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Media Must Raise, Not Lower The Bar For Palin For Thursday's Debate
Right now, as we speak, Sarah Palin is dropping off the radar... intentionally.
The governor is being sequestered at one of the seven estates in the McCain family stable, a rancho in Arizona, where the Republican presidential aspirant and his top aides are going to begin a systemic brainwashing that is supposed to produce a somewhat more articulate, politically savvy Sarah Palin for the Vice Presidential Debate against Joe Biden on Thursday, October 1, 2008.
Already the lemmings, sorry, pundits and journalists, are lowering the bar for sad Sarah to crawl across.
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Her recent performances have been derided by the media, have been the source of calls by Republican pundits like Kathleen Parker for her to step aside, and have been the fodder of Saturday Night Live, where Tina Fey got big laughs by memorizing the candidate's Katie Couric ramble and dropping it into her parody during last Saturday night's opening sketch. Even the latest edition of the New Yorker sports a cover mocking McCain's V.P. pick. The spin of the week that seems to be rising from the press corps is that all of this mockery and slamming of Sarah works in her favor for this week's VP debate. |
The bar has been dropped so low, regurgitates [insert your talking head here] from the talking points of some Republican operative who has been putting this buzz out there, that Sarah has little more to do than not fall directly on her face, or giggle hysterically when someone asks her if Gore V. Bush is a supreme court case or the name of a porn actor.
Let's raise the bar.
If Joe Biden puts on the kid gloves Thursday to avoid looking "mean" to poor Sarah, then he is no less sexist than the old white men who decided to drop her into the race in the first place.
He should treat her no differently than if his friend and colleague Joe Lieberman was standing over there, or Tom Ridge, or Christine Whitman, or even the gal who works down at the Capitol Laundry and made it through two rounds on Jeopardy!
To keep this debate from being a sham, he has to be fair, but get tough enough to showcase Palin's weaknesses.
Last Friday's presidential debate may not go down in the annals of these contests as one of the greats for quips, but it was a hotly contested, no-holds-barred exercise that clearly demonstrated for all to see the character of both Barack Obama and John McCain, if nothing else.
Governor Palin will need to stand up and give her contest with Biden everything that she has got, even if it isn't very much.
In that famed tape of her discussing the treatment of Hillary Clinton, she said that a female candidate should do no less. So I'm going to raise the bar to the level that she set it at.
Is it any wonder that the Republican spin machine is working hard to make her modest accomplishment of not screwing up a point of victory? It is a mirror of the spin that the Obama camp did, and should not have done, to cover bets in case Obama did not shine against the more "experienced" foreign policy expert McCain.
Obama not only held his own, but McCain, as I pointed out in a prior blog, laid an egg on foreign policy when his only real proposal was to create a democratic League of Nations, the Fantastic Four of politics beating up on bad guys and having lunch with Batman and the other Super Friends in the bat cave.
Anyone who hits the stage here has earned, by election or by pick of those elected, the inalienable right to be fed to the wolves. The governor probably has shot one or two. While the Republicans are going to complain that it is their media cousins returning the favor, sad Sarah can implode all on her own.
This not a historic match-up like Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier. It is more like Ali and Little Orphan Annie.
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The Governor of Alaska will take her mayoral term and her half-term as Alaska's Chief Executive and Russian early warning system and enter the ring with Joltin' Joe Biden, who has helmed two of the most powerful committees, Judicial and Foreign Affairs, in the United States Senate. A pivotal figure in the 9/11 hearings, Biden oozes so much gravitas that he could probably lend Mrs. P. a cup if she came next door from her lectern and asked. |
Some pundits are advising the McCain campaign to let Sarah be Sarah, the affable, sweet-yet-tough hockey mom whose refreshing spunk and common sense will show up those rascals in D.C. and the always-biased liberal media elite, the bogeymen of the right-wing chat set.
In the war room of the campaign though, that will not set well. They will want to cram Palin's head full of factoids to make her look smarter standing toe-to-toe with Biden. They will brief her on campaign talking points to make sure that she does not accidentally agree again with Barack Obama, and flush all of that quality sniping that McCain has been doing about Obama's inexperience down the drain.
It is all putting cue cards under the nose of a pig, to mutilate the old adage that has become the "Where's the Beef" of 2008.
You can fill the governor's head full of wonderful talking points about pork barrel spending, have her deliver with delicious irony tomes about the inexperience of Obama, and pull out the batons for that patriotic yarn that right-leaning voters love about the duty to spread freedom to the freedom lovers of the world.
At the end of the day, though, a time period that Mr. McCain likes to harangue voters about, my friends, inarticulate is still inarticulate.
Mrs. Palin is a lovely woman, and may even be a very able governor for her state, but, if the recent interviews that the McCain campaign has allowed her to do are any indicator, she is ill-informed, inexperienced in life outside Alaska, foreign affairs, and the national economy. Even Mr. Scott could not use the U.S.S. Enterprise's transporter to beam her the light years across the galaxy that she would need to catch up upon to be ready for the Thursday night debate.
In a United States where George W. Bush has driven the ship of state on to an iceberg turned loose by global warming, the media's failure to hold Sarah Palin up to the same standards as any other vice presidential candidate, particularly as she is the back-stop to the man who would be the oldest first-termer in modern history, would be an act of gross irresponsibility.
If Sarah can't stand up, then she should sit this one out.
Permanently.
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For palin, fox has the bar on the ground so that palin can crawl over it if she can construct a coherent answer to any question.
Ear check, beehive check...
Myabe "God will make a way"..like when she becamse Gpvernor
She needs to be treated and asked any questions that you would ask any other candidate. She needs to eprform as well as Obama or McCain. The reason is that we are not voting for the number two spot on the ticket, we are voting for the number one spot. John McCain knew that and should have selected
a VP that could take over if necessary. It is always incumbent on the presidential nominnee to keep that in mind, whether you are 32 or 72. Longevity is not a promise, but the well being of the country is.
John McCain only showed his deep didain and lack of respect for this country. Sarah Palin only showed her lack integrity as a human being by accepting a position she knew nothing about or had the ability to fullfill. A vote for either one means that you end up as sick and shallow as they are.
And since adages have become popular in this campaign, the one about "if you can't take the heat.." is more than appropriate here.
THE MEDIA BETTER DAMN WELL RAISE THE BAR - SHE HAS GOT TO SHOW WITHOUT DOUBT - THAT SHE IS QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INSTANTANEOUSLY - IF GOD FORBID MCCAN SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FULFILL THE OFFICE IN ANY WAY -
Mrs. Palin is a NOT lovely woman, (although attractive) and
- may even be a very able governor(past history as governor, shows she is not ABLE) for her state,
- but, if the recent interviews that the McCain campaign has allowed her to do are any indicator, she is (DEFINITELY) - ill-informed, (
- ABSOLUTELY INEXPEREIENCED in life outside Alaska,
- ABSOLUTELY iNEXPERIENCED in foreign affairs,
- ABSOLUTELY INEXPERIENCE in the national economy.
Even Mr. Scott could not use the U.S.S. Enterprise's transporter to beam her the light years across the galaxy that she would need to catch up upon to be ready for the Thursday night debate.
AS BOMPA SAYS (ABOVE) - Note to Obama/ Biden staff........ demand an "ear check" of Palin before the debate for an ear piece. If they won't do it... employ a jamming device so the puppet-masters can't feed answers to their puppet.
BOTTOM LINE - PALIN HAS SHOWN US - WITHOUT A DOUBT - THAT SHE IS A THREAT TO OUR COUNTRY - RELIGIOUSLY RADICAL - ABSOLUTELY UNQUALIFIED - DEFINITELY A CON ARTIST - A FAST TALKER - COULD PROBABLY SELL ICEBOXES TO ESKIMOS - AND PROBABLY ALREADY HAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (PROBABLY BOUGHT WITH EARMARK MONEY)!!!!!!!
See Brian Ross's Profile
Finchy:
I will stand by the comment. I am sure that, just as I have neighbors who have very divergent views of the world, Mrs. Palin in person is probably a very nice, pleasant woman. Were she not the Gov of AK and McCain's lightning rod, er, running mate, you might even have a nice chat with her at the supermarket while she was picking up some potatoes for her moose stew. Still, as I point out, and you so aptly reinforce, she is not qualified to be the President of the United States, which, as we look at her, is what we must consider with her 72 year old running-mate who is also a cancer survivor.
Still, Obama is preaching one thing which I think many Dems keep missing. For the partisanship to end, and something to get done, we're all going to have to put away about 25 years of rancor and try to see our fellow citizens, warts and all, with the same level of tolerance that we would hope that they show our point of view. That, after all, is the fundamental nature of democracy, and it is a level of civility that has been absent in Washington since Ronald Reagan's last term.
Why is the country turning on its ear to accomdate Palin? It's troubling really. Why is there really no standard for her? Why all this talk about raising or lowering the bar for her? Why is the bar even a consideration? So the conservative base gives her a pass and they cheer all the nonsense but the rest of the world won't be so gracious. Whatever the standard that exist for a man or woman running for president should exist for their running mate. No exceptions!! It's exhausting watching the press rewrite how the report candidates because one candidate didn't take the time to know his running mate. The press can't say anything about the running mate because it's sexism and now gotcha journalism. So what? The press won't do their job to tell us who this candidate is so we can make an informed decision. I don't want to learn about the running mate after Nov 4...I'd like to know now. Really from what we have learned about Bush and the last 8 years this is not something that should be repeated. Why repeat the same mistake hoping for a different result. Seems to me -- the next time just might be worse than the moment before.
See Brian Ross's Profile
The country is not accommodating Palin. Large sections of the television media are, particularly CNN and Fox. CNN has been slugging it out with Fox for a declining audience. Like the flight to the suburbs from the big cities last century, viewers are fleeing the Tube for the Internet. The more educated that you are, the more likely that you increasingly reach out to places like the Huffington Post to get news and information.
This leaves CNN and Fox kowtowing to the people who are either not computer savvy yet, or to the large audience segment in the Red states who do not want their world view expanded from the certainties of what they know. Palin was picked to cater to that audience.
Sadly, she shows an even darker side of the Republican party's religious right manipulators. It would seem that they saw the writing on the wall, and pushed for Palin to keep their base, which is largely moved by fairly simple symbolism, content and happy.
The choices in this election will be whether perception or reality win. The GOP has been able for decades to manipulate perception with such simplistic symbolism. The networks are just trying to cash in on the phenomenon and are realistic about who is watching their programming.
Thank you! She's not competing for runnerup in a beauty pageant! This is ridiculous. It's scary that she has managed to snow ball so many voters with her "cutsy, funny one liners"......She literally is the most ignorant, unqualified person ever to run for VP! Dan Quayle is a GENIUS compared to Palin!
Raise the bar - you got it! She is running for the number 2 position for heaven's sake! I hope Joe just ignores her and attacks Mc in his own, very likeable way. But i hope he doesn't keep saying my friend John and i are friends for years - no need to say it Joe - everyone knows that - just stick to the business at hand - destroying the repubs for the next 20 years!
Palin with do fine with memorized offense material, but what they *can't* teach her fast is defense. You need quickness and fluidity to do that, you need depth, you need knowledge that she doesn't have at her finger tips. Biden should focus on attacking McCain, and there's not a damn thing Palin can do about it. He can discuss all the slezoid things McCain has done, he can frame McCain however he wants, playing the length and breadth of his career, and all Palin will be able to say back is "nuh uh, he is so a good leader." Benefits:
a) Everyone watching will be forced to draw their own conclusion that she is out of her depth, and conclusions like that are far more convincing and memorable when you get to them yourself.
b) You get to give the top of the republican ticket black eyes for 40 minutes. Use him as a speedball when he is unable to defend himself. It'll be his own fault for sending in a surrogate who can't put up a defense.
Yes, I agree with you. Biden needs to atttack! Unfortunately this country is like High School. When it comes to the not so hot valvictorian Hillary Clinton, its equality for men and women. When it comes to the dumb cheerleader, "Its Like Oh My God!!! I think I dropped my pencil" :)
Biden must remain cool and not get frustrated with Palin or McCain. Biden must follow Obama's lead in civility but be like Hillary Clinton and not hold back a punch. Biden has got to score points because this class is graded on a curve.
Note to Obama/ Biden staff........ demand an "ear check" of Palin before the debate for an ear piece. If they won't do it... employ a jamming device so the puppet-masters can't feed answers to their puppet.
Note to Joe....Just keep handing her more rope........She has proven she knows what to do with it....
"I'll just have find out and git back to ya!"
It's called "all-in" for Sarah, in gambling venacular, and McCain knows about that. Also, what the McCain camp is doing is called 'reverse psych'. Make her appear as the underdog (hmmmm...remember how McCain always spouts off with using that same word about himself...'underdog) with the press and on the blogs. The fact of the matter if she does even marginally well she will be called a winner. Don't fall for it. Raise the bar, not lower it. Expect the "same" qualifications from this 'executive' in this debate and then lets see if she passes the test. Just don't fall for the oldest trick in the book, because otherwise she walks into this debate at a huge advantage over Biden without even opening her mouth.
Right on baby! That bar should be in fact HIGHER since she is an Executive of a State.... or country if she had it her way. Her plans to succeed from the USA makes her President of Alaska so YES, the bar should be VERY high and she better darn well pass!
Right on baby! That bar should be in fact HIGHER since she is an Executive of a State.... or country if she had it her way. Her plans to secede from the USA makes her President of Alaska so YES, the bar should be VERY high and she better darn well pass!
Interesting take on MSM's handling of the Palin preparations for the debate.
She will probably be in a rush to show how much she has learned this week in those media training intensives she has been undergoing in Oak Creek, near Sedona. Maybe they are enlisting some of the energies from the many vortices that Sedona is known for.
See Brian Ross's Profile
Then again, maybe she's just having fun going down Slide Rock in Sedona in a pair of cutoffs. She could use a break.
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