Could the bar be set any lower?
Thursday night is rapidly approaching, and I must confess to conflicting emotions. One the one hand, I fully expect Sarah Palin to be a complete disaster. On the other hand, so does everyone else.
So, how does Joe Biden handle the situation of being on stage with a person who has no right to be there? I’d advise against the McCain approach of completely ignoring your debate partner even though Joe would have every right to view Sarah Palin with contempt. Maybe his best approach would simply be to give Palin enough rope and hope that her debate performance mimics the Gibson and Couric interviews.
But what worries me most is how much of a curve will the media grade Palin? And is it fair to hold one VP candidate to higher standards than another? Will one gaffe by Joe Biden carry more weight than fifty by Palin? Does she win simply by not blinking?
Does the VP debate even take place?
Ah, my paranoia rears its head. See, I haven’t forgotten that McCain’s stunts from last week had more to do with canceling the VP debate than with putting “Country First”. And I’d be foolish in assuming the strategy has changed. So, how does camp McCain get “I can see Russia from my house” Sarah out of debating Joe Biden? Laryngitis?
Of course, there’s also been a lot of talk about Palin dropping out. I’m having a hard time envisioning this scenario. I mean, she can’t cite family reasons. If an infant with Down Syndrome and a pregnant teen wasn’t enough to discourage her to begin with…
Did I mention I was conflicted? Honestly, the McCain campaign has been a harrowing, haphazard experience. Nothing is off the table when it comes to their shenanigans. There are simple no rules. Kinda gives you an insight on how they’d govern.
So in the end, I’m ready – Ready for the debate that may, or may not, happen with a Republican VP candidate who may, or may not, be on the ticket in November. Regardless, I’ve bought the popcorn.
Tags: 2008 Presidential, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin
Palin dropping out would be Thomas Eagleton all over again. It would kill McCain’s campaign.
There is also a thought that Palin’s disasterous CBS interview with Katie Couric was intentional, so as to lower expectations so much that if Palin shows up and speaks in complete sentences it would be a landslide victory for her.
That is my paranoia.
The debate cannot be cancelled. Sarah Palin cannot be dropped from the ticket.
Biden’s camp should start putting out press releases that state that they will be at the debate and will take the stage no matter what.
Create a buzz around the fact that Palin is considering dropping out, even if she isn’t.
Every Obama/Biden surrogate, when asked about the debate, should preface every comment with, “Joe Biden thinks that it is very important for Americans to hear directly from the candidates. “
The kind of wingnut stupidity displayed by Palin in her Gibson and Couric interviews cannot be faked, it must come from the heart.
The debate format gives her a chance at appearing sane, since all she has to do is deliver a set of short speeches.
Under the format, each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to a question, followed by a two-minute discussion. That is tighter than Friday’s presidential encounter, when the candidates had up to five minutes to mix it up. The shorter discussion period should favor Palin.
Biden’s only got about a minute to figure out how to counter whatever ludicrous assertion she puts out in her 90 seconds, and also ask her a good follow-up question that will elicit the kind of nutjob responses we saw on the Gibson/Couric interviews.
Pandora: I disagree slightly. The strategy wasn’t to cancel the VP debate. It was to move the spotlight off the Couric interview in the first place. Remember, they knew what CBS had in the can; we didn’t. So they needed a distraction before we found out.
Fortunately, Tina Fey rode to the rescue. If you haven’t seen her and Amy Poehler re-enact the excruciating experience, go to NBC.com
Geezer, I think the strategy was multi-purpose.
1. Try and make Obama cancel the debate, or risk being called unpatriotic.
2. Bury the Couric interview.
3. Move the canceled Presidential debate to the VP debate slot which would a.) result in the VP debate being scrapped, or b.) give Palin more time to prepare.
Loved the SNL skit. Fey is brilliant. Honestly, in the eyes of most Americans, the two most damaging things from last week were Fey and Letterman. Sad, but true.
I think the expectations for Palin have been set absurdly low. She is going to 6 days of debate cram school, so I expect her to be full of soundbites for the debate, and the short format favors that. So, Joe has to be careful not to look contemptuous like McCain did and not to look condescending. I think Biden is taking this very seriously because I read that Hillary is helping with debate prep.
So, I think Joe has to avoid saying “you do not understand” or “you are naive” and instead say “you are wrong” and “you are mistaken.”
Pandora, I totally agree about Fey and Letterman standing out. The truth is, most people won’t watch the whole debate debacle, if they watch any of it. Most of the electorate waits for the media to tell them what happened and what they should think about it over the next few days. Sad, but true, indeed.
I bet she will be wearing a wire somewhere in that hair helmet… remember the square lump in Bush’s back?
edisonkitty, is right — many folks are listening to the media filter and spin and not digesting this info for themselves.
And I’d agree that the expectations have been set low, but now I think that the expectations are shifting to just avoiding disaster. If she come across better than the Couric interviews, the press makes that the winning spin.
I may be the only person in the world not too worried about Joe Biden. His issue in a debate format is not really gaffes, it is long-windedness. I saw most of the Dem debates he was in and he did awfully well in all of them.
“Joe would have every right to view Sarah Palin with contempt.”
He has the right to view her with contempt? Why exactly?
I think some of the folks here are dumber than a bag of rocks with regards to their political insights, but that doesn’t mean I view them with contempt. Biden has no right to treat her with disrespect even if he sincerely believes she has no right to be on stage.
Biden has an affinity for showing a lack of class. I hope we get to see that on full display again in this debate.
Don’t know if you’ve noticed… the entire country (if not the world), except for the hopeless dead enders, view Palin with contempt. She’s a joke. Everyone knows it, even if some won’t admit it.
What are “meth eyes”? A client of mine said Palin has “meth eyes”. I just chuckled. Can anyone elaborate?
It’s reached the point where even Democrats feel sorry for her. The GOP has basically sacrificed her career for a month of support for McCain.
Meth Eyes are wide & “thousand-yard stare-ish”, and usually accompanied by a beautiful British smile….
For those who are unfamiliar, Mike likes to make shit up.
Von likes to bitch and complain about comments he doesn’t like rather than actually addressing them, though he’s certainly not the worst offender in that regard.
Howie Kurtz wrote yesterday in the WaPo that journalists are telling him that they are holding back on their criticism of Palin for fear of being seen as piling on. Pretty remarkable. Are there any circumstances where the press would hold back on a Democrat like that? But what was really interesting about Kurtz’s article is that apparently CBS has more — potentially more embarrassing — segments of their Palin interview that haven’t aired.
Good. The WaPo is an embarrasment. They don’t even pretend to be objective. It’s about time they hold back a bit on the Republican / Conservative bashing.
No Mike I am the worst Offender in that regard. I believe that any time you post here your brain must be out to lunch. In fact Mike I just finish watching The Sarah skit on SNL which was based on her CBS interview and her statements are as disjointed as your post.
TalkingPointsMemo has confirmed with CBS hat they do indeed have more interview segments and they will be airing them in the runup to the debate.
In the You Knew This Would Happen Category — TPM also has video of the McCain camp (abetted by their PR network) calling out Gwen Ifil for her questions (now!?) and ramping up the victimhood.
“The WaPo is an embarrasment. They don’t even pretend to be objective. It’s about time they hold back a bit on the Republican / Conservative bashing.”
You’re really on nonexistent ice now. WaPo in general, and Kurtz in particular, have been major enablers of the Bush administration’s policies on terror, Iraq, domestic surveillance, a whole host of issues.
Pandora wrote:
Governor Palin has no right to be there? She’s the elected governor of a state, and the Republican vice presidential nominee: that gives her the right to be there.
Mike – you said that Biden has an ‘affinity’ to show a lack of class.
Do you even know what the word ‘affinity’ means?
So, I guess, you are saying that Biden likes to show a lack of class….ok, fine. But I’ll bet almost everyone with a proper-working brain (left & right) will disagree with your assessment.
Sean at 538 offers good advice.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/memo-to-joe-biden-let-palin-talk.html
And then there’s this little nugget from the 538 article:
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people
are more than concerned about Palin.
The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”
Dana, McCain gave her the right to be there, and he will be judged on that decision.
Drama on House floor… bailout did not get enough votes to pass, Pelosi is holding the vote open while armtwisting occurs…
“Dana, McCain gave her the right to be there, and he will be judged on that decision.”
As will the Dems who gave Obama the “right” to be there.
Fine by me.
Awesome!