign said, 'Right on. Good. You're showing your independence. This is what America needs to see and it was a good interview.'
"And of course I'm thinking, 'If you thought that was a good interview, I don't know what a bad interview is,' because it was a bad interview."
Oprah, of course, knows from good interviews and has no trouble going there. Which means Levi Johnston's ears are burning.
"So, one final question about Levi," Oprah says, before pausing for the coup de grace. "Will he be invited to Thanksgiving dinner?"
It was at that point that Palin appears to go rogue, answering every question but the one asked.
"You know, that's a great question. And it's lovely to think that he would ever even consider such a thing. Because of course you want—he is a part of the family and you want to bring him in the fold and kind of under your wing," she says.
"And he needs that, too, Oprah. I think he needs to know that he is loved and he has the most beautiful child and this can all work out for good. It really can."
After waxing on about her aversion to drama and controversy, Winfrey cuts off the mouthy maverick and cuts right back to the chase.
"Does that mean yes he is coming, or no he is not?" (Oh yes she did.)
While we can probably guess the answer, viewers will have to wait until Monday's episode to hear it straight from the moose's mouth. But they won't have to wait that long to hear Johnston's reply.
"She's being smart," he tells the New York Daily News of Palin's inoffensive comments. "She knows what I got on her. It's a smart move on her part."
The professional leg spreader goes on to say that he believed her reconciliation-hinting sound bites are fake. Asked if he could picture Palin calling him family, he replies, "For a show, yeah."
Of course, discussing Johnston is only the tip of the iceberg during the interview. In a video blog posted by the big O herself, Winfrey teases what else was to come.
"It was really an interesting interview," she says. "You know, lots of people didn't want me to have her on, lots of people did. Lots of her supporters didn't want her to come here, but she did.
"But we talked about everything: We talked about inside the campaign, what it felt like when she was first was asked to be vice president. We talked about Bristol, the pregnancy. We talked about Trigg, her baby. We talked about Levi Johnston. We talked about her marriage, we talked about everything. There's nothing that we didn't talk about."
(Originally published Nov. 12, 2009, at 1:31 p.m. PT)
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