As to be expected, I watched (and twittered) the VP debate. All of last week, the expectations for Palin and Biden dropped–the better to wow us with. While the Wall Street Journal’s on-line poll says Biden won, the majority of the Pundits (Newsweek included) say Palin won because she didn’t implode.
Let’s look at this for a second.
By answering questions without looking like a complete idiot, (unlike her interviews with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson) she won? By not inserting her foot into her mouth, as she has before, she “held her own” against equally gaffe-less Biden?
If we are setting the bar that low, I think I should be blogger of the fucking century.
Sarah Palin is the Vice Presidential Nominee of the Party of Lincoln. She is supposed to be the best they have to offer. She should be providing with distinct and specific plans on how her party is going to lead the US out of the shit-storm we’re in (and we created). Instead, she did well because she didn’t screw up as bad as she had in the previous interviews.
If we are to set the bar this low, why isn’t Biden considered the winner? He stayed concise, didn’t condescend to the “folksy new comer,” attacked McCain and elaborated on the Obama-Biden Plan. Biden destroyed the idea of McCain’s “maverick” nature. He also didn’t ask a guy in a wheel chair to stand up and didn’t forget to cite his sources. By the exceedingly low Palin standard, he won. By presidential standards, he clearly won.
The idea that Palin’s held her own, even when she avoided answering the questions in the debate, is mind numbing. All she did was her typical “Hockey Mom” attacks. She did not spell out how the Republicans are different this year. She did not give us a plan of the economy. She continued to demonstrate stunning deficit in foreign policy knowledge. She stuck to her talking points like a trained news anchor–which she was–but she couldn’t expand her answers.
She didn’t look like an idiot on stage. The only way this argument makes sense if it is in context of our current president. At least she looks more presidential than the village idiot from Crawford.
Let’s not forget she agreed to the debate, and then refused to answer the questions. She was even up front enough to tell the nation that she wasn’t going to answer the questions. This makes her qualified to be second-in-command how?
Marty, I think you nailed the issue on the head, through the heart, and kicked the butt(heads) of those who thought Palin did anything besides look like a trained monkey performing to the tune of the hurdy-gurgy. Thank you for your comments, and your parents would be proud of your outspoken willingness to critique what needs to be critiqued much more vigorously! You would fit right in on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, my boy!!
I used that line while you were in grade school, but it’s “If you don’t vote, don’t bitch!”
I’m a blogger, too, at http://howardslifeslessons.blogspot.com/
Howard–
So are you saying that I should have a butthead of the week feature?