VP Debate Thoughts
by tgirschOctober 2nd, 2008
I made no secret of the fact that I thought the first presidential debate was roughly a tie. This one, however, wasn’t even close. Biden moidelized Palin tonight. There will doubtless be some who think that by virtue of not making a complete ass of herself, Palin chalked up a “win” of sorts; and that by relying on folksy charm rather than substance (say, does that remind you of anyone), she endeared herself to voters. I don’t think it’s going to work, however. Her performance tonight will reassure the base, and probably strengthen her support there, but I really don’t think it’s going to win many swing votes. Swing votes are what McCain needs right now. For Biden’s part, he was good on substance, he didn’t sound professorial, and didn’t have any classic Biden gaffes, so my fears there were allayed. I think a solid win for Biden.
As for why there weren’t any embarrassing moments for Palin tonight, I think TPM has it right: No follow-up questions. Not only were there not any follow ups (which is where Palin generally tripped up with Gibson and Couric); Ifill didn’t even really push Palin to stay on topic at all. I think Publius may be on to something when he suggests that the right-wing got into Ifill’s head with the conflict of interest stuff.
Finally, I have to point this out: On Palin’s global warming answer, I laughed hysterically, because I recognized exactly what she was doing. She was bullshitting. How did I recognize it? Because it’s precisely how I got through essay tests in high school and much of college — saying the same thing over again but different ways three or four different times, repeating the question in the form of a statement, tossing out substantive-sounding terms without actually treading so close to substance that you can be held to your statements — these are all the marks of a gifted bullshitter (if I do say so myself).
Your thoughts? Otherwise, open thread.
P.S. She said “NUKE-you-lur” at least four times. For the love of Pete, please not four more years of NUKE-you-lur.
Categories: Politics |
Obviously, what Palin failed to do was wink enough. More winking and conspiratorial smiling would have won you over.
Tgirsch:
I agree completely. That’s exactly my take on the whole thing.
Palin did much better than expected, and therefore in some ways better than Biden, but on a purely factual and substantive basis the immense gap between them in knowledge, comprehension, and intelligence was unmistakable. And you’re right, too, that the only reason she came off as well as she did is that she almost never answered the question she had been asked, and was clearly regurgitating a few memorized points she had been told to hit on over and over. I too kept hoping for follow-up questions, or better just a restatement of the question to force the speaker to focus on the content.
I don’t know if Ifill had been scared off. I think there’s a school of thought on these things that says “Ask good questions, and settle for shitty answers if that’s what the candidates want to give.” Palin almost never gave us what Ifill asked for, but she gave us what she herself wanted us to see, and so in that sense the questions are as fair as they can be: if the candidates want to give evasive and substance-less answers, they should be allowed to. As for the questions themselves, I thought they were almost uniformly excellent, except for one weird time when she asked two different questions - one to each candidate - simultaneously. That was just clumsy, and, since Palin was the second answerer on that one, useless as well - she doesn’t answer questions when they’re asked directly, so of course she didn’t answer the question after first listening to Biden answer his question, while forgetting her own. But I thought the questions in general were reasonable, fair, pointed but not tricky or hostile, and addressed high-level issues of importance. I thought Ifill completely obliterated concerns about bias or favoritism, though again you’re right that she wasn’t aggressive enough.
Boy, Palin is a smarmy little airhead! Even when she wasn’t just spouting memorized slogans, or wandering aimlessly, she speaks in these stupid platitudes and chirpy slogans that just make you want to strangle her, or at least send her back out to the sandbox to play by herself until dinnertime.
Her global warming answer was both garbled and self-contradictory (she’s apparently under the impression that burning natural gas does not contribute to global warming - so much for her “expertise” on energy). The one about the VP not being part of the Executive Branch, though, was supremely bad, and somewhat frightening. She clearly had no idea what the question was about, or what prompted it. Conservatives are now jumping all over Biden for a tiny error - the Constitutional description of the VP’s duties is in Section II of the Constitution, not Section I (horror!) - but Palin clearly did not know anything about the issue at all, or that the current VP has made it an issue in an attempt to evade legal investigation of his crimes in office. Biden was excellent, both in his substantive discussion of the issue and in laying it on Cheney during his answer, but this was a case where Palin was very clearly just bullshitting - about the role and status of the office she herself is now seeking!
In the end, it wasn’t the slam-dunk humiliation I longed for - I had to hand it to her for getting a few good points in and being less idiotic than in her previous interviews. But I don’t think it was a big pickup for the GOP - their sock puppets will cheer and scream for a bit, the fact-checkers will provide some useful correctives, and things will, I think, cruise along for Obama much as before. I’m still very hopeful about the election, and the incredible relief of simply having something to feel hopeful about, finally, after so long, is very welcome.
No love for “the gun?” Shit, “the wink” is cool, but it’s the gun that drives it home. The wink without the gun is like Hulk Hogan delivering the big boot without following it with the leg drop.
I wish there would have been some more follow-up about the gay marriage/rights issue. Palin didn’t seem to understand that question, or tried to skirt it (she was also visibly uncomfortable, even though her daughter most likely has been cajoled into some webcam HLA by Levi after a couple of Smirnoff Ices and a roach of schwag). Anyway, Biden came off poorly because the question morphed into marriage instead of rights. Palin never expressed support for equal civil rights while Biden did, even though he distinguished marriage as more of a ritual to be defined by the bodies who perform it. Ostensibly, he separated the material benefits from the nomenclature, which is generally palatable, I guess. Palin then claimed that they agreed and called it a day - but they didn’t. They agreed on the title of the book, but not any of the content.
/Sarah Palin voice/ But, we could argue in circles all day about the debate, what I really want to take about is Dancing with the Stars /Sarah Palin voice/.
Sorry, lady, it don’t really work like that, or at least it shouldn’t. When I’m asked to do something at work, I can’t respond, “I could give my strategic input on the communications strategy all day and we can go in circles all day, but what I really want to talk about is positional scarcity as it relates to upcoming fantasy basketball drafts…”
BTW,
Did anybody else play the take a shot every time Palin says _____ game?
The person I was playing with chose “God.”
I chose “maverick.”
I won, but at a price!
I went with “darn it” but wasn’t drinking, so I only had a hypothetical raging drunk on.