Sarah Palin managed to avoid speaking in tongues and calling for witch trials in tonight’s debate, and yet I was still wrong in my post from two days previous: I thought she would win the debate, spew rehearsed lines, look good doing it, and Biden would proffer a gaffe or two to make it a “new race.” The press was dying for a Palin victory to turn the tide.
Didn’t happen. Not even close.
The transparency of Palin’s phoniness was too obvious to ignore in last night’s debate. She was one canned, fake-folksy, BS line after another, and as the debate wore in, it became more and more obvious.
Early on, when talking about the economy, she seemed to be doing a pretty good job. It’s not hard to do a good job when you’ve practiced the same lines for three weeks and don’t actually answer any of the questions you are asked. I thought that her brushing off of Gwen Ifill was appalling and brazen. Her constant changing of the subject came off as cheap. Sure, she’s a former newscaster: she did a fine job talking into the camera repeating canned lines that no one really believes she’s considered at any point in her career before a month ago.
As the debate wore on and got into Biden’s home turf, foreign policy, the pasting together of her laundry list become more belabored and apparent. She was like a see-and-say: you pull the string and the words come out.
And the folksy tripe got tiring after awhile. Her canned lines (most notably “say it ain’t so, Joe!”) looked ridiculous.
It all became so clear: with a war, a crumbling economy, and eight years of blunders, can we really afford to put this woman–or the man who would subject us to her–in office? What does it say about John McCain that a 72 year old man would pick a newscaster to be his vice president?
Sarah Palin is likable and poised. I’m sure she’s a good mom. She’d make a great news anchor. But vice president? Hell no.
Biden was good. He got stronger as the debate went on, and he showed great command of the issues. I think right now, after the last two weeks, command of issues is the most important thing. While he didn’t sink Palin, he was the adult at the table, and after eight years of “President-I’d-like-to-have-a-beer-with,” I really don’t believe the American people are willing to gamble with Palin or the risk-taker that would put her on his ticket.
Now: will Palin fade into the woodwork? Will she ever give a news conference? Will there be anymore interviews? My guess is she’ll go back to giving speeches and won’t give another interview that isn’t to a friendly like Hannity or O’Reilly. She won’t do the Sunday news shows. But the focus will now go off the running mates and onto Obama and McCain.
By the way, I do not trust the CNN voter-approval meter. I think the voters are keyed in on certain phrases and keywords but the method doesn’t measure the overall sense one gets from a debate. At the end of this debate, Biden was the clear winner in spite of him losing it on the meter early on. Affinity for a candidate isn’t measured tick by tick, it’s by the feel of confidence one gets by the entirety of their presentation. Palin could get up there and talk about kittens, doughnuts, and free beer and get big numbers, but it would go through you like a Chinese meal. Substance can’t be accurately measured by the voter-meter, and it sullies the viewer experience by telling you how you should feel.
I really hope to see Palin give a real news conference or interview with follow-up questions. My guess is we won’t.