So there we were, an admittedly partisan crowd, waiting for Joe Six-pack’s sister to bomb. Endless repeats of her embarrassing interviews with Katie Couric had left us with unrealistic expectations. Tina Fey’s work on Saturday Night Live hadn’t helped. Nor had the musings of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. We were expecting a train wreck and we got nothing of the sort.
Instead, we were subjected to ninety minutes of what often came across as very carefully staged theatre. Both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin stuck to their speaking points. But unlike the senator from Delaware, the governor from Alaska seldom did anything else. Instead of answering questions, she simply stared straight ahead, smiled, occasionally winked, and recited stock phrases from memory.
It was all quite bizarre. Biden accused Palin of not answering questions put to her: “If you notice, Gwen, the governor did not answer the question about deregulation, did not answer the question of defending John McCain about not going along with the deregulation, letting Wall Street run wild.” In response, the moderator asked if Palin would “like to have an opportunity to answer that before we move on”.
“I’m still on the tax thing because I want to correct you on that again”, she replied. “And I want to let you know what I did as a mayor and as a governor.” And then the most chutzpahdik response I have heard this entire election season: “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I’m going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.”
In her closing statement, recited with the gusto of a fifth grader at her first spelling bee, Palin expanded on her understanding of what constitutes a debate: “I like being able to answer these tough questions without the filter, even, of the mainstream media kind of telling viewers what they’ve just heard. I’d rather be able to just speak to the American people like we just did.”
So there we have it. No questions, no probing, just the opportunity to get all folksy on us and repeat what her handlers had drummed into her all week. Darn right, you betcha, she did a heckuva job! Pity though, in attempting to connect with those who appear to be abandoning the Republicans in droves, she did little to upset Obama’s momentum. Seems like not every Joe Schmoe is a schmuk.
Spot on, for all the exact reasons. I will no longer watch Keith olbermann or Rachel Maddow, since all they do is reinforce what I think, not challenge it.
That said, I wonder how it is that Americans don’t seem to find it disturbing enough that a person supposedly positioned to become Vice President of the United States can get away with rattling off anything but the answers to questions posed. It either suggests that she is incomprehensibly incapable of comprehending a question or either too arrogant or too ignorant to honestly believe that such a strategy is acceptable to global leaders looking for specific answers to specific questions.
Gwen Ifill should not have accepted those answers. Sarah Palin might just as well have told her to feel free occupying herself with something else since she had no intention whatsoever of giving consideration to the questions. And Ifill, if she intended accepting that, should have occupied herself with something else.
sarah palin is almost as full of fail as zuma. and just about as equally qualified to be the backseat driver as well.
FULL. OF. FAIL.
[i need to start looking into new countries to live...]
Gosh darn it, what are you doing thinking to criticise the hockey mom you piece of gotcha journalism, you!
I thought at the beginning that this was just a strategy to ensure that the jolly old Joe Six-packs of the Republican Party didn’t get into this poisoned chalice of a term…but no. It appears that they’re actually really trying and, worse, people are eating this gruel.
When people I otherwise consider to be intelligent send me rude comments like ‘Never mind the economy, what about the murder of thousands of unborn babies,’ I feel that the floppy answer-to-everything-but-the-question isn’t unique to Mrs Palin. Most particularly because the Republicans have had back to back terms and changed not much about what supposedly, according to my correspondent ‘matters’.
Michael Palin for Vice President, I say. He’d be fun in an intelligent way…
It is funny perculiar that Americans can even be contemplating to vote for this lady! Can you imagine Sarah Palin being the American president? It is a distinct possibility since McCain is getting a bit long in the tooth and anything can happen! (Perish the thought). But then again, they did vote Bush in twice!
Clearly the mccain camp had given Palin a strategy and instructed her to be rhetorical (like obama) and just ‘dont mess up’ She did that. and may have saved mccain campaign.
I reckon Bill O Reilly deserves a debate… like he said- he wouldn’t have let Palin get away with her answers, he wouldv’e probed the both of them till they answered the damm thing (although we wouldve most probably heard more of him than the two VP’s put together).. I love the guy.