A triumphant Joe Biden celebrating over Alaskan GovernorSarah Palin Thursday night at debate's end? Dada thinks not.
I've been reading up on Thursday night's VP debate. For those of us expecting to see a battered, bludgeoned, bleeding Palin at the end, I feel implored to remind:
Americans are a compassionate people. Their sympathies often go out to the little "guy," the underdog, the ill-equipped, the under-prepared. Knowledge is not always something championed in American culture. Ignorance often is.
Sorry, I'm returning to the past, to the 2000 debates between Gore and Bush with, always, the media's post-debate assessments of Gore as the stiff who always came out 2nd to Bush because Bush "didn't fuck up as bad as everyone was expecting." It would be wise for all of us to remember that.
Also, expecting a stage flowing red with Palin's blood by the end of the evening, it's well to remind everyone Biden is being primed to be respectful at all times of the political neophyte; addressing her always as "Gov. Palin," and when she says something totally naive or stupid, which she seems likely she'll do, Biden is being coached to respond, "I'm not sure I understand what the good governor means."
And being thus prepared, we can chew on the experience of Andrew Halcro, who once debated Palin for governor of Alaska (and lost), to wit:
Sarah Palin brought something more effective than facts and figures to an agriculture debate in the Alaska governor's race. She packed an engaging disposition.
One of her opponents, Andrew Halcro, had memorized the complexities of the subject beforehand. He was super prepared. He might as well have stared out the window during the proceedings, for all it mattered.
"She did such a great job with just the glittering generalities and filling the room with her presence that people didn't care what she said about agriculture," Halcro says now. "Palin's a master at spending 45 seconds telling you what color the sky is," he adds, "and people will say, 'That's the greatest thing I ever heard.' "
So, thus prepared, while far less experienced than her opponent or her running mate McCain, Palin may at evening's end, have the media singing praises so reminiscent of the the 2000 Gore - Bush debates. "She didn't fuck up as bad as we expected."
Chew on that.
9 comments:
Sad, but oh so true.
B.E. - Thursday, if all goes as planned, Mrs. D. and I are crossing the electronic line, in Las Cruces, at the High Desert Brewing.
Hopefully, our friends from Grass Roots Press will also be there to meet (and put a face on) a fellow internet traveler.
And as coincidence would have it, this person said, "If BE should happen to show up, we could ask for a bigger table!" Stay tuned.
And, Dada, the media is likely to pickup on Biden sighing at her ignorance and then accuse him of whatever it was they accused Gore of doing in 2000: Deeply sighing!
Hey, lift a glass for me too. Not to me but for me. OK?
I for one will lift a glass or two at HDBC in advance of this duel between the gaffemaster and Ms. Mooseburger so I am adequately anesthetized for the rave reviews from the Republican talking heads for the good governor making anything less than an abject fool out of herself.
As I understand the debate format, there will be no direct confrontation, so Palin's answers to Gwen Ifill's questions may prove to be more or less scripted. I just hope Gwen asks her what cartoonist Mike Smith suggests: So, Gov. Palin, how will you deal with countries you can't see from Alaska?
I'll be looking closely to try & detect the robo-backpack receiver on Palin .. similar to that device so effectively employed by W in '04, the one that caused many to wonder if he had suddenly grown a "widow's hump". Some irreverent wag even dubbed it a "god bump". Oh but technological gains since then have probably enabled them to make it small enough to fit in dear sarah's bra. RATS!
We will probably only know for sure if during the debate she suddenly possesses the arcane info that eluded her during Katie C's penetrating interview. However, as you point out, she really doesn't need such facts. She is armed with personality and home-spun faith. I just wish that slaughtered animal you featured in this sobering post did not have the religious overtones of "lamb".
I'm sure missing where everyone is so charmed by Missus Palin's sparkling personality! She comes across to me as a mean-spirited younger version of the Church Lady in Halloween drag as a schoolmarm. Then again, I always pegged Shrub as a spoilt preppy who really enjoyed hazing -- as long as he was inflicting, not receiving, you know. And that was before putting up with him for six years in Austin and then another eight in DC! Anybody who wants to sit down and have a beer with that bastard has a bit of Niedermeyer in their gene pool...
I'm already picking up on the "oh, poor Sarah's getting picked on" drift from a friend of mine. It's disillusioning to realize how some people wouldn't see the truth if it bit 'em on the nose.
awww if you think we won't get treated to a bloodied and broken palin, maybe biden will forget his manners at least once and call the attempts at evasive and misleading, mis-spoken verbiage by their obvious and more truthful name: Lies
If hdbc has no 46" plasma screen... do they at least have a smothered chile verde burrito guisado? i may have to do take out from nellies
After reading my own words here and reading everyone else's words herein, I am extremely "down" today.
When did stripping down to bare necessities, climbing into the mud pit and wrestling with your opponent until one cries "UNCLE!" and slithers away to salvage what little dignity s/he has left ever depart from the definition of the word debate?
So I guess the consensus is, what we are more likely to see tomorrow eve is a love-in with the winner to be decided by MSM spin.
(Sigh)...Oh well, that aside, I guess the *mystery person* we are meeting tomorrow afternoon in the High Desert Brewing Co. of Las Cruces has revealed himself to be none other than -- a ball of light! Mrs. Dada and I are really looking forward to HDBC (as we always do), but tomorrow promises to be extra interesting because we are X-ing the electronic line.
And of note is Steve (and Kathy) of "Redneck from Wasilla" fame will be there also. From e-mails exchanged with ball of light and Steve each, I'm not sure I'll understand much of what either is saying, tending to season their excellent e-mails with metaphors, strange references and esoterica.
That's where I plan to lean heavily on some excellent ESB's, IPA's, or any other ale on tap for help.
aaah, dada, I expect you can hold your own with anyone, especially if the "debate" is being broadcast in the background. so much fodder for discussion, I'm sure a great time will be had by all. We will hoist a brew in your honor here! It's really the only way to get through Ms Miouxsie.
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