Palin debate prep
Every day, the WSJ has been publishing on Palin and her debate prep, (Thanks, Rupert.) Today's entry leaves with the takeaway that she "won" the Alaska debates by skidding away from facts into the "folksy" and personal stories.
The NYTimes also has two on Palin's prep. One on her past debates, which kinda echoes the WSJ piece, and one on general concerns about her readiness, "The amount of time and staff power being devoted to this was evidence of concern among Mr. McCain’s associates..."
Politico notes that in the month since Sarah Palin's elevation, she's only made 17 public appearances, almost all of them with John McCain.
(Can "folksy"/unknowledgeable win a VP debate?)
The NYTimes also has two on Palin's prep. One on her past debates, which kinda echoes the WSJ piece, and one on general concerns about her readiness, "The amount of time and staff power being devoted to this was evidence of concern among Mr. McCain’s associates..."
Politico notes that in the month since Sarah Palin's elevation, she's only made 17 public appearances, almost all of them with John McCain.
(Can "folksy"/unknowledgeable win a VP debate?)
posted by mikevotes at
7:07 AM
11 Comments:
"Can "folksy"/unknowledgeable win a VP debate?"
Can winning a VP debate affect the presidential race?
I go back and forth on this, but I think the VP debate is a side show. It's the cartoon before the main feature. This debate in particular. This is the NASCAR debate: where everyone's watching -- and waiting -- for the car wreck.
It's incredible the amount of money, time, resources and ink that's been expended on McCain's VP pick, just to convince us she's not a joke. In my opinion the McCain campaign has spun out of control... amorphous positions, spinning lies like cotton candy at the carnival, reactionary stunts, angry rebuttals, and hypocrisy so thick you could cut it with a knife. And "maverick" is beginning to look more and more like a vice than a virtue with each passing day.
By
-epm, at 7:52 AM
Good point. I'll shorten to two.
1) VP debates can't win an election. (maybe lose one?)
2) If nothing else, Sarah Palin has been a drag on McCain's attention and campaign focus during the period of his slide.
By
mikevotes, at 7:54 AM
Also, I clipped and paraphrased you for a post I put below this one.
I hope you don't mind. I think that's a brilliant point that's not being made anywhere.
(If my paraphrase missed, and you want your name off it, let me know.)
By
mikevotes, at 8:04 AM
Folksy works everytime. No one takes into account that 90% of the American electorate has just a HS education. They have no higher-level abstract or critical thinking skills.
They relate to warm fuzzies, angels and for the gents, swagger. You don't have to answer the question intelligently or answer it at all. Just run the buzzwords into an 'answer' and you've got the most of the most indoctrinated knee-jerk reactionaries in your pocket. That's the core 30% of Bush supporters. They function in society but intellectually they're moderately retarded. I run into them all the time at work.
By
matt, at 8:10 AM
Because TV commercials don't use puppies and babies, but instead list factual information about their products.
Gotcha.
More broadly, I don't know. I still believe that because of her disastrous interviews, she has a competency bar to clear which will require displayed and applied knowledge.
She can probably please the base with the talking points, but I don't know if the media lets her pass without something more.
By
mikevotes, at 8:18 AM
Mike, your paraphrasing is always better then my phrasing...
I think folksy might have worked had it not been for the Gibson and Couric interviews. For people outside the ideological fringe bubble, folksy morphed into idiot... or at least dangerously unqualified. Now when Palin does her faux-folksy schtick it's become self parody. Like the comedian who keeps repeating the same joke and expecting us to laugh.
By
-epm, at 8:34 AM
EPM, that's kinda where I am. I believe she has a competency bar to cross, that consists of something more than not speaking in tongues.
By
mikevotes, at 8:47 AM
Here's the bar she has to cross....
She as to avoid saying anything that Tina Fey could repeat VERBATIM and get a laugh.
By
-epm, at 8:57 AM
Palin's interviews will not phase the base. They will forgive that type of idiocy. Have you ever listened to someone having a political discussion at a Wal-Mart? It's a Palin interview only Couric is just as dumb as Palin.
It's depressing as hell.
By
matt, at 9:55 AM
Agreed. But her interviews have affected the media coverage (which is no longer calling her "folksy") and it has affected the soft voters... the Target shoppers, if you will.
I think we'd agree that if a mushroom could somehow be anti-choice, Dominionist and anti-tax, the wingery would be as enthusiastic.
By
-epm, at 11:42 AM
Matt, true. But the base isn't really the problem except, perhaps, for some erosion of enthusiasm. They're voting for McCain no matter what she does.
The bigger question is how she might affect those who aren't McCain locks, and I don't think she's helping there.
.....
EPM, That's pretty much my point.
We're down to worrying about point here and a point there.
By
mikevotes, at 1:29 PM
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