Thursday night’s Vice-Presidential debate pits a first term governor against a 35-year veteran of the Senate, who is a foreign policy expert to boot. That lowers expectations for Sarah Palin all by itself. But then the Democrats (with the help of some Republicans), may have lowered them even more. Did the GOP do a rope-a-dope? From the L.A. Times.
But have Palin’s Democratic opponents overplayed their hand in portraying the 44-year-old mother of five so derisively in recent days?
Was John McCain manager Steve Schmidt’s puzzingly strong attack on the New York Times last week really a trap, an intentional bid to call even more attention to negative coverage of Palin to lower expectations? . . .
The upcoming downside for the Obama-Biden campaign is that its supporters became so flustered over Palin’s surprisingly explosive popularity coming out of the GOP convention. They have so successfully mocked, derided and lowered expectations for Palin in Thursday night’s VP debate that if she doesn’t drool or speak in tongues, many millions still open to persuasion will be impressed.
Al Gore’s campaign made the exact same mistake going into the 2000 debates. So all Texas Gov. George W. Bush had to do was not lose.
In that sense Democrats may have played right into a PR cul-de-sac. Biden, for instance, described Palin as merely better-looking than him. A far better communications strategy would have been to insincerely portray Palin with superlatives as a superwoman, make it harder, not easy, for her to impress. Too late now.
It is significant that the debate will be televised live. Had Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson been live, ABC would not have been able to selectively broadcast incomplete answers out of context. Sarah Palin also doesn’t speak in sound bites, which is a useful skill to dodge partisan newsroom editors, but is a waste of time for a normal person to learn. The live debate will offer a chance for her personality to shine through over a longer period of time.
And while she may not have much experience speaking in sound-bites to major network news anchors, she does have experience debating political rivals. And what is the one lesson those vanquished political rivals warn about?
Don’t underestimate Sarah Palin. Democrats in Alaska learned this lesson the hard way.
Can the Republicans really use national novice Sarah Palin to juice the doddering McCain campaign all the way to the White House?
You bet, warn Alaska Democrats. They’ve seen this movie before.
“Her campaign locked her in a closet during the governor’s race in 2006 — and they’re doing the same thing now,” said one longtime Democratic consultant here, who like many others asked to remain anonymous because “it’s a small state and Sarah takes names and numbers.”
“They’re setting a trap for the country,” he continued. “Keep her away from the press, while they set up these phony ‘tests’ for her. The first test was her speech before the Republican convention. They spread all this nervous chatter about her — is she ready for prime time, can she pull it off?
“But all Alaskans knew she would do fine. She was a TV sportscaster, for God’s sake. And of course a telegenic star was born.”
Veteran Democratic operatives in Alaska admit Palin took them completely off-guard when she burst into the state’s spotlight during the gubernatorial campaign.
“She didn’t have any major backers, she seemed to come out of nowhere,” said Bill Parker, a former state legislator and deputy commissioner of corrections. “People in Anchorage tend to think of people from Wasilla as toothless hicks, living on dope and poached moose. But she came out of nowhere and beat us like a drum.”
Joe McKinnon, another longtime activist in Democratic state politics and a former assistant state attorney general, agreed: “We all dismissed her as a cheerleader. But she turned out to be a point guard. It’s real easy to underestimate her.”
But despite these warnings the libs keep on moving the bar lower and lower. Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria, thinks McCain needs to dump her now.
Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, “to spend more time with her family”? . . .
Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start.
Love that elitist little dig. He apparently knows what Sarah Palin has, or has not, been thinking about over the course of her entire life.
Keep it up fellas, that hole in your foot ought to heal up by January.
But have Palin’s Democratic opponents overplayed their hand in portraying the 44-year-old mother of five so derisively in recent days?
Was John McCain manager Steve Schmidt’s puzzingly strong attack on the New York Times last week really a trap, an intentional bid to call even more attention to negative coverage of Palin to lower expectations? . . .
The upcoming downside for the Obama-Biden campaign is that its supporters became so flustered over Palin’s surprisingly explosive popularity coming out of the GOP convention. They have so successfully mocked, derided and lowered expectations for Palin in Thursday night’s VP debate that if she doesn’t drool or speak in tongues, many millions still open to persuasion will be impressed.
Al Gore’s campaign made the exact same mistake going into the 2000 debates. So all Texas Gov. George W. Bush had to do was not lose.
In that sense Democrats may have played right into a PR cul-de-sac. Biden, for instance, described Palin as merely better-looking than him. A far better communications strategy would have been to insincerely portray Palin with superlatives as a superwoman, make it harder, not easy, for her to impress. Too late now.
It is significant that the debate will be televised live. Had Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson been live, ABC would not have been able to selectively broadcast incomplete answers out of context. Sarah Palin also doesn’t speak in sound bites, which is a useful skill to dodge partisan newsroom editors, but is a waste of time for a normal person to learn. The live debate will offer a chance for her personality to shine through over a longer period of time.
And while she may not have much experience speaking in sound-bites to major network news anchors, she does have experience debating political rivals. And what is the one lesson those vanquished political rivals warn about?
Don’t underestimate Sarah Palin. Democrats in Alaska learned this lesson the hard way.
Can the Republicans really use national novice Sarah Palin to juice the doddering McCain campaign all the way to the White House?
You bet, warn Alaska Democrats. They’ve seen this movie before.
“Her campaign locked her in a closet during the governor’s race in 2006 — and they’re doing the same thing now,” said one longtime Democratic consultant here, who like many others asked to remain anonymous because “it’s a small state and Sarah takes names and numbers.”
“They’re setting a trap for the country,” he continued. “Keep her away from the press, while they set up these phony ‘tests’ for her. The first test was her speech before the Republican convention. They spread all this nervous chatter about her — is she ready for prime time, can she pull it off?
“But all Alaskans knew she would do fine. She was a TV sportscaster, for God’s sake. And of course a telegenic star was born.”
Veteran Democratic operatives in Alaska admit Palin took them completely off-guard when she burst into the state’s spotlight during the gubernatorial campaign.
“She didn’t have any major backers, she seemed to come out of nowhere,” said Bill Parker, a former state legislator and deputy commissioner of corrections. “People in Anchorage tend to think of people from Wasilla as toothless hicks, living on dope and poached moose. But she came out of nowhere and beat us like a drum.”
Joe McKinnon, another longtime activist in Democratic state politics and a former assistant state attorney general, agreed: “We all dismissed her as a cheerleader. But she turned out to be a point guard. It’s real easy to underestimate her.”
But despite these warnings the libs keep on moving the bar lower and lower. Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria, thinks McCain needs to dump her now.
Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, “to spend more time with her family”? . . .
Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start.
Love that elitist little dig. He apparently knows what Sarah Palin has, or has not, been thinking about over the course of her entire life.
Keep it up fellas, that hole in your foot ought to heal up by January.
