VP Debate: Apparently, Not Imploding Is Enough If You're "Just Like Us"

Sarah Palin didn't trip and fall on her way to or from the podium. She didn't go on a nonsensical, grammar-defying journey through the English language while talking about her state's proximity to Russia or the Wall Street bailout. And she didn't demonstrate a moment of shocking ignorance, like failing to know what the Bush Doctrine was or being unable to name a single Supreme Court decision.

And because Sarah Palin didn't implode on the stage last night in St. Louis, her performance was hailed as a success. The New York Daily News trumpeted, "Sarah Holds Her Own," and the New York Post announced, "Sarah Show: Pit Bull Hangs Tough in Clash With Biden," and even the New York Times and Washington Post portrayed her performance as generally positive.

Really? Because she didn't self-destruct on stage, she is a success?

If that was all there was to the reaction to Palin's performance, if it was only that the bar was set so low that she is being lauded simply for not majorly screwing up onstage, that would speak volumes about how we, as a country, have fallen so far in our expectations of who our leaders should be. But the reality of the reaction was far worse.

In fact, Palin's folksy, "gee whiz, I'm just a small town hockey mom and all of you Washington folk sure are full of it" approach reflected a clear strategy, the idea that people would be drawn to support her because she's "just like us."

Let me go on the record with something: I went to a pretty good undergraduate university, graduated in the top ten percent of my law school class (and was the editor of the school's entertainment and sports law review), and am a decent enough writer that the good folks at Huffingtonpost.com allow me to blog, and yet I don't want someone "just like me" to be president. I want someone better than me. And 99.9999 percent of us should, too.

Palin is not running to be the vice president of the PTA or the local country club (or even to be the governor of the 47th biggest state with a population roughly equal to that of Columbus, Ohio). She is running to be the vice president of the United States, and if statistics hold, that would mean that there is a decent chance she would one day be the president. That means she would, among many other things, hold in her hand the power to launch nuclear attacks, send our troops into combat, meet and negotiate with world leaders, set the strategy for fighting terrorism, direct the government's participation in the economy (and how to handle the current credit market shutdown that is threatening to send the country into a tailspin), determine how we will address the crises we are experiencing with energy and global warming, and provide leadership during good times and bad.

The power and responsibility of the president of the United States is awesome. It requires a leader with intelligence, knowledge, and the ability to process huge amounts of data in a variety of areas and then make sophisticated and complicated determinations, as well as a need to see things with a depth and clarity that most average people lack. We've seen over the last eight years what happens when someone obviously out of his depth was thrown into the position. Virtually every aspect of American life -- the economy, our foreign policy, our military, our energy policy, etc. -- is in crisis, in no small part due to the ineptitude of George W. Bush.

It is ludicrous to believe that Sarah Palin has anything even approaching the intelligence and knowledge necessary to do the job. And that was demonstrated in St. Louis last night.

At the debate, people were apparently charmed by her folksiness. They loved how she told moderator Gwen Ifill and her opponent Joe Biden that she wasn't going to answer their questions. But what she was really saying was that if she didn't know the answer to a question, rather than make a fool of herself like she did with Charles Gibson or Katie Couric, she would instead say something about which she could provide an answer. Shouldn't we be worried that a candidate for vice president is so limited in knowledge and expertise that there are whole areas she can't properly talk about? That she would, as Tina Fey so brilliantly said it on Saturday Night Live, need a lifeline?

Palin spent the debate spewing talking points. She sounded like a newscaster, reading copy provided by someone else. She didn't demonstrate any depth of insight, knowledge or understanding about the problems the U.S. faces. When confronted with arguments, she couldn't do any thinking on her own. She simply reverted back to a talking point, and sometimes not even the right one. Often, it seemed not like she was choosing to answer a different question, but as if she didn't understand the question she was supposed to answer. She hammered home outright lies and distortions, as if saying them again and again with conviction would make them true. I started to wonder if she even really knew that what she was saying wasn't true. I started to feel like she was Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, signing off with "Go f--- yourself, San Diego," just because it was on the teleprompter.

But really, in the end, all this isn't even about Palin. It's about us, as a country. Any society with its priorities straight would have watched Palin last night and, regardless of ideological beliefs, ruled her out as a candidate for the vice presidency. It's not about her lack of experience (although you could certainly make that argument), nor is it about her extreme right wing beliefs (which were nicely hidden last night), but it is all about her lack of ability. The fact that she is ordinary when the job calls for extraordinary.

The fact that the lead story this morning is that Palin "held her own" with Biden rather than that she was obviously completely out of her depth says a lot more about us than it does about her. It says that we haven't learned our lesson after choosing an intellectually inferior president for the last eight years, after rejecting Al Gore in 2000 for being "wooden" or a "policy wonk." I'm sorry, but when did being president require the office holder to be the life of the party? Shouldn't we want a smart person in the job? Wouldn't that be a good thing?

It should be, but what the response to last night's debate tells us is that it's not. At least not in the minds of too many Americans. Rather than reward knowledge and intellect in this country, we reject it, saying that it makes the candidate "arrogant" or "boring" or "elitist" (or, as two Southern Republicans referred to Barack Obama, "uppity," but that is a whole other discussion). No, the U.S. has become an anti-intellectual society that scorns intelligence and ability and wants leaders that are "just like them."

Well, as I often say, democracy works, just not always how you want it to. If you want someone "like us," you'll get someone "like us." And most of "us" would be way out of our depth if thrown into the White House. Again, we had someone "like us" the last eight years. How did that work out?

I thought that maybe, just maybe, the cavalcade of severe problems facing this country would refocus voters a bit and make them realize that we need someone better than us to find solutions. But the reaction to last night's debate shows that we really haven't changed at all.

The fact that Palin's performance last night was not roundly dismissed as that of an unexceptional, unqualified, unknowledgable, unintelligent joke is an embarrassment for this country. Now, apparently, not being a total train wreck is enough to garner accolades for a debate performance. Knowledge, insight and the ability to reason are, apparently, irrelevant. The key is just spitting out prewritten talking points and showing that, aw shucks, you're just another hockey mom from the heartland of America who is "just like us." I think that's great the next time we're looking for someone to lead the local hockey team supporter's club. But to be vice president and confront the crises facing the United States, I'd prefer someone not like me at all, but, rather, a lot better than me. And certainly a lot better than Sarah Palin.

Comments

[Flyboy56]

I found the whole "just like us" complaint laughable.
If that isn't the classic example of the elite left - I don't know what is.

What, are a couple of lawyers a better alternative?

Lets remember that prior to democrats taking control of Congress in 2006,
the Dow hit an all-time high of 14,000, unemployment and inflation
were at historic lows, and we had not had any terrorist attacks since 9/11 -
(which by the way the Clinton administration is primarily responsible for)
thanks to the efforts of “just like us” George W.

After democrats took control of Congress, gas prices virtually doubled,
home prices tanked, inflation and unemployment went up, Fannie and Freddie
went TU, etc.
We find it is democrats in Congress who repeatedly opposed oversight of
those two GSE's, and presided over the accounting scandal there that exceeds
that of the Enron and Worldcom combined in terms of the money involved.
Obama participated in suing Citibank for not carrying enough sub-prime mortgages, and had a close relationship with ACORN - that now infamous group that have stuffed ballot boxes, and stuffed Fannie and Freddie and the banking industry with bad loans.

I will take "just like us" any day!

McCain and Palin both have shown a knack for reform - anathema to liberals -
and have bucked their own party, which Obama has not done at all.
Palin is straight out of the heart of America, and is a far better prospect for the White House.

[aweissnet]

Thanks for an insightful article. I'm saddened to read comments such as those that appear here -- I keep hoping that we have at least an adequately intelligent population to climb out of the hole we are in. We have huge problems -- lest we forget, we are a young country and have not stood the test of time. Complex problems require intelligence in dealing with them -- or adequately intelligent enough voting citizens to put those in charge who ARE. Unfortunately, when I hear things like "we don't like to be talked down to" and the coffee thing ... I lose a smidgen more of hope. I wonder how they perceive they are being talked down to? I can only surmise that they have difficulty understanding even the expressive vocabulary Obama feels free to use. I don't feel talked down to--but then I understand him. I think, au contraire, he is treating these people like his equal, and they are just so NOT.

[hypnotoad72]

What was the oldest, longest running civilization and what were their practices? Hopefully not orgies and slave labor... ;)

[DorightWoman]

It's more than amazing to me, that a woman who identifies the average American, as a Joe-six pack, has such a myopic understanding of an "average" American. Most of are not gun-toting, hockey mom's. When I was a single parent of 3 kids, I couldn't AFFORD for my kids to be in sports.... and would have relished being able to shoot some game to feed my kids, not as a sport. She has never had to struggle like I did. She has no clue. She sure missed the point of "just like us" with me and mine.

I shudder to think of the kind of education Alaska gives it's kids.... look what it turned out with her lack of grammar, lack of knowledge of the Constitution, and believing dinosaurs and people existed at the same time. She is the epitome of the dumbing down of America.

We need some intelligence in office, not someone who makes George W. appear intelligent.

[Roll451]

Good article, but if anything it overstates how well Palin did. At least one of her answers relating to energy policy was complete gibberish, as bad as anything that she did in the Couric interview. If she had one or two more moments like that, I think almost everyone who is rationally persuadable would recognize how poorly suited she is to be VP.

The good news is that apparently (based on polls done right after the debate) most independents thought Biden won the debate. Palin's fake folksiness didn't fool everyone.

[ThanksMatt]

This article should be on the front page! And what about. www.thenation.com (short form) or www.nationinstitute.org (full article). Schanberg: McCain and the POW Cover-Up?
Everybody should read this, it is so shocking!

[ThanksMatt]

This article should be on the frontpage!!!

[XME]

I had to forward this article to a friend because it expressed exactly my feelings and frustrations. This friend is a Republican who, of course, thinks she did great, and when I try to state that she is simply clueless about national and world events and simply not qualified, he attempts to say that she's no different from Obama, and he's on the top of the ticket.

It simply amazes me that their slant has so distorted their perceptions that they would equate Barack Obama to Sarah Palin simply because he hasn't been in the senate for years, or have years of some other kind of experience. They seem to have NO clue that my concern isn't about experience, but about intellect, about interest in and knowledge of world events, and it's about thoughtfulness in one's words and actions.

Given that some of the people who simply don't understand this are people I know well, and who are very intelligent people makes me believe that there are a lot of people in this country who are unable to think outside of what their "right" or "left" ideologies push them towards. It's quite disturbing.

[jvl315]

Excellent post. If I had to hear one more folksy yooper 'you betcha' delivered with that self-satisfied smirk, the tv would've gone out the window. God, what is this country coming to?

[Pulemerci]

Palin shouldn't be VP? Obama has no business running for POTUS. He waty oo liberal for most Americans and too many skeletons in that closet. More information needs to be come out about his friend William Ayers, Tony Rezco and his minister Rev. Wright. Most Americans don't share those values of terrorisn (Ayers), corruption (Rezco), and inflammatory racist and anti-American rhetoric (Rev. Wright).

Actually her clear talking non-Washington speak is refreshing to most Americans. Joe Biden has been in Congress for 4 decades and Obama promises "Change?" McCain is clearly more qualified to be Commander in Chief (Joe Biden even agrees based on his prior comments) and Sarah Palin is a dynamic and effective Governor. They compliment each other nicely and make a great team.

[jusion]

Hat tip to you

[TigerShoes]

You're frightened of what you imagine in Obama's past, and you ignore the very real danger of Palin's faux-candidacy in the present. You risk the country and the planet for your prejudice and selective suspicion.

[Pulemerci]

Please look up all of the people I mentioned associated with Obama and see if it is imagined or real. I eagerly await your response.

[luutzu]

I'm not from Washington, I'm an outsider... would you want me to run your country just because I'm not an "insider"?

Do you know who were the most liberal people in the world back at the founding of your USA? Your Founding Fathers! It is because of liberals like Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Franklins... it was because of those liberals that your United States won its independence and gave power to its people, give you your freedom of speech, freedom of religion, rights to life and property... It was those liberals that set your country on its path to greatness.

[TigerShoes]

If America loses the mystical element of the Presidency, the essence of the Dream of the Founding Fathers is shattered. There was something transcendental about the forming of the USA, and the extraordin­ary-leader motif is an integral part of the intrinsic greatness of American ideals and values. Obama, like JFK, brings the magical and visionary aspect of it all back, and the motivating power of such charisma and intelligence is a unifying and progressive force not to be underestimated. Palin is an insult to all this.

[hypnotoad72]

The dream being "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

I also recall three paintings made by Norman Rockwell... about some of our basic freedoms (freedom from fear, freedom from hunger, freedom of religion...)

[Maz11]

Thank you, thank you -- my thoughts exactly. While watching the "debate," I thought Palin's performance could not possibly be defended as positive in anyway. Alas, I overestimated the intelligence of the American media & am ashamed at their mostly uncritical view of Snarky Sarah.
Although the polls show a clear Biden win, the media refuse, for the most part, to call a spade a spade or, in this case, a snark a snark. Sadly, it's just more evidence of the dumbing down of America.

[rkfdred]

I found it rather odd that when she talked, she barely took a breath. It wasn't a discussion but a recitation of what she memorized. There was clearly no thought going into any of her answers. She was like a wind up Chatty Kathy doll. As a woman I was insulted by her. I found her remarks condescending and her delivery almost childish. I got tired of listening to her talk - also is her favorite bridge word - and just once in a while I would have liked her to say an entire word and stop dropping her g's. If she talked that way to heads of state or other intellectuals they'd would go away shaking their heads and laughing. She's window dressing for McCain and unfortunately she's gotten a pretty big head - she really thinks she should be president. Scary, scary, scary.

[Mitchell Bard - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for the comment, rkfdred. Really great detail there. I love it. And I agree.

I stand by my news reader analogy, although the Chatty Kathy doll made me smile.

[njcaringone]

We are in serious trouble when, after eight years of "W" we have still not learned that the "just like me phenomenon" must end! Since when is mediocrity an acceptable criterion for our soon to be executive leaders?? I want someone who knows more than I know, who is smarter than I am and can talk to world leaders, on the fly if necessary, and not start another world war.

Sarah Palin is not a stupid woman. She is able to take a substantial amount of talking points, add her folksy spin, and then get people to relate to her. These are wonderful traits for the mayor of a town with a population of 9000 people. They are not, however, acceptable criteria for the vice presidency.

[hypnotoad72]

Relating to the people you want to vote for you. That's a profession almost as old as prostitution. Obama has been doing the exact same thing; only his omitting of lines such as "you betcha" gets him off any hook.

[Kristi23]

Great article Mitch!

You know my colleague and I converse each day about the candidates, really it's more like a debate, as he is full on the McSame ticket. I knew for some reason he would walk in and show utter pleasure with Paling ( just wanted to add a g to her name, since she could use a few!)

And to her defense he said, who could you see yourself more likely sitting down and having a cup of coffee with? My answer, neither, they have got a huge mess to clean up from little dubya and they have more important people to talk to than me, Joe Soccer Mama.

I actually didn't even want to see her implode ( well maybe a little) but rather instill a little faith back into my own head about this more than possible future president. And now I am so skeptic about every news affiliate that covered it and wonder, what debate were they watching and why didn't I get it.

But you know what, I read your article, and realized I do get it, and if the rest of the country just set the bar at her not " breaking down," then I will waive the white flag of surrender. Because there are a lot of women out there that have worked pretty hard to shatter that glass ceiliing. And in one debate ( not even counting her previous interviews) managed to tape the whole thing back together with duct tape!

[Mitchell Bard - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, Kristi23. The "have a cup of coffee with" argument makes me insane. Who cares? Again, this is the problem with the American electorate right now. We are electing a president (and vice president). It's not a beauty contest, a popularity contest, or American Idol. It's a job.

Bush was the cup of coffee guy. How did that work out?

[jusion]

"The problem with the American electorate" is they don't appreciate being talked down to. Why is it so hard for the liberals to comprehend?

[Nexialist]

Palin did a great job at exposing the lack of depth of Barack. She's been running for VP for 5 weeks; he for president for 18 months, and he still has no idea what he's talking about if the teleprompter malfunctions. Yet Barack's supporters in the media continue to give him a pass. Conventional wisdom says McCain has no chance. But if he should win, it will show that the American people are not so easily manipulated as the left always counts on.

[JillQ]

I'm sorry, have you gotten lost? Obama has been interviewed by MANY journalists, answered questions, given details, etc. If you don't see that, you haven't been paying attention. What's unfortunate is that you actually are able to vote.

[jusion]

Hat tip

[slouchingwhereto]

Is this sarcasm?

[rhdsma]

Mr. Obama started out working as a community organiser right out of college and law school.
He achieved a teaching position at the University of Chicago, teaching Constitutional Law for several years.
He was president of the Harvard Law Review.
He ran and won a State of Illinois Senate seat and served 12 years.
He is in his first term as US Senate, representing the State of Illinois.
He writes his own material and speeches and can actually talk to crowds unscripted.
The biggest bonus for Obama, is that he's real.

[Mitchell Bard - Huffpost Blogger]

I couldn't have said it better myself. You don't have to like Obama's policies. But it's not an opinion that he is smarter, more knowledgable, has greater depth of thought, and is generally more perceptive than Palin.

Just to set the record straight, not that it makes a big difference, but Obama had eight years in the Illinois Senate.

[ThanksMatt]

Thank you - I copied this and will paste it in every blog where this question is coming up- which is quite often.

[Roll451]

This is worthless garbage. Let's take it piece by piece. First, Palin disagreed with some of Obama's positions, but she never said anything that suggested that he lacked the depth to be president. How could she - coming from her it would be totally laughable. Obama has done scores of interviews where he gave intelligent answers without the aid of a teleprompter, not to mention his performance in last week's debate. And the media has given a much larger pass to McCain by not pointing out how repeatedly he contradicts himself.