Palin

[sleigh]

When McCain picked Palin as his running mate, and especially after her barn-burning speech to the heart of the Republican base at the convention, I was worried that this might have been a brilliant choice on the part of McCain. If he wins the election, her pick may still be pointed to as one of the best gambles in political history. But as I despaired, my good friend and fellow author (go buy his book!) davidbcoe remained less pessimistic. "She has plenty of time to implode," was his basic message to me.

I'm beginning to sense that David may well have been correct. I watched the Couric interview with Palin (the parts that have aired thus far) and it's apparent to me that while Palin can do a wonderful job of reading a prepared speech, she 1) doesn't have anywhere near the breadth and depth of knowledge for the job she's applying for, and 2) she isn't very good at speaking extemporaneously.

From the domestic policy interview:

Couric: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

Palin: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie - that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

Couric: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

Palin: He's also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about - the need to reform government.

Couric: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?

Palin: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.

Couric: I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.

Palin: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

From the foreign policy segment:

Couric: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada. It's funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don't know, you know … reporters.

Couric: Mocked?

Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

I have -- literally -- heard high school debaters who were more knowledgeable on their subject and who could speak far better. She may even be able to vault the high bar of Veep incompetence set by Dan Quayle.

This makes me think that Biden will have an even harder time in the debate not sounding condescending toward her -- he'll need to watch that. In the debate, in all likelihood, Palin will be spouting memorized speechlets and not speaking off-the-cuff, but if the moderator manages to nudge her off her memorized track, I don't know where she'll end up.

David, I'm thinking I'm beginning to share your optimism, my friend!

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

While searching for another link to the Alaska/Russia clip as the first one I posted didn't work for some people, I came across this one, which slightly shortens Palin's answer in order to show it back-to-back in the same video with the infamous clip of Miss Teen South Carolina's airhead answer to why she thinks one fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TL8RLiVFh4

There's also a rumor that senior McCain officials helping her prepare for the VP debate are freaking out at how clueless she is, but I've only seen it from one source: http://www.wegoted.com/

And I assume you've already seen that Kathleen Parker of The National Review, a former Palin supporter, is now saying that for the good of the party and the nation, she should withdraw her candidacy: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I did see the Parker column (first in the Washington Post, and then reproduced in our local paper). Amazing. Parker is as conservative as I am liberal, and yet she's saying that Palin needs to take herself out of the campaign. Wow.

Won't happen, though. It would be seen as a disastrous indication of McCain's judgment. No matter what excuse Palin would give as a reason to resign the nomination, everyone would know it's because she's not qualified.

Could be an interesting debate, if they can get her off the sequence of two-minute memorized speeches she's going give as her responses. Then again, you never know what Biden is going to say, either... :-)

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Won't happen, though. It would be seen as a disastrous indication of McCain's judgment. No matter what excuse Palin would give as a reason to resign the nomination, everyone would know it's because she's not qualified.

True, but I think that the people who aren't going to vote for him because he picked someone unqualified aren't going to change their minds about that whether he jettisons her or keeps her. If she resigns and he picks someone more qualified, he could pick up some votes from people who are seriously worried about her being VP and possibly P.

I agree with you that it's a very unlikely scenario, though.

Could be an interesting debate, if they can get her off the sequence of two-minute memorized speeches she's going give as her responses.

I do hope you caught the second Tina Fey SNL skit this week. It's even better than last week's and does a great take-off on her answer about Russia in the real Couric interview: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/27/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-k_n_129956.html

Then again, you never know what Biden is going to say, either... :-)

Poor Biden. Not only does he have to be careful about what he says for its own sake but he also has to walk a very thin line between not appearing to bully her and not appearing to condescend to her.