What the Palin-Biden Debate Really Told us

Who won the Palin-Biden debate? Barack Obama, I suspect.

Who was the big loser? In an historic fortnight that had already underscored his erratic nature, John McCain.

The fact that Palin was able to string her sentences together last night - which she couldn't manage to do in her unscripted interviews with Katie Couric -- shows only how low McCain has strapped his presidential quest.

Sarah Palin's task was an impossible one: to demonstrate that she is ready to be president of the United States. McCain put her in that impossible position; and her performance -- all prep and no depth -- demonstrated the bind he has put himself in.

Yes, he "energized the base" with his Hail Mary pick of Palin as a running mate. But he also demonstrated cynical disregard for the requirement of stable governance were he to be elected president, and then -- through his incapacitation or death -- Palin be called upon to exercise the powers of the presidency.

Just how scary a notion that is went on full display last night: She appeared to lack any semblance of the requisite depth, knowledge, or sense of history we should expect in a president or vice president; then she sought to excuse it by saying, "I've only been at this for five weeks."

Yes, she could wink, she could tell Biden, "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again," and she could remind us again and again that she is a hockey Mom from the land of Joe-Six-pack (as if Western Republicans don't swill Pinot Grigio with the rest of the country at their fund-raisers). She seemed incapable of thinking through the American condition and responding to it except by scripted answers, theatrical gestures, and tested buzzwords -- and by announcing at the outset that she would decide which questions from the moderator to answer and which to ignore.

Yet Biden's performance (deeply knowledgeable, sensible, and generally responsive to the questions) was perhaps the best evidence that -- considered non-ideologically, but rather on judgment and temperament -- Obama may be ready to be president, and McCain -- who ought to be ready -- is not.

Time after time, Biden had to tell Palin what John McCain's real record is -- as instance after instance -- she misrepresented it (or misunderstood the legislative process), repeated easy slogans and bromides and, for the most part perhaps, offended the intelligence of voters who are not already die-hard, ideological proponents of right-wing Republicanism, creationism, or simplistic solutions to tough problems.

"Maverick," "Maverick," "Maverick," she kept repeating about John McCain and herself. Perhaps Biden's best moment in the best night of his career as a candidate (and I have heard him at his awful worst -- i.e., being his own worst enemy) came when he challenged McCain's constant claim to the Maverick title.

The tactical and intellectual deficiencies of the McCain campaign have been best analyzed by conservative and Republican commentators, and even politicians. George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Peggy Noonan, Chuck Hagel, come quickly to mind. (Hence, Krauthammer, following last night's debate: "You can't blame McCain. In an election in which all the fundamentals are working for the opposition, he feels he has to keep throwing long in order to keep hope alive. Nonetheless, his frenetic improvisation has perversely [for him] framed the rookie challenger favorably as calm, steady and cool.")

As a former White House (Republican) chief of staff said to me, "Palin is evidence of desperation; she is an embarrassment." That is the bottom line. (I generally check in with Republicans -- not Democrats -- to assess how the McCain campaign is doing.) He noted, "She wasn't vetted, really; it's an open secret in Washington, but the details of the negligence are better known to Republicans than Democrats." That doesn't mean she doesn't have a future in the Republican galaxy, lacks star power, or couldn't be a fine Secretary of the Interior in a McCain administration.

It's too bad. Earlier in his career, until the presidency finally seemed within his grasp, McCain had demonstrated a real willingness to seriously and thoughtfully take on both his party and the Washington establishment when he thought they were wrong -- albeit mostly on one issue: pork, an issue he has been heroic on.

But his real opportunity to show independence of his party's reigning dogma and cultural-warrior-infantry was in his choice of a vice presidential running mate. Instead, McCain, who has lectured us about duty, honor, country first, has left many independent-minded voters who might want to vote for him at an impossible, dangerous impasse: an unprepared vice presidential candidate running on a ticket with the oldest presidential nominee in history -- a 72-year-old with four cancer surgeries and medical records he has ordered sealed.

Conventional wisdom has almost always held (JFK-LBJ being a notable exception) that a presidential nominee's choice of vice president makes no difference in the outcome of the election.

This time it is likely to be determinate, because it tells us so much not only about Sarah Palin, but also John McCain's state of mind today, and the promise that his political career once held and now appears to have been left behind.

This post originally appeared on CNN's AC360 Blog.

Comments

[pnwskier]

As the Daily Show put it so hilariously in their fake McCain convention biography film, he's a Maverick Reformer who became a Reformed Maverick by casting aside everything he ever stood for...

[BaltimoreSteve]

It doesn't really matter who won the V.P. debate, it does matter that the news media, our press lost.

Allowing politicians, political parties, and partisan pundits to create alternate realities where facts and truth no longer matter is unconscionable. Any member of the press that does not pursue the truth and allows politicians to state falsities as fact without questioning a source for those facts, or let’s them not answer their questions, without trying to get an answer with a follow-up is helping to create the alternate reality. All politicians dodge questions, stretch the truth, and attempt to present themselves in the best light, but it is the responsibility of the press to not allow them to do so without question.

Thursday’s V.P. debate, for the most part was no different than those of the past. What was different was that one candidate said proudly outright, that they would not answer the questions, and only speak directly to the people, not the press. This can not go without reaction from the press. The press as a collective needs to fight this, or I fear our press, the one that is mentioned in the constitution, is lost.

Where is this generation’s Walter Cronkite? Who will stand up and set our bearings right? Politicians not taking questions, and follow-ups from the press should pay a price. A politician that refuses interviews should be ostracized and penalized with every tool the Press holds.

We can not lose our Press.

[CBS]

We have already lost the Press. Our job is to get it back. I am optimistic.

[ianrthorpe]

I didn't watch the debate Carl, the analyses are much more informative to an objective observer.

What all the comment has told me is that the Democran pundits and the Republican undits were watching different debates.

I could never agree with Sarah Palin's politics - hell, I want to punch those idiots who keep describing the neo-fascist Barak Obama as left wing (yes I'm European) - but I though she showed great timing and a lot of audacity with that cheeky wink. Unfortunately Mr Obama has a penchant for using words like "audacity" in the wrong context and without bothering to find out what they mean.

http://www.blog.co.uk/admin/b2edit.php?action=edit&post=4812190

[sticksnstones]

Say what ?? Haven't heard the ( Obama=neo - fascist ) thing before. Senator Obama is a lifelong centrist in the mold of Lincoln. Search his record from the time he was a Harvard student until the present. He has an inate ability to bring those of opposing viewpoints to the table in an effort to find common ground for the common good.

Fascism creeps into our system when our right of habeus-corpus is removed, our government is granted by an act of Congress the tools to spy on its citizens without a warrant, secret prisons are created for interrogation, torture is sanctioned by our President and Attorney General, and those who oppose these measures are publicly accused of being unpatriotic. This is the legacy of a Bush Admimistration.

[notb observer]

One thing about these debates that I've noticed is really controlled is that we don't have the ability to see both candidates at the same time. The media have a split screen when they watch the debate live, but we don't. I've seen a few clips on the news showing the split screen, and there is a lot of very useful information to be gleaned by watching how a candidate reacts while the other is talking, or what else they are doing when the other is talking.
We have a right to see the complete picture ! If I am having an argument with someone, I see their face, their body language and their reaction. It helps me know if I'm making my point, what that person is thinking, and if they even have a clue of a point I've just made.
I think everybody would be better served to see Palin flipping through her crib notes in search of the correct talking point response while Biden was speaking. Missing these moment helped her come across as a lot more competent than she actually was.
Enough of the Hollywood "power close ups". Let the viewers see the split screen, or we are simply not being given the real picture ! I'd rather be able to see both candidates at once than be wondering if Palin has a lip line tattoo !

[ivoteforsmartpeople]

C-Span shows both candidates in split screens and has the added advangage of no "talking heads"!

[ProFromOre]

CSPAN uses a split screen.

The other thing splits screens eliminate is influence by the director, either consciously or sub-consciously, cutting away from the 'face' camera when a candidate is in the middle of a continuous statement.

During both of Sen Biden's most memorable statements, the director cut away from him mid-sentence, diluting the impact of the statement. THIS must stop.

[PNK]

Cspan is the debate/con­vention/sp­eech place to be. No blathering analysis, they do a near-constant split screen and some all-stage wide shots, no annoying graphics either. You can get the crowd dynamics better also because it's just a quiet live shot of the audience before the debate starts.

I got so sick of the CNN-type coverage during the Dem convention, also not showing some key speakers, that Cspan is now my "live political event" channel of choice!!

[Gibbs]

We cling to an uninformed view of the American myth of the common man. While our society does offer great opportunity, that opportunity is also measured by the intelligence and thoughtfulness that one brings to the virtues of "common sense." Yes, Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin, but he also wrote the Gettysburg Address. Yes, Harry Truman was a haberdasher from Missouri, but he also had a vision and guts. I don't sense any of that in the Republican candidate for VP. She is headstrong, not a thinker. She is an ideologue, not a thoughtful person. She is the wrong person for the job, period.

[quantumspin]

If we don't wake up, Obama or McCain as president, we will find very soon that the country we thought was 'there' is completely gone, only a store front with an 800# that you call to be told 'no service available.­'

The Republicans are determined to loot the country, and have all but done it. It's up to the citizens now, and it will take more than just getting Obama elected. We've been bomb, bomb, bombed back to the stone age already, the amoebia stage is next unless we get it that we must take this country back--its politics, it's economy, it's sense of right and wrong.

And, when we start to succeed... do we really want to share our hard work with the very corporations and politicians who tried to destroy America? Time for a new way of working, governing, and regulating banks, and corporations.

imho. I truly hate the GOP for all it has done and for all it stands for---support the fetus, hate the child, privatize the profits, socialize the risk and losses. Enough!

[Kerris]

What does it say about America when basic competence is shunned as too elite to do us any good? And why are we allowing "elite" to become a bad word? America used to be the elite, used to educate the world's elite used to be proud our elite forces, our elite universities, our elite scientists, our elite politcal and philosphical minds. We used to be so proud. And we used to have so much to be proud of.

But now, in Rovian Alice In Wonderland inversion, all that we were good for is turned on its head so that neo-cons can bend the country to a religious will truly akin to none other than Iran. I do not overstate the case. Save for the robes and headdresses, the GOP "base" and its ministers and holy people and consituency and the powerfully (and regretably) long reach of its media mouthpiece, Fox News, is very little different in its ideological control and desires for more control than the power structure in Iran. Only diffference? One religious oligarchy is Muslim, and one is Christian.

If we allow them to steal or allow ourselves to hand them power for another 4-8 years... it's over people. America will become the Christianised nation, with a loaded Supreme Court and more graduates of our Bob Jones Universities than our Yales, Princetons, Stanfords and U Michigans running about the halls of power.

We are only a few steps away.

[penelopepunditwatcher]

A sobering and thought-provoking post. Thank you for it. When DID we become a nation with far too many people who view a first-rate mind, excellent education, and the ability to reason deeply and logically as being not politically correct?

The power of phrases such as "Joe Six-pack" and "just a hockey mom" used as positives in the same sentence with "qualified to be Vice-POTUS" (or worse, POTUS) is evidence of such prejudice. It exhibits prejudice against the very qualities we should revere in a potential leader and certainly prejudice against our own best interests, as individual citizens, as a culture, and as a world-power.

I think we can not long remain even the shadow of the nation our ancestors hailed as a vision of freedom and hope if this aberrant un-American bent is not stemmed and reversed.

[palinsnohillary]

Speaking of elitism. I noticed that over and over SlickS said "the American people" as if she weren't one of us, but instead stood apart and above.

[boing007]

lincheryl

Do we want her to wink at us when we are in a nuclear war or a depression. What folksy things can she read from her note cards to make us feel better then?

She could sing nursery rhymes to calm our fears.

[armason]

Before the debate I rated Palin a 20 out of 100 as for having the ability to be Vice President. Now I give her a -40. I rate my 3 year old a 15.

[lifeinfullcolor]

I think we need a national debate on just what kind of qualities we're looking for in a leader? I know of those who're are going to law school, elite schools, in order to work in government and write policy. There are lobbyists who inform politicians in order to sway policy, what kind of educations do these politicians staff have? The one aspect Sarah Palin has brought to the political arena is, anyone can be president, anyone. I thought George Bush with his lack of intellectual curiousity, his inability to articulate his positions, got there because of daddy and only daddy, but now we have Palin. Palin's daddy is the GOP who searches out potential actors to play the part of a leader, when the Roves of the world pull their strings.

[Bluebloodsbastardson]

We already have one....it'­s called a presidential election FYI

[timetraveler2039]

A sense of history, gravity, dignity, authenticity -- a feeling that the country would be safe, better off if Sarah Palin became President.

It is offensive to think that the SarahSixPack"s winky wink performance gave anyone a measure of confidence in her abilities. These are the same people who downplay elitism, intelligence, class as something above the general American public. Am sick of having some politician telling me "What the American people want....."

What I want are well-informed, intelligent articulate leaders -- I can't imagine anyone like SP, who is "gonna" be engaged in discourse with world leaders inviting them into the White House (with all her down home folksiness) in robe and slippers and offering them a beer. Am certain that whoever becomes the leader of our country will not be able to solve all our problems in the next four years, but I at least hope they can bring to the office some DIGNITY -- perhaps that's all we can expect from our leaders right now is HONESTY AND DIGNITY...­..that would be a refreshing change I can believe in!!!!

[marymansour]

I hope this egregoius choice of veep will finally cook John McCain's goose and place him in the hall of has beens where he deserves to be after flipping the finger at his country in the form of Sarah Palin.

[lis60]

More and more, I realize that John McCain really does not care about our country. He says he does, but it is a lie. He has stooped SO low with his choice of Palin and the sick ads he is running, it is unbelievable. The man has no integrity and I honestly do not understand why "their base" does not see this. What is blinding them? Hate? Stupidity?

[greeniefromOH]

I have some acquaintances who are Republican and I think I know (having been one myself at one time). Simply put, the base is ideology before reality. Even if it doesn't work in the real world, it works in their imaginary, ideal world.

[Pacojam]

I agree greenie.

It makes sense that many of them are religious fanatics. If religion is the opium of the masses then conservative ideology is herion.

Conservative idelogy is just another make-believe religion to believe in. So much easier to have someone tell you what to believe. So what if reality doesn't match it, because everyone knows that reality wrong and needs to be changed to make conservative idology right.

[ADinSC]

Not only that, Geena is a member of Mensa. She has more brains in her little finger than do Palin and McBush put together. I'd take her over ANY Republican any day.

[lincheryl]

Do we want her to wink at us when we are in a nuclear war or a depression. What folksy things can she read from her note cards to make us feel better then?

[DasBoatless]

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year
> old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle,
> the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the
> topic got around toSarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from
> being President ...
>
> The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Palin is
> a post turtle.'
>
> Not being familiar with the term, the doctor
> asked him what a post turtle was.
>
> The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down
> a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced
> on top, that's a post turtle.'
>
> The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the
> doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know she didn't get up
> there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to
> do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put
> her up there to begin with.

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how it's possible to have a "team" of mavericks.