June Cleavage // Current

Sarah Palin would not say she Voted for McCain/Palin

CNN showing Sarah Palin being interviewed after she voted. She would not say who she voted for, saying it was a "private... more

ESKCSG
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Palin releases medical records on election eve

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin released a summary of her medical history late on Monday... more

bedeboop
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Sarah Palin's debate performance should signal the beginning of the end of her fad. But for the moment it is worth looking at the meaning of her nomination, without the protective varnish of what conservatives usually dismiss as political correctness.

Why should we pretend not to notice when Gov. Palin's ideas make no sense? Having said last week that "it doesn't matter" whether human activity is the cause of climate change, she said in debate that she "doesn't want to argue" about the causes. It doesn't occur to her that we have to know the causes in order to address the problem. (She was very fortunate that moderator Gwen Ifill didn't ask her whether she truly believes that human beings and dinosaurs inhabited this planet simultaneously only 6,000 years ago.)

Why should we ignore her inability to string together a series of coherent thoughts? As a foe of Wall Street greed and a late convert to the gospel of government regulation, along with John McCain, Palin promised to clean up and reform business. But when her programmed talking points about "getting government out of the way" and protecting "freedom" conflicted with that promise, she didn't notice.

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Why should we give her a pass on the most important issues of the day? Supposedly sharing the fears and concerns of the average families who face the burdens of mortgages, healthcare and economic insecurity, Palin simply refused to discuss changes in bankruptcy law and proved that she didn't know the provisions of McCain's healthcare plan.

All the glaring defects so blatantly on display in her debate with Joe Biden -- and that make her candidacy so darkly comical -- would be the same if she were a hockey dad instead of a "hockey mom." In fact, the cynical attempt to foist Palin on the nation as a symbol of feminist progress is an insult to all women regardless of their political orientation.

There was a time when conservatives lamented the dumbing down of American culture. Preservation of basic standards in schools and workplaces compelled them -- or so they said -- to resist affirmative action for women and minorities. Qualifications mattered; merit mattered; and demagogic appeals for leveling were to be left to the Democrats.

Not anymore.

Actually, the Palin phenomenon is the culmination of a trend that can be traced back to Dan Quayle, the undistinguished Indiana senator whose elevation onto the Republican ticket in 1988 had nothing to do with intellect or experience and everything to do with the youthful appeal of a handsome blond frat boy. (That was how Republican strategists thought they would attract female voters back then, which must be why they believe Palin represents progress.) Quayle too was unable to articulate, let alone defend, the policy positions for which he was supposed to be campaigning. He too had to undergo the surgical stuffing of stock phrases into his head as a minimal substitute for knowledge and thought. And in the same sad way, he too benefited from the drastically reduced expectations applied to anyone whose inadequacy is so obvious.

Quayle deserved more pity than scorn, however, because he seemed to know that he was fighting far above his weight class. Palin evokes no such sympathy, with her jut-jawed, moose-gutting confidence in her own overrated "common sense" and her bullying insistence that only "elitists" would question her expertise.

As Biden showed quite convincingly when he spoke about his modest background and his continuing connection with Main Street, perceptive, intelligent discourse is in no way identical with elitism. Palin's phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women. Why are basic diction and intellectual coherence presumed to be out of reach for "real people"? Sarah Palin's debate performance should signal the beginning of the end of her fad. But for the moment it is worth looking at... more

MeganMcKenzie
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19 responses

1 month ago

This week in the Palin saga

Now that Sarah Palin has given a series of disasterous interviews, both conservative and liberal columnists have started weighing... more

RebeccaTraister
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18 responses

2 months ago

Palin cheated during debate.

Palin reads from her notes in the debate. word for word in most instances. None of her answers were her own and all planed and... more

muckraker
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11 responses

1 month ago

Debate This, Straight Up.

Well you aren't invited to the wedding anyways so....She smiles when she lies.

TeamBoo
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3 responses

2 months ago

Lost in translation? LA Times article 'The politics of spunk'

Slight nuance in the use of the word between us and our US cousins by the look of things. d

derider
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20 responses

2 months ago

Palin's Attack On Obama's Patriotism Raise Questions About Palins' Association With Secessionist

Sarah Palin attacked Obama's patriotism today over his association with former Weatherman Bill Ayers -- a move that makes it... more

BuddyP
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17 responses

1 month ago

Palin, Biden face off in VP debate

Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have taken the stage for the first and only scheduled vice presidential debate of the... more

TaniaK
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471 responses

2 months ago

Palin Runs For Senate Dictator - TV Republicas Ride The "Straight Talking Points" Express

It was creepy to watch Sarah Palin ignore Gwen Ifill's questions and repeat the same scripted answers over and over, as if... more

BuddyP
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1 response

1 month ago

How Sarah Palin blew it

Friday October 3, 2008 10:03 EDT
How Sarah Palin blew it

Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were talking to two different Americas Thursday night. Actually, that's unfair to Joe Biden; he was trying to talk to everyone. I can say for certain, though, that Sarah Palin was talking to -- and winking at -- her own private Idaho, and for long stretches of the debate, it was an unnerving experience.

We could be in for a few days of pro-Palin commentary, since her subjects and verbs corresponded. For at least the first hour, she held her own; she was funny sometimes, occasionally charming. Still, the Obama-Biden ticket will survive it. Biden was stronger on every single substantive point, and that's the impression that will last.

But the pit bull in lipstick was back. After her disarming "Hey, can I call you Joe?" Palin was vicious, with a winning smile. After a passionate Biden plea to "walk with me in my neighborhood," in Delaware and Scranton, where "the middle class has gotten the short end," she ridiculed him: "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again! Pointing backwards again!"

There were two key moments for me when Sarah Palin blew it badly. One was substantive, one was symbolic. The substantive was her bizarre statement about being happy that Dick Cheney had expanded the powers of the vice-presidency, and wanting to expand the powers more. I think that's what she said, it was one of many moments I didn't entirely understand her point, but I got her overall meaning. Biden came back with a decisive: "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president in American history," and he defended the existing limits on vice-presidential power. Point: Biden. Big time.

The symbolic moment Palin flubbed was subjective, of course. But I instant-messaged a friend that she lost the debate when Biden choked up over losing his wife and child in a car accident in which his sons were critically injured -- and she went straight back into "John McCain is a maverick." I truly expected her to express human sympathy with Biden, and her failure to do so showed me something deeply wrong with her. But maybe that's just me.

She made other mistakes that others have already caught: She called the top commander in Afghanistan "General McClellan"; his name is David McKiernan. She said the troop levels in Iraq are down to pre-surge levels; they're not. She simply didn't answer a lot of the questions. Moderator Gwen Ifill tried to pull her back, but Palin is stubborn; she had her talking points, and she stuck to them.

I thought Biden and Palin tied for the first third of the debate, that Palin actually won the second third on moxie and charisma, not policy (Biden looked visibly angry at a few points, and that's never good), but Biden cleaned her clock in the last third. He quoted his dad telling him, "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up!" -- and he listened to his father. Biden got up, and he won the debate.

We'll see how it plays out in the days to comFriday October 3, 2008 10:03 EDT How Sarah Palin blew it Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were talking to two different Americas... more

MeganMcKenzie
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12 responses

1 month ago

What would you ask Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin is coming to the Los Angeles area today and we need your help. We'll have a giant, electronic billboard outside... more

lulu81
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65 responses

1 month ago

Palin disagrees with McCain’s Michigan decision - says her and her husband can win

Palin says, "whatever Todd and I can do in realizing what their challenges in that state are, as we can relate to them and... more

Raven6
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17 responses

2 months ago

Palin's Tax Return Missing Travel Reimbursements

Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin didn't report thousands of dollars in state travel reimbursements that she collected... more

BuddyP
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12 responses

1 month ago

Palin on Fox: Couric annoyed me

You really gotta see this ...

Pericles1978
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40 responses

2 months ago

Palin gets back on track, but Biden wins debate CNN Reports

Palin did not veer off course during the 90-minute debate, but her stand on principle appeared to hurt her, according to a... more

MAFmove
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1 response

2 months ago

Factcheck.org: loose with the truth in St. Louis

According to the nonpartisan researchers at Factcheck.org (a NEWSWEEK partner), Biden and Palin "were not 100 percent... more

BuddyP
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29 responses

2 months ago

Flirting her way to victory

At least three times last night, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience. Had... more

BuddyP
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130 responses

2 months ago

Red-faced Palin forced to apologise after blunder over talks with British ambassador

Sarah Palin has been forced to apologise to the British Embassy in Washington after claiming she had held talks with the... more

Vierotchka
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53 responses

2 months ago

Palin might be a better debater than thought?

Sarah Palin might not give a good interview, and John McCain's advisers might not trust her to give a press conference, but in a highly structured debate like the one we are going to see on Thursday night, she has the ability to be dominant.

Because the format allows for very little give-and-take between Palin and Joe Biden, her "values"-oriented debating style stands a good chance of succeeding. The central feature of her debate style is that rather than getting bogged down in facts and specifics, she instead says what she is for and what she is against using terms like "healthier," "stronger," "more prosperous," and "fairer."

Andrew Halcro, who has debated her, explains his experiences debating Palin:

I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.
That sounds like a backhanded compliment, and perhaps it is, but that doesn't change the fact that Palin's debating style works, as you can see for yourself in this video that I edited together.

For the video, I looked at her past debates and randomly grabbed six answers that I thought were pretty good. These weren't cherry-picked answers, they were just the first six answers that I thought she handled effectively. (I only rejected one answer in which I felt she was too defensive about her experience.)

Given the debate's format on Thursday night, I expect Palin will do just fine. I will be quite surprised if she gets caught off guard or has a moose-in-headlights moment.

I don't think she'll display much in the way of specifics, but she will get the values-oriented language right, and that should be good enough at least for a draw, and that will mean she beats expectations.

Of course, the real political issue in the debate isn't whether or not Palin meets or beats expectations, it's whether she is able to make a case for John McCain that John McCain hasn't yet been able to make for himself.

That's something no vice presidential candidate in history has been able to do, and should serve as a reminder that in the end, this election is still between Barack Obama and John McCain.
Sarah Palin might not give a good interview, and John McCain's advisers might not trust her to give a press conference, but... more