Sarah Palin's Debate Performance: Fake It 'Til You Make It
Doggone it; Sarah Palin did pretty well in the first and only vice presidential debate.
She did not commit a gaffe, was clearly well rehearsed, and said a lot of the things she needed to say, portraying herself as the hockey mom she is, representing the Main Street folks in Wasilla, Alaska.
So why couldn't I take her seriously?
Perhaps it was because she was too well rehearsed, repeated the same phrases again and again, or it may be that the very innocence she presents as a political outsider -- one of her strengths according to Republicans -- is also what makes it so difficult to envision her as a political insider, an equal partner with the United States president, and wielding the gavel in the United States Senate. The gee whiz quality of her presentation made it clear that she actually was thrilled to meet Senator Joe Biden, was "honored" to be there. A warm smile, a perky voice, and yes, a certain likability are attributes, but these qualities are not enough to project her into the vice president's chair, and possibly, the president's.
I continued to feel that she was acting the part of the candidate. Fake it until you make it is what women are often told to do in many challenging circumstances. She faked it well, but I'm not sure she made it. At times she seemed like Pygmalion who was taught to pronounce the words correctly. It worked on one level, but if you were to uncover it, there would be no second layer.
Joe Biden, I confess, also did better than I expected. He treated the Governor with utmost respect, calling her Governor in every instance. His remarks were hardly ever directed at Sarah Palin herself -- instead he focused on John McCain, the real target in this election. No gaffes, no long windedness, for which he's famous. If the debate were based on substance, he would win hands down. He has a clear mastery of the issues, having served in the Senate for more than 30 years. No amount of coaching could allow Palin to compete with that.
When I try to put partisanship aside, and that's not easy, I ask myself, in whom would I have confidence to make the tough decisions that any team will have to make in the next administration? There is no doubt, that Palin looked downright flimsy in comparison to rock-solid Biden. She looked good, she often sounded good, but could she actually govern this country in a time of economic crises? Her answers were often campaign slogans -- "cut taxes","get government out of our lives." We've heard these phrases for the last eight years, and where have they taken us?
The good news is that much of the country was riveted to this vice presidential debate, which in itself is news. Palin recovered from her disastrous Katie Couric interviews, and Biden proved himself to be a wise man. It seemed as if Gwen Ifill's questions prompted Palin to say everything she knew. She was fortunate that no follow up questions were allowed. Biden only had time to give us a small proportion of what he knew. Depth, after all does make a difference in a complex and dangerous time.
Madeleine M. Kunin is the former Governor of Vermont and was the state's first woman governor. She served as Ambassador to Switzerland for President Clinton, and was on the three-person panel that chose Al Gore to be Clinton's VP. She is the author of Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead from Chelsea Green Publishing.
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I wasn't fooled by Eliza. I don't think she recovered from her previous interviews. I think Dr Doolittle is gonna have to put her on a moose and send her home if he wants to pull this one off. The more I see her, the sillier she looks. Gosh darn it!
...FINALLY !...somebo
I don't understand some of my comments that don't get published. I'm not being abusive or using profanity. Is it certain buzzwords? I find it hard to believe that "obnoxious" is so controversial.
That happens to me, too.
I guess it may not matter, but I found Palin's demeanor during the debate to be very obnoxious. She did seem warm and friendly greeting Biden and also afterwards. During, however, she was Sarah from the convention - snide and sarcastic, albeit with a smile.
Gosh darnnit! You're correct!
Now just wait for those REAL interviews to poor in. We STILL won't ever see her on Sunday talk shows.
"Palin recovered from her disastrous Katie Couric interviews"
Rcovery is a relative term. No doubt she made the crazy right happy, but she is clearly still brain dead. There is no recovery from that.
Palin's performance was more like a scripted infomercial. Her presentation style reminded me of an inexperience news anchor in a small market -- feigning indignation, attempting charm, vacuous.
Biden, on the other hand, spoke from the heart. His sincerity and vast grasp of the issues demonstrated that he is the one who should be one heartbeat from the presidency.
Literary fact-check here, with no disrespect to Ms. Kunin:
Pygmalion as a character is actually the guy who creates a false woman (statue), falls in love because she is so perfect, & then wants to bring her to life. The lady in the story is named Galatea. (Greek myth-story was borrowed by GB Shaw for the class-and-
In Shaw's version, the made-over Eliza despairs at no longer belonging anywhere. Similarly: once Ms Palin's excellent adventure is over, how will her new wardrobe of designer suits hold up in Alaska? About as well as her newly-revealed use of per-diems and secret email accounts and spouse-as-
Sarah Palin has sat the women's movement back 50 years! Her performance last night proves she will do anything to win.....in
She has five children, you think she hasn't faked it before?
The thing I hope everyone is getting about this article is the fact is that Sarah Palin don't know jack sh*t about what she was talking about, she simply was drilled over and over again the answers to questions they knew would be asked because we see the ones that she didn't know the answer to, she refused to answer and it showed. Americans with half a brain, (more than she and McCain has together) know that McCain would run this country in the ground within the first year, have us in another war, with no soldiers to even fight the war with these two idiots and most cities would end up looking like Michigan and Detroit with all those factories closed.
Sarah Non Sequitur skirts her ultra-right domestic program.
** Palin’s crusade for Un-enlightenment **
Millions of fundies who want a theocratic America -- an Ameristan, complete with puritanism and fanaticism -- will forgive her handlers' subterfuges. After all, she's lying in a holy cause as a shill for dominionism.
We know exactly what Sarah Palin reads -- it's the Bible in its ultra-right ideological interpretation by the Dobson and Hagee crowd. That's the only source for law and morals, domestic and foreign policy, war strategy and negotiating tactics.
Palin is Peter Pan, a never-grow-up tomboy. How else to characterize a mental and behavioral juvenile who opines that human beings and dinosaurs walked together in a world at most 6,000 years old. Abandon rationality and honesty if you would one with her un-enlightenment crusade.
Fundies hate exactly what the US has become. Christian fideists, just like Islamic fideists, cannot tolerate an open society, a pluralist culture, or a secular state. They wax nostalgic for racism, for male dominated social control, for misogyny, for unquestioned acceptance of religious tyranny (not by those labels of course).
Palin has tried to conceal her script for bringing to life Margaret Atwood’s wretched dystopia stripped bare in her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Millions far saner than Sarah still do not know what's in her mind . . . unenlightened beliefs clogged by (Super-size me Jesus!) junk-food faith.
AaaaAAAAAmen!
Anyone who thinks Palin is a more qualified or better V.P. than Biden after this debate is so partisan I can't take them seriously. Palin ducked many questions, while Biden charmed and informed. This independent is now excited about Biden helping to lead this country, more than ever before.
If objectivity is your goal, Republicans, sorry....y
Joe talked like a wise man.
Sarah sang like a canary.
Let’s give Governor Palin her dues. She came prepared and she performed brilliantly in the debates. She was on message and she got in her shots where she could. Well done Gov. Palin.
Here’s what bothered me. She seemed strikingly inauthentic. Her “oh, shucks by golly” act seemed put on. Did anyone respond positively when she winked at the camera? It didn’t have the desired affect on me. It seemed like pandering.
Her false-folksy comment “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” was obviously rehearsed. It was a sound-bite wanna-be. And what was it that Joe Biden said that caused Gov. Palin to react so? He mentioned George Bush; a president Gov. Palin insists should only be spoken of in past tense. Trying to burry a sitting president so he doesn’t stink up the hopes of his party is truly inauthentic.
Let’s be clear – John McCain and Sarah Palin are Republicans, the same party that brought you the last eight years of failed policies. To pretend otherwise is the ultimate in insincerity.
When she claimed that John McCain was talking about the American workforce when he said the “fundamentals of the economy are strong,” it seemed disingenuous. Did you believe her?
Putting aside for a moment the McCain-Palin plan to continue the legacy of George W. Bush, I have a bigger problem with Sarah Palin. She is inauthentic.
Brilliantly?
Now "performed" I agree with.
And yes, that folksy stuff is gag-inducing. Geez Beave!
I swear, by current standards, Forest Gump would have "performed brilliantly".
I disagree, she wasn't prepared, she was simply coached to death. You can train a monkey to do just about anything and that's all I kept seeing in my head while she was talking was this monkey walking around and around on the organ grinders hat. She doesn't know this stuff, she simply memorized it and quite well. But when they tried to ask her a question that they hadn't prepared her for, she refused to answer it. Send her back to Alaska to face the charges that are against her.
Biden let that obvious falsehood slip by. The fundamentals of the economy that McCain spoke of was the free market and deregulation and the free flow of capital, that was the context used at the time.
These Republicans forget that almost everything they say or do in the public arena is recorded! His whole statement reflected the market and Wall Street in general, not plucky American workers. That was yet another attempt to alter the consensus reality of America.
I'm no econ whiz, but I always thought "fundamentals of the economy" were things that could be statistically measured, like GNP, trade, deficits, etc. Since when is the subjective spunk of American workers figured into this?
McPalin is just clouding the issue, as usual!
Obama/Biden "08
...i would'nt say brilliantl
...she kept talking about the "backwards blame game" as though the Bush administration left the white house years ago...news
Dog'gone'it her performance is the same as mine when interviewing before a panel of potential employers. Same DNA.
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