Biden-Palin Debate, a.k.a. Sit-Com meets Semi-Reality T.V.
Setting
Our Biden party, consisted of 8 Democrats, (3 women, 5 men,) and 1 Independent (woman) and 1 3rd Party voter (man). We met at our home in Cambridge, Ma. The ground rules were that people had to self-monitor their tequila penalties: every time Palin said "Main Street," those who signed up for that cliché drank a shot. The other (control) group volunteered to drink a shot, sans lime, for every Palin mention of "Maverick." The only other rule was that every time Biden defended Barack, everyone was granted as much water as they wanted.
Pre-Debate
I ran an informal poll before the debate: I asked each guest to predict how Senator Biden would do, and how successful they thought Ms. Palin be in resuscitating her damaging 3 interviews on network T.V. What was each person's expectation, in one sentence or so? Our ad hoc survey resulted in a unanimous expectation that Ms. Palin would, in fact, be giving a performance, and everyone expected that she would prove to have been a quick study. (One respondent: "Mean Girls are noted and praised for their being quick studies.") The unanimous expectation was that Palin would have memorized a lot of lines and would steer her answers so as to be in a place to deliver those lines: i.e. Obama is "dangerous."
Synopsis
1. When Palin made the inevitable comment, she received unanimous howls and derision in our Biden party. One male guest said an off-color injunction of what Palin deserved. Cannot repeat here. Another person had to leave the room to have a smoke, so angry was he: "dangerous" makes him crazy. Take a super-capable, super-amazing, super-serious, super-smart candidate as Barack Obama and then call him "dangerous"...Go figure.
2. Response during the debate: every single person in our viewing party expressed exclamations whenever Palin did the "Main Street" thing, (after drinking their shots). One woman: "Isn't that an expensive, bespoke suit/dress Ms. Palin is wearing? How Main Street is that?")
3. People were generally frustrated that both Joe Biden and the Moderator allowed Ms. Palin to a. ignore the specific questions many times and b. allowed her to do the female motor-mouth routine, (When women "just don't know when to shut up," according to one of our higher-educated guests.) Palin exceeded her time limit and without interruption from Biden or the Moderator. (One man reminded us of the Emily Blunt line in "The Devil Wears Prada" "I keep hearing this..." (Hand-making quacking motion...")When I want to hear this." (Silent mallard, closed hand.) Most people were screaming at the screen by the 3rd time Palin refused to answer the moderator's question.
4. The unanimous opinion was that Joe Biden did incomparably better, in tone, substance, genuine-ness and gravitas. People thought he stayed right on the line he was implored to respect: to refrain from even one Rick Lazio moment. In that part of the "new genre" --the "Reality part" Joe Biden and Barack Obama won. But, that Palin would be pundit-ized as the "winner" just for the fact that the expectation was that she would not have been able to cram it all in a mere few weeks. I disagreed, as I wrote in my blog yesterday on the Obama website:
"Debate Prep: Cher, Where Are You?" One friend suggested that "if winning is getting off the floor with a performance, well-rehearsed, but a performance none-the-les, then she proved she is ready... for Daytime!" (As in Emmy)
5. Three people simultaneously screamed out a correction to Gov. Palin's most egregious error, Vis a Vis the "counter-insurgency" in Iraq being a forecast of the projection that the "insurgency" in Afghanistan would/could be turned into counter-insurgency, "like in Iraq! (Palin). I think I got the sentence thru first: "Um, everyone: the "insurgency" is Afghanistan is called... THE TALIBAN! Is Ms. Palin proposing that the U.S. military coin a moniker for the Taliban and put them on our payroll as well? ("Art-lover Fathers of Afghanistan"?) Joe, we
ALL sure wish you had caught that and banished that smug smile off her face with a good tongue lash of the differences in the 2 countries we have invaded and who is who in the terrorist hierarchy.
6. One of our party attendees asked if we thought we would ever see Hillary Clinton wink at the camera (twice? Or was it three times?) and flirt with the camera, as Palin shamelessly did, seldom addressing her sight line to Joe Biden. (Biden story today, that he would be "addressing the American people" in the Times; apparently, unlike Obama's debate preppies, the Palin/McCain ticket debate team apparently reads the Times on the day of the debate for last minute points, and thus, boldfaced the point with our greatest new actress/comedienne. She didn't take her eyes off the camera once when she spoke. Crib-sheeter/cheaters!
7. Several of us were immediately on edge (Read, pissed/gratified.) that Joe Biden began the debate with a well-mannered, cordiality, while Palin's intro statement ignored any such "collegial" gesture, in exact imitation of the mendacious top of the ticket towards Senator Obama in last week's debate. (And as Miss Manners explicated so well: manners are used, not to impress, but as a tried and true armature upon which to depend in awkward situations. Manners are more than breeding: manners are an art. Biden showed he is a gentlemen. The art of smoothing over tension with simple surface manners is a more-needed skill. Everyone at our party noticed the difference between the two on that front.
8. Jackie thought Biden was way too much of a gentleman, that he should have interrupted the gov's rants and her monopolization of time in more than 6 or 7 instances: at one point someone yelled out "She's commandeered the debate, as I knew she would!"
9. With the exception of one serious gaffe-- as in, we all expect it to be in conservative blogs and ad spots, no later than tomorrow, was made by Biden, not yet picked up by CNN commentators, he did well. ( I refuse to advertise what that gaffe was here. If you noticed it, then you know that to which I refer. And if you didn't, you'll hear about it for the next week.)Unanimous again: we all hoped it would go undetected. Chances of that happening? Zero, by unanimous consent. Funniest gaffe by Palin" "The Feds." Um, Sarah? Hello? Shh.... Ms. Palin, you are running to be the second highest official in "The Feds" part of the government. Oops. " Not another anti-Federalist who wants to dismantle our federal government, an entity more commonly known in parts near and far as " The United States of America." Now, while Jefferson was an anti-federalist, not attending his inauguration and sending in his speech, he was not a Traitor to the Cause of Having a Country to Govern!
But, don't anybody tell her. Maybe she'll say it again in a stump speech. That comment, "The Feds," gave everyone outright, prolonged laughter in our Biden party, not to mention that Sarah slipped and revealed her states rights' conservative view of actual United States of America's actual government.
10. Everyone thought that Joe Biden represented Barack Obama well. He defended Obama's record, votes and platform, just not strongly enough. Final goodbye vote: It was a nolo contendere for Biden in terms of coherence, genuineness, all-round truthiness and dignity/gravitas.
11. But Palin will be declared "the winner," because she only spoke total gobblygook 3 or 4 times. Or 5.
Ed Note: Before the debate, we all drank a toast, which I presented: "And now,
friends, let's drink to 'Abstinence Only' education...the best way to populate the
desert!"
CODA: Result of "tequila" mathematics...everyone got smashed -one and all now camped out in trundles, air mattresses and every spare bed in the house. Nitey nite, all you suckers in the Good Ol" U.S. of A.... Do we know how to run campaigns, or what? What a humiliating spectacle-for the qualified candidates, not so much. For the sycophants who are pretending they can handle either job it is a sad/bad joke and ...a torture for the voters to have to be asked to put up with this ridiculousness. The world is watching and what do we give them? A Grandfalloon (read, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle) of a campaign.
P.S. The overwhelming message from everyone in our group was "Tell Joe Biden he did great...for a pussycat."