Running for Vice President, don’t Juneau
People wonder if Sarah Palin’s spark has withered. Apparently, she’s made a few gaffes that are getting quite a bit of attention. I mean, she hasn’t made as many as Barack Personal Jesus Obama but that’s only because she hasn’t been running as long. And, you know, the press won’t cover his. And she hasn’t made as glaring of gaffes as Joe Biden.
So now, people are pondering whether the VP moderator stands to gain from moderating the debate? Beats me but it doesn’t lend a lot of objectivity to it.
Personally, I don’t know that the alleged gaffes have made much of a difference. It’s not like her gaffes have made Obama/Biden more appealing.
Ok, I don’t really have much to say. I just wanted to use that pun.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:28 am
Yeah, the whole Obama book deal is casting a shadow over ol’ Gwens ability to be impartial.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:42 am
The way I see it is both parties have an unaccomplished base-energizing n00b and an veteran curmudgeonly bastard.
The only difference is who they put as first string.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:44 am
The biggest problem with Sarah Palin is that she was supposedly chosen because she was not like McCain and other establishment RINO politicians. So what do they do? They put her with the same old group of handlers (like CFR globalist insider Henry Kissinger) and try to make her like them! Her so-called supporters are sabotaging her much more than any opposition ever could!!
IF, IF McCain had any political smarts, he would send Sarah out to be Sarah and say “if they ask you what my policy is, say “when you interview John McCain,ask him”. IF he wanted to be really different, he would tell Palin to give HER VIEWS and that she would be free in his administration to represent, disagree and argue for those conservative views that McCain has generally ignored.
But I’m tired of being told I should give my vote to phony conservatives like Dole, like Bush, and like McCain when they do virtually NOTHING to get my vote!!
October 1st, 2008 at 11:46 am
Governor Palin has left in her wake a number of people who mistakenly underestimated her.
Gwen Ifill is biased because her book deal gives her a financial interest in Obama’s success. Biden could say that his parents were aliens from outer space and get a pass from the media. Meanwhile, the hostile media refuses even to address Sarah Palin as Governor Palin.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Chas
You know, Biden’s parents being space aliens might actually explain some things about him…
October 1st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
You cannot blame Biden’s parents, he is self-fucked-up.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:21 pm
We know very little about Sarah Palin. If she were being constantly interviewed, we would have a constant stream of stuff to go on. The campaign staff are even trying to shield her from impromptu questions on the campaign trail.
As a result, the only thing we have to go on is her interview with Charlie and Katie Couric. From these interviews, we’ve learned that she doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, can see Russia from her home, can’t tell you what news sources she uses, can’t name a Supreme Court case other than Roe (not even Heller or Kelo), whatever her incoherent response to the bailout question reveals, amongst a bunch of other things.
If she were on the stump more and if she agreed to more interviews, there would be more to go on. Beyond that, Biden has a long history that the American people are aware of, nobody knew Sarah Palin until she was put on the ticket.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Of your complaints, some are valid concerns. But the news source thing I’d let slide since I can’t tell you what I use (i have a reader). And the Bush Doctrine question depends on which Bush Doctrine since there like 8 of them.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
the news source thing I?d let slide
This was not a difficult question. If you were asked this question, you could answer it as you’ve done…I use an RSS reader, so I can’t remember everything that I use, but here are some examples, instead she dodged the question. This wasn’t a question about Russia or foreign policy, it was asking what new sources do you read/watch.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
And the Bush Doctrine question depends on which Bush Doctrine since there like 8 of them.
Except that she didn’t seem to know what any of them were. And, of course Charlie Gibson also screwed it up when he tried to summarize the one he was talking about.
With the Couric interview, I like the way one blogger or pundit (can’t remember who) put it: the problem isn’t so much that she didn’t know the answers, but that so often, she didn’t seem to understand the questions.
Look, Palin’s the symptom, not the disease. The disease is McCain’s propensity to do anything and everything to win, no matter how it looks and what it means for the country. Even if that means putting someone obviously over her head a heartbeat away.
The problem for McCain supporters, I think, is that they’re going to have no earthly idea what they’ll actually get should McCain win. He’s changed so many positions so drastically, it’s hard to keep track of which positions are the sincere ones and which are the panders.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I wonder why the McCain campaign did not know this Ifill was an Obama hack.
I do not think McCain’s spin machine is nearly as slick and as well run as Obama’s. Then again, nobody is as slick and as devious as the liberal press.
Oh well, all I know is that Republicans are not going to take my guns away. Go Palin.
October 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
That’s kind of funny Manish, I didn’t have any trouble understanding her answer on the bailout. I don’t agree with it, but the only two sins I see are that she wasn’t particularly articulate, and she didn’t talk to us like we couldn’t do any thinking at all.
For example; If I am told people cannot breathe water, and the very best pearl divers in the world can only hold their breaths for 4 to 7 minutes, should it really be necessary for them to tell me not to build my house on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?
October 1st, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Palin gets a lot of flak for not interviewing well.
I think a much better criterion for choosing a VP is where they stand on the issues and what they’ll actually do in office.
Good interviewees with a polished media presence aren’t necessarily good leaders and vice-versa. Heck, Hitler had a charismatic media presence for his time.
How many of us Average Joes would interview well or speak articulately on camera?
She may not be polished yet, but that’s not mecessarily a bad thing in my book. Polished candidates have an easier time lying to your face. Those are the ones that really worry me.
If Ronald Reagan hadn’t backed up his polished presence with actions, he would have had me worried too.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I am still anchoraged’d that she was chosen. Shows a thought or two for the future.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:40 pm
anchorage’d
October 1st, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Well.
Biden makes gaffes. Palin often makes little sense.
I’ll take the former.
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:54 am
It’s going to be a recurrent theme from the political left that “we don’t know anything about Sarah Palin”. Right up until Election Day. What an astonishing amount of politically self-serving and deliberate ignorance they’re trying to peddle!
The other recurrent theme is that she knows nothing about foreign policy, because foreign policy is Biden’s specialty as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As VP, her foreign policy will be “whatever John says” on account of him being the P. You want to know about foreign policy? You should ask John, because it’s going to be his call.
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Palin gets a lot of flak for not interviewing well.
I think a much better criterion for choosing a VP is where they stand on the issues and what they’ll actually do in office.
Except that her stances on the issues appears to be whatever John McCain thinks is best. Well, what happens when McCain drops dead and she’s the President? And how is someone who appears to have no grasp on foreign policy (other than being able to see Russia from her home state) going to manage our foreign policy?
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Well, what happens when McCain drops dead and she’s the President?
That’s exactly my point.
And how is someone who appears to have no grasp on foreign policy (other than being able to see Russia from her home state) going to manage our foreign policy?
I didn’t see it that way. I believe you’re making a caricature of her responses. She had decent answers regarding the Georgian conflict and Iran and Israel and energy policy than you appear to be giving her credit for. You may not agree with what she said, but I thought she articulated those answers well.
I saw her in the Alaskan governor race debate. She looked a lot better in that. I say McCain’s folks should just let her be herself.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:20 am
Andy..I saw her articulate talking points that had been fed to her. I didn’t see any sense of any original thinking. McCain, Biden and Obama all sound like they’ve thought things through and come to a conclusion..Palin sounds like she is repeating talking points.
I’m more interested to her response to some of the more off the wall questions as you know that she didn’t have talking points for those questions. On that, she did horribly. She couldn’t even answer what news sources she uses, or name a Supreme Court case that she didn’t agree with (Dred Scott, Kelo, how hard is this?)
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Fair enough, Manish. Let’s stick with her original interview for now. What made you think she was parroting things she hadn’t thought through?
Strictly from a media savvy point of view, I see great potential and steady growth as she gets more experience in front of the national media. IMHO, she seems to be improving in that respect.
I’ve been in situations where I was forced to defend a position and answer hard questions in a semi-public setting. It took more than a few times for me to become smooth at it so I seemed more natural, even on things that I really knew my stuff on. That’s just my perspective.
Because of that, I give any candidate with little experience in front of the national media, the benefit of the doubt. I’ll look beyond weaknesses in that area to the meat of what they stand for, at least in the beginning. I don’t begrudge Obama’s or Biden’s gaffes either, even though they’ve had more experience in front of the national media. Heck, we’re all human. To me, those are all just distractions from the real meat.