Will Oprah Have Palin? Will Palin Do Oprah?

As Maureen Ryan writes, there's been a flurry of back-and-forth today between The Drudge Report and The Oprah Winfrey Show. A Drudge post this morning claimed "Oprah's staff is sharply divided on the merits of booking Sarah Palin."

Later in the day, Oprah released a statement that—after having endorsed Barack Obama last year—she had decided not to have any candidates on her show, but that she would love to interview Palin after the election.

It's a strange story, for a couple of reasons. First, the original post mentions the Oprah staff arguing the merits of having Palin on—but doesn't say anything about whether there have actually have been talks, or whether Palin would do the interview in the first place.

Palin, after all, has not been doing any national media at all, besides People magazine. She so far has no plans to. To hear one McCain staffer tell it, it's because the media is so mean and biased. (To hear another, it's because she's not prepared yet. "Ready to be President on Day One! Not quite ready to do Meet the Press, but working on it!")

Given all that, it would be surprising that, however soft a venue Winfrey's show is, Palin would want to grant her first big TV interview to Barack Obama's biggest celebrity supporter. [Update: Obama has been on her show twice, both times before she endorsed him.] Wouldn't that undercut the whole "she shouldn't talk to the biased media" argument? (Or does she agree with me that disclosing one's voting only makes journalists more credible?)

Would I like to see Palin be interviewed on Oprah? Given the potential vice president's radio (and TV) silence, at this point I'd like to see her interviewed by anyone—Matt Lauer, Paula Deen, you name it. I don't quite see the impetus on Palin's part, though, much less Oprah's.

But perhaps once it's clear that Oprah does not want to book Palin, Palin will express an interest in doing Oprah. Nay, will demand it! Will refuse on principle to do any other interviews—though she would love to—until this injustice is rectified!