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Sarah Palin might not give a good interview, and John McCain's advisers might not trust her to give a press conference, but in a highly structured debate like the one we are going to see on Thursday night, she has the ability to be dominant.
Because the format allows for very little give-and-take between Palin and Joe Biden, her "values"-oriented debating style stands a good chance of succeeding. The central feature of her debate style is that rather than getting bogged down in facts and specifics, she instead says what she is for and what she is against using terms like "healthier," "stronger," "more prosperous," and "fairer."
I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.
That sounds like a backhanded compliment, and perhaps it is, but that doesn't change the fact that Palin's debating style works, as you can see for yourself in this video that I edited together.
For the video, I looked at her past debates and randomly grabbed six answers that I thought were pretty good. These weren't cherry-picked answers, they were just the first six answers that I thought she handled effectively. (I only rejected one answer in which I felt she was too defensive about her experience.)...
Okay, I got about 20 secs in & stopped...not as an insult to you or your efforts...but because I expect her to do good given the subject at hand. She is going to be well-versed on the good she did as Mayor, and will be able to draw on those experiences to form a good, well-thought-out answer.
I don't think she's stupid, by any stretch...I just think she's in WAY over her head when it comes to national issues. She just doesn't have anything to draw from, except what they've been trying to cram into her head in such a short amount of time.
I don't think she's going to do very well. I honestly hope for her sake it isn't a slaughter. No one deserves that. Even though I don't like her as a VP pick in any form, I'd like her to at least SOMEWHAT hold her own & not look a fool.
No, there's something to this -- in the same way that neither McCain nor Obama really debated, or even duscussed substance, why would we think the VPs will be any different? I could see Biden being disadvantaged for a few reasons:
Chivalry -- he has already been warned that he mustn't look like he's belittling, patronizing, or dismissing her because it will look like he's not taking her seriously because she's a woman. Unfortunately, his normal speaking style can very easily sound condescending -- it has made me cringe more than a few times, when he starts (as he will) "Look... (as in 'here's how it is, you greenhorn idiot...')"
That's OK if 'you know Joe' and that it's really not personal. But to millions of people watching HER, he'll look like a bully picking on that purty little gal.
If she stays on glossy but tough non-message -- what we call social veneer in my business -- as Reagan was able to do even when he was mildly demented -- then she'll look great to her base, and make the wobblers who want to like her able to relax a bit.
She'll have a couple of pre-set one liners ("What do you see as the primary responsibility of the Vice President?" "Well, I hope it's not to give TV interviews!") Biden is off-the-cuff and that makes him riskier. (I hear the Obama people have been grooming him as hard as McCain's people have been on her!) If they hound her for a more specific answer on something she'll bite back -- politely -- that she's already given her answer. And she'll attack Obama's credentials, not Biden's, when her experience level is inevitably challenged, a deflection Biden may have some difficulty directly addressing w/o sounding like HE's on the defensive.
I hope she loses it -- some profound garbles and even a complete melt-down would be nice -- but I'm not counting on it.
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oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
Here's a question I wish they'd ask -- "You are quoted as saying the only flag you have in your office is the Israeli flag. What is Israel's importance to you personally, that you would put the Israeli flag in your office, and not the flag of any of our other important allies? Have you been to Israel?"
The ONLY answer she's going to come up with to justify that is something Christian. Or she'll deny having the flag, which opens up other doors.
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oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
I just want them to ask, "do you know what the 9th amendment to the Constitution is?"
I mean, they ARE going to have to support and defend the Constitution, aren't they???? Might be nice if candidates at least know what the bill of rights are....
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Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run. May the wings of liberty never lose a feather. ....
Listening to surrogates and aides to John McCain on Thursday, one is left with the impression that there is no great need for Gov. Sarah Palin to actually answer questions during tonight's vice presidential debate.
Indeed, the spin coming from McCain surrogates and strategists is that all Palin has to do is pass a sort of artificial personality test, in which she strikes an emotional thread with the average voter -- question, answers, or intellectual capacity be damned.
Such were the talking points mere hours before the debate in St. Louis, which peaked with Sen. Joe Lieberman - a man not unaccustomed to the pressures of such a forum - actually proclaiming that Palin's relative ignorance helped her relate to "regular people."
"She's not lived in the world of Washington, so she doesn't know every detail of all the questions senators deal with," Lieberman told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "But, frankly, that's her strength. I think that's why a lot of regular people out across America think she's going to be their voice."
Mitchell interjected, "Senator, she wants to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. You know, that doesn't mean just being an average mom, it means bringing other skills."
But Lieberman stayed on the point, stating later, "I think tonight is not a kind of final college exam. I think the point is who is she as a person... Whether she can answer every detailed question, I don't think that ultimately matters to the American people so long as they think she passes those other personal thresholds."
It was the ultimate setting of expectations -- a political get-out-of-jail-free card should Palin stumble this evening. And it wasn't an isolated incident. Over on Fox News, Chris Wallace was relaying a conversation with a McCain "strategist" in which the metrics for debate success were once again defined in strictly personal terms.
"They say they want to show that she is plain spoken, that she relates to Joe Six-Pack and embrace the contrast her to a smooth-talking Washington insider like Joe Biden," Wallace reported. "I said: 'But what if she does not know some of the answer to something?' They said, 'Look, she should not be embarrassed by that. She should say 'I'm not a Washington insider. I'm going to learn about that but I was a reformer in Alaska and I shook things up.'"
Earlier in the day on Fox News, McCain aide Meg Stapleton was also playing up Palin's "Joe Six-Pack" attributes, even arguing that Palin's "experience as an ordinary American" qualified her to be "one heartbeat away" from the Oval Office... "god forbid."
"So if it's the economic crisis, she can certainly speak to the fact that she carries a mortgage. She's got kids ready to go to college, she has a son who is also heading off to the military. So from a military perspective, she is engaged just like any ordinary American. So if she is one heartbeat away, as she is one heartbeat away as a vice presidential candidate, and she assumes the presidency, god forbid -- in terms of John McCain, I don't wish ill, but as your question points -- if she becomes president of the United States, she is ready, and that is because she has the experience of an ordinary American who can get in there and knows what is on people's minds and what people need."
Listening to surrogates and aides to John McCain on Thursday, one is left with the impression that there is no great need for Gov. Sarah Palin to actually answer questions during tonight's vice presidential debate.
Indeed, the spin coming from McCain surrogates and strategists is that all Palin has to do is pass a sort of artificial personality test, in which she strikes an emotional thread with the average voter -- question, answers, or intellectual capacity be damned.
Such were the talking points mere hours before the debate in St. Louis, which peaked with Sen. Joe Lieberman - a man not unaccustomed to the pressures of such a forum - actually proclaiming that Palin's relative ignorance helped her relate to "regular people."
"She's not lived in the world of Washington, so she doesn't know every detail of all the questions senators deal with," Lieberman told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "But, frankly, that's her strength. I think that's why a lot of regular people out across America think she's going to be their voice."
Mitchell interjected, "Senator, she wants to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. You know, that doesn't mean just being an average mom, it means bringing other skills."
But Lieberman stayed on the point, stating later, "I think tonight is not a kind of final college exam. I think the point is who is she as a person... Whether she can answer every detailed question, I don't think that ultimately matters to the American people so long as they think she passes those other personal thresholds."
It was the ultimate setting of expectations -- a political get-out-of-jail-free card should Palin stumble this evening. And it wasn't an isolated incident. Over on Fox News, Chris Wallace was relaying a conversation with a McCain "strategist" in which the metrics for debate success were once again defined in strictly personal terms.
"They say they want to show that she is plain spoken, that she relates to Joe Six-Pack and embrace the contrast her to a smooth-talking Washington insider like Joe Biden," Wallace reported. "I said: 'But what if she does not know some of the answer to something?' They said, 'Look, she should not be embarrassed by that. She should say 'I'm not a Washington insider. I'm going to learn about that but I was a reformer in Alaska and I shook things up.'"
Earlier in the day on Fox News, McCain aide Meg Stapleton was also playing up Palin's "Joe Six-Pack" attributes, even arguing that Palin's "experience as an ordinary American" qualified her to be "one heartbeat away" from the Oval Office... "god forbid."
"So if it's the economic crisis, she can certainly speak to the fact that she carries a mortgage. She's got kids ready to go to college, she has a son who is also heading off to the military. So from a military perspective, she is engaged just like any ordinary American. So if she is one heartbeat away, as she is one heartbeat away as a vice presidential candidate, and she assumes the presidency, god forbid -- in terms of John McCain, I don't wish ill, but as your question points -- if she becomes president of the United States, she is ready, and that is because she has the experience of an ordinary American who can get in there and knows what is on people's minds and what people need."
Based on the last paragraph, McCain is the least qualified?
I am sure Palin is going to do fine tonight and have a lot of pre packaged zingers waiting to fling at Biden. With 2 weeks to prepare, most of us on this Board could debate Biden and do a decent job.
The McCain campaign will declare victory afterwards and the talk will start about how he is back in the race.
"So if it's the economic crisis, she can certainly speak to the fact that she carries a mortgage. She's got kids ready to go to college, she has a son who is also heading off to the military. So from a military perspective, she is engaged just like any ordinary American. So if she is one heartbeat away, as she is one heartbeat away as a vice presidential candidate, and she assumes the presidency, god forbid -- in terms of John McCain, I don't wish ill, but as your question points -- if she becomes president of the United States, she is ready, and that is because she has the experience of an ordinary American who can get in there and knows what is on people's minds and what people need."
i just can't believe someone would actually say this. The above basically means my mother has qualifications to be VP.
We can't afford to have ORDINARY people to be in EXTRAORDINARY positions in EXTRAORDINARY times. We're freaking Americans. Since when do Americans not DEMAND the BEST from it's country. Since when is average something our country pounds it's chest about?
this tact is the height of stupidity.
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Rubarb is what makes my feet look cheese!
I am sure Palin is going to do fine tonight and have a lot of pre packaged zingers waiting to fling at Biden. With 2 weeks to prepare, most of us on this Board could debate Biden and do a decent job.
The McCain campaign will declare victory afterwards and the talk will start about how he is back in the race.
I don't think so AZ. She's going to bumble and stumble. They've made her go :kapow: and there's no recovering from that. She's forgetting things she knows, that she talked about 4 months ago. IMO, she's toast.
She may look fine, and fight to a draw, and McCamp may even win the debate...but it's done. I think everyone knows he is not in the race anymore. It would take a miracle for Palin to do so well that he legitimately gets a bump out of it.
Meanwhile, he's whining his way into oblivion, and will promptly put his foot in his mouth again soon enough. He's running a terrible, terrible campaign.
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I'm the anti-TNT. I don't do drama.
It surprises me that more people don’t want to have the very best and brightest minds making the most important decisions affecting not just our country, but the entire world – decisions that put precious lives at stake. It blows my mind and makes me seriously question the average American who would support McCain at this point.
dreamcastrocks--My Hero!!
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