ABSTRACT
Personal interviews with political elites such as presidents, prime ministers, or members of parliament are difficult to obtain. Even journalists, who depend on such interviews to do their jobs, struggle to get access to political leaders who often avoid the press or anybody asking critical questions. Nevertheless, in-depth interviews often reveal important pieces of information that cannot be gathered through any other research methodology. Katie Couric’s now famous interviews for CBS News with the 2008 U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, for example, revealed substantial gaps in Palin’s knowledge of foreign affairs and subsequently undermined her political support among the American public.
