Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was on television last night being interviewed by Sean Hannity on his Fox News show. On CNN, we had the premier of Piers Morgan Tonight. Morgan interviewed Oprah Winfrey. A new episode of House was on the Fox Network.

There wasn’t a Monday Night Football game…so I was kind of lost. Football games are few and far between these days and that is depressing enough for a Tuesday.

So I watched House. I flipped over to watch Piers Morgan during the commercials. I caught up with the Sarah Palin interview via Fox’s website this morning. Preliminary numbers show that Hannity still won the timeslot.

Disclosure: I voted for McCain and Palin.

Face it, Sarah Palin is a real force in the conservative political world. She can raise money. Many of her endorsed candidates win. If you are a candidate on the far right side of the fence, you want her on your side. If you are a Republican In Name Only (RINO), watch out.

A liberal friend of mine asked me awhile back if I thought Palin would be President. I said no. My reasons are varied, but one of the main ones is she was not very well prepared by McCain’s people for interviews during the run for the White House. It ruined her. It’s not like Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson were doing their first rodeo with Palin back in 2008 – any media specialist worth their weight would have prepped Palin better for their style of questioning.

Of course Palin has not been treated all that fairly (name someone who has) by some outside of Fox News and attacks on her family are way out of bounds, but that is life in the political world.

This is 2011. Candidates cannot hide and just send out Facebook and Twitter updates – people want to see how a quickly a candidate acts on their feet – how they react to pressure – how they handle the “unfair” questions – to give us a glimpse of how the candidate would govern.

Palin uses Facebook and Twitter (I follow her on both) and Fox News (where she is employed) to get her message out – and that’s fine for now – but people are starting to ask, “Where’s the beef?”

It’s easy to be asked questions by friend and fellow conservative Sean Hannity. It’s another task altogether to be asked questions by a real journalist. Palin “speaking out on Fox News with Sean Hannity” is like scrimmaging with the junior varsity.

Some of my friends on the right are probably saying, “But most of the real journalists all lean to the left and have agendas.” I say that’s the breaks of being in the national spotlight – handle it or step aside.

Maybe Palin’s lucrative contract at Fox News doesn’t allow her to do a sit down with Katie Couric or Diane Sawyer or Brian Williams or visit Sunday talk shows like Meet the Press, This Week, or Face the Nation.

It also takes her out of the mix of being a real Presidential contender.