That’s how many people thought Palin did better than expected last night. Count me among them. When expectations were so incredibly low (think having to reach up to touch bottom) and when what you expected was a blithering idiot who couldn’t piece together a coherent thought to save her life, then you could hardly do worse than expected.
84%
This post is in: Election 2008
DBrown
McCains bid for the presidency is now toast. Palin was a mindless talking point machine that proved that she knows less than the sum of her words. The WP right wing writer Krauthammer wrote an interesting article on how Obama will win and why. Palin has proven McCain’s ability to make the wrong choice every time. As McCain sinks along with his doomed party, lets not forget how and why the American ship of State is also sinking – we were bushwhacked by greed and lies. Obama will never be able to fully right this ship but at least, after eight dark years, we will finally have a captain that can get us out of the storm.
JGabriel
All over the blogosphere there’s commentary that Palin "exceeded expcectations". I don’t get it. Everyone expected a "trainwreck", and she didn’t deliver.
Nervous, clumsily flirtatious, mediocrity is not "exceeding expectations". It’s par.
CBS polled uncommitted voters on the results of the VP debate; 46% said Biden won, 33% said it was tied, and 21% said Palin won.
Think about that for a moment:
In a two person contest, Palin came in third.
George Bush’s lowest ever approval rating, as far as I know, has been 22%.
That means more people approve of the job George Bush is doing on his worst day, than thought Sarah Palin won this debate.
.
DrDave
Not a blithering idiot but I hope to God the voters send her back to Alaska. I’m not sure I would want her to be president of our local PTO (dinosaurs and man walked the earth together 5000 years ago???); she did nothing to convince me that the prospect her her being elected VP shouldn’t scare the shit out of me.
It would have also been nice if she had actually answered some of the questions Ifill asked her rather than reading the talking points from her cue cards regardless of their relevance to what was asked. Ifill should have done more to try to force her back to topic but that doesn’t seem to be the way that these events are supposed to roll.
wvng
To the BJ crowd, I just posted over at Swampland that you have a redesign and new server and your site is stable. Congratulations on the success of your transformation.
And congratulations to Sarah, who did not say anything but at least didn’t end up running off the stage crying.
PaulW
Do note that 84 percent ‘exceeded expectations’ is going to be Palin’s only positive numbers for the debate. In nearly every other stat, Biden won.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
yeah, I think this was really successful…
;)
Comrade Napoleon
She lost the debate. Sure, she didn’t fall of the front of the stage or wet herself, so in a manner of speaking she exceeded expectations, but the difference between her and Biden was stunning. Now she will fade into the background down the stretch while all guns now focus on Johnny Drama.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I think Palin exceeded the lowest expectations, but still only scored a C+. Isolate the question asked and her response to just the question and you’ll see that she wasn’t much more than a Chatty Kathy doll capable of yanking her own string.
When all the work you’ve turned in the last two weeks has been graded F, a C+ seems like tremendous improvement. If Palin can just avoid answering a real question the rest of the way she just may be able to maintain that C+ aura.
strawmanmunny
What does it say about our country, that someone running for Vice-President can "exceed" expectations just by reciting talking points,winking at the camera, and being "adorable"? I mean, really, folks. Where is the bigotry of low expectations now?
After 8 years of that crap(even Bush winks), isn’t it about time for the American people to step up and become adults?
jon
I know this blog comment is supposed to be on Sarah Palin’s expectations but first let me tell you about my evening.
I watched a good part of the debate but had conflicting plans, so I instead saw a live music performance with Iron and Wine and Swell Season. For Iron and Wine I had very low expectations, since Sam Beam’s songs tend to be well-played borefests of competent songwriting with a hook every twelve minutes or so. Though he did have an impressive beard: an owl and a wren, two larks and all that.
Swell Season was awesome! And Glen Hansard (name? spelling?) made a homespunny joke regarding the use of "awesome" back in Ireland, and he made many later jokes about Irish affinities toward the use of "fuck" in everyday speech. His guitar was that same banged up, worn out thing he’s been carrying around for years, which reminds me of a certain politician who carries around a tired old Senator from Connecticut as a security blanket (and probably has similar issues with dry heat.) Anyway: tremendous band, great Czech pianist, and a guest appearance (he appeared with Iron and Wine, too, but who cared?) by Joey Burns of Calexico to sing "That Auld Triangle" along with Glen and the audience.
Iron and Wine weren’t quite as boring as advertised, so it’s obvious that they won the evening. Too bad that flashy upstart band from Ireland will be forgotten by noon today.
In that same way, Sarah Palin won a tremendous victory over her own incompetence.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Apparently the server and template updates includes a surname for Michael. Nice one!
Comrade jvill
As Laurence O’Donnell said today on MSNBC’s (painful) Mornin’ Joe…
The goal of a debate is supposed to be that you confidently beat your opponent…
… Not that you narrowly avoided catastrophic implosion.
A debate, mind you, with virtually no follow-up questions, which is where nearly all of Palin’s fumbles occur.
Comrade Grand Panjandrum
She helped herself a bit. She did nothing for McCain. That was her job and she failed miserably at the one task assigned to her. It was a nothing night except to confirm to reasonable people that John McCain does not deserve to be President. He’s wrong on the issues and his waiting until the train is about to run off the tracks so he can parachute in to rescue us from DANGER management style is not a choice most of us would prefer. We’ve had a stumbling, bumbling and mumbling fool using a similar style for eight years. His "daring and bold" choice for VP has absolutely no grasp of the important issues of the day. It is difficult to know if I disagree with her (or maybe HOW MUCH I disagree with her) because most of the babbling was utterly incoherent.
Take heart my fellow MUP worshipers: Obama will be 44.
stew
The most surprising non-question of the night: Abortion!
I was extremely surprised that with a woman candiate and the fact that the two opponents are so far apart on the issue, that abortion wasn’t an issue!
Also, on the issue of "Obama voting to not fund the troops" ,Biden’s answer was very good, but would have been better if he addressed the intention of the attack…which is to paint Obama as someone who basically wants the troops to die from a lack of bullets, armor, etc.
He should have addressed that as a clear example of Karl Rove-divise politics of the past.
cleek
just heard on the radio that Palin is coming to NC to give a speech – her first. how exciting! for her. Obama is here all the time; i’d guess a dozen times since the primaries started – three times in the last two weeks. Michelle Obama, too, has been here pretty much constantly.
McCain hasn’t been here once. no wonder he’s losing it.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
The Debate Thread 2 page is hosed. Huge black space won’t allow me to post, so I’ll put this here:
Great Uncle Bulgaria on GOS sums up what happened last night:
kommrade jakevich
After being wiped out by Couric, "exceeded expectations," meant Palin wasn’t wearing her panties on her head when she walked out on stage.
But she was still fucking awful. "Heck! Maybe if I talk a bit faster, though, I’ll sound more convincing also doggone it. But!"
And that answer about the VP’s role. Wow.
WOW.
That was 84% worse than I expected.
You’d think after she said she wasn’t sure what the VP did, someone at Camp McPOW would have taken her aside and at least explained the basics.
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
She did well by not answering questions.
She did well because there were no follow ups like:
1. What are these ‘blunders’ of the Bush Admin that you talked about?
2. How flexible is the clause ‘separate but coequal’ branches of government or is this the same forefathers who put ‘one nation under god’ in the pledge of allegiance?
3. What’s up with troopergate?
She did well because the McCain campaign put the moderator on notice about her bias.
She did well because Joe Biden NOT ONCE criticized her record or statements because he didn’t and couldn’t come off as sexist.
She did well because we are used to GW for the last eight years.
Anyone who wants ‘Joe-Six-Pack’ running the White House might as well elect Will Ferrell. He’s funny.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Michigan has been dismissed and now they are going to concentrate on NC – they are running around like chickens with heads cut off, very amusing.
mannemalon
This was the night summed up.
Absolutely pathetic. A mockery of our political process and country as a whole.
Richardson
She beat expectations in as much as people are more angry at her performance than they are rolling on the floor with laugher. She’s was more annoying than hysterical, but that probably counts as a win for her. She dodged being the punchline to a national joke this morning. For Team McCain, I’d think they count that as beating expectations.
TheFountainHead
I said some very bad things about that woman last night. Very bad things. But the best part is, I didn’t have to sleep on the couch afterwards.
ET
My best friend and I were on the phone for a good bit of the debate and she was slowly being driven insane but Palin’s winking and blinking. She said that if the bangs were so long the were causing her problems then someone on the staff should have brought a pair of scissors.
e.c.
i thought it was fascinating to watch her become more and more like tina fey’s characture of her as the evening wore on. especially her tendancy to "go cute" the more rattled she becomes. for me, it just seemed a lot of chatter and flash and looked like so much hookum that wasn’t at all genuine. especially after biden choked up and showed what real emotion looks like.
Comrade Peter J
Rampant, like herpes…but for positive.
4tehlulz
Her reaction to Biden talking about his family at the end bordered on inhuman; even fucking Bush or Cheney might, you know, show a little humanity then.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if she gets anywhere near the nuclear football, we are doomed.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Linus and his security blanket named Joe Lieberman, awwww, how cute! ;)
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Obama has an ad out already on McCain’s health plan using clips from last night’s debate. I think this might work pretty well.
jrg
I am so sick of the GOP claiming that we can just drill our way out of the energy crisis. Do voters have any idea how much more oil we consume than we can extract? Do voters understand that the market for oil is efficient and global, and that unless we nationalize (socialize) drilling, we’re never going to be able to get oil for less than everyone else on the planet (even then, we’d be blackballed by OPEC and that would drive prices up further).
Peak oil and the energy crisis are serious stuff. We’d be a lot further along in dealing with the crisis if the GOP wouldn’t tout out "experts" who lie to Americans.
Yes, I’m talking about Palin
dmsilev
Yeah, that really stood out for me as well. Joe Biden chokes up remembering the tragedy that took his first wife and his daughter, and nearly took his two sons as well. Sarah Palin’s reaction is to talk about how mavericky John McCain is, reading right off cue card #1.
-dms
Margarita
I confess that I did not expect the winking. I hate winking.
JGabriel
Circvs Maximvs MMVIII:
If you’re a Republican presidential candidate, and you’re concentrating on winning North Carolina, you’ve already lost.
.
Dennis - SGMM
I just couldn’t do it. Ninety minutes of That Voice was too much to bear. I thank all of you who did watch for sharing your observations.
It’s certain that some elements of the Right will characterize Palin’s performance as a win. They’re the same people who feel that the absence of a Custer-style massacre in either Iraq or Afghanistan is a win as well.
Here’s a post-debate drinking game: take a drink every time you hear or read "Palin’s surge is working!"
JGabriel
Margarita:
You can get away with a gesture like that once during a debate. It can be used as a cute or humorous punctuation to some rhetoric, drawing in the audience.
Palin did it, like what, three or four times?
At that point, it begins to look like a facial tic.
.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
You know that, and I know that, but apparently nobody in the McCain campaign knows that. ;)
b. hussein canuckistani (comrade)
I was also really bugged by that. A decent politician can at least put up a pretence of compassion. I guess not rolling her eyes and saying "whatever!" is all we can hope for there.
Zifnab
I do appreciate how the media is phrasing this as "Did Sarah Palin exceed expectations" and not "Did Sarah Palin attract any undecided voters". Because, let’s face it, the end goal of this debate was for Sarah not to completely embarrass herself and her party. Her litmus test was "Fuck up / Don’t fuck up" and she exceeded expectations by parroting the GOP line like a good little trooper. But the majority of American voters aren’t for the GOP line. She might as well have been a Green or a Libertarian for all her speech did her actual electoral chances.
Punchy
Maybe I’m the only one, but I though she was ruthlessly condencending (sp?) in her mannerisms. The smiling-while-insulting is something only smug, self-righteous jackasses can pull off. I’ve never been so turned off to a person (VP candy not withstanding) than her.
She acted as if she belonged on stage. But she doesn’t.
comrade chopper
well, it was a car wreck instead of a trainwreck. great news for palin.
it’s like the pres. debate. mccain had such a shitty week he really needed to mop the floor with obama just to convince people that he wasn’t an idiot. that’s what happens when the momentum is against you and you act like a crazy man on the campaign trail.
same thing here. she needed to really shine just to get everyone to ignore the mountains of evidence that she’s a moron. she didn’t.
this debate performance will do little to help mccain’s numbers. shit, the fact that mccain’s campaign now has to play the post-debate spin game on certain issues (bankruptcy, civil unions) that she cocked up the answers on means mccain couldn’t get the momentum back if he tried.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Or a ploy. Either way, problematic.
Colonel Danite
You are being way too kind but I suppose that there are many in the nation that are being just as generous. All Palin did was give 12 little prepared speeches. McCain’s handlers probably wrote up answers to 2 or 3 dozen likely questions and then had Palin practice them over and over. Of course, the ditz gave away the tactic by announcing that she wouldn’t answer the questions posed by the moderator anyway.
Bob In Pacifica
She lied a lot last night. By that measure she exceeded the number of lies and misstatements I thought she could squeeze into the debate.
What kind of pin did she have above her rhinestone flag pin?
ppcli
A couple of things:
.
a) Palin wasn’t as bad as she might have been had follow up questions been asked, but for me the real "expectations exceeder" was Biden. He was spectacular, especially toward the end. I had never seen Biden speak at length before. (I’ve been living in the States for many years but I’ve only really followed politics closely since I became a citizen last year.) I imagine it was the first introduction to Biden for many casual followers of politics, and he really helped ground the ticket. His discussion of his family was memorable, and Palin’s chipper response was jarringly devoid of humanity.
.
b) About halfway through the debate, my twelve year old said "She’s not answering *any* of the questions!". I told him "I know, and when I was your age it would drive me crazy when politicians would do that. But I’ve never seen a politician get called for it, so I’ve just learned to swallow my irritation." About a half-hour later he said the same thing again, and I gave the same response. But amazingly, I keep reading pundits and blog commentators who were *really* irritated by it this time. Finally! Maybe coming straight out and announcing that she wasn’t going to answer any questions she don’t want to answer was a bit too much even for a jaded public.
comrade chopper
the winking was nutty. it’s like she was trying to pick america up at a bar.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I think the reason why people are noticing is because she’s not a Washington insider, so she needs to prove she knows more than we would expect from an insider. Her "small town mayor" persona is a major setback for the campaign in that she can’t learn the jargon and fool us the way others do.
Oh, and you have one smart kid there.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
That was the intention. The whore of "Babble On!" ;)
charlotte
Exceeding expectations by 84% means you’ve already lost.
comrade chopper
i loved her response to biden’s choking up about his family. whether his moment was scripted or not, her response was so fuckin’ stupid i couldn’t believe it.
the lies to nowhere
It only goes downhill from here for McPalin.
Dennis - SGMM
And the rest of us as well. McCain’s "The fundamentals of the economy are strong," and Gramms "Nation of whiners" remark are going to bury McCain/Palin.
Krugman’s blog post this morning:
A grim morning
Double plus ungood news on multiple fronts this morning. The credit crunch is getting worse: LIBOR jumped again, the TED spread is at a new record. Bad news on employment: payrolls down 159,000, average work week down, official unemployment rate flat at 6.1 percent but broad measure (U6) up from 10.7 to 11.
We are going over the edge.
Not My Fault
Yes, she was much better than that lady who showed up for the Couric interviews. In that way she exceeded expectations, no question.
Yes, the MSM is spinning "exceeds expectations" to "held her own." Bummer. The MSM can suck sometimes, but they aren’t really in the tank for anyone. They are just twisted by their medium where the reality of a situation needs to be boiled down to a single headline. Truth will always be the casualty.
Yes, I thought Biden was clearly, unquestionably, unmistakably, better. (I have really been liking Biden since he took the VP slot)
Yes, I’m sure Michelle Malkin thinks Palin was clearly, unquestionably, unmistakably, better. (I haven’t bothered to look)
This wasn’t a game changer. This debate didn’t have any moment to swing decided votes. So both my and Malkin’s opinions are pointless.
The only opinions of the debate that are at all interesting are among undecideds.
Everything I see this morning says that either undecideds broke even, or they broke for Biden.
That is the reality. That NEEDS to be the narrative that sticks. Everything else is noise.
mannemalon
I couldn’t believe she actually corrected Biden that it was "Drill Baby Drill" not "Drill Drill Drill".
Then I realized that she was probably extremely excited that she could actually refute something he said for once. The entire debate Biden would attack McCain’s positions/policies and all Palin could do was smile, and then go to the note card that had the closest relation to some word he used.
By any objective standards, this thing was a blowout of epic proportions. One candidate who can clearly be President of the USA versus someone who so thinly knows the issues that she has to answer her own questions, often times completely unrelated to the actual question being asked, with entirely rehearsed, canned responses.
She is so pathetic, lowered the bar so much for herself, that she is not judged against the standard of someone running for the highest office. She’s judged against herself. She’s treated like someone who’s won "America’s Next VP" where the prize is being John McCain’s runningmate. The regular citizen who is thrusted into the Presidential race. By that standard she’s doing a good job.
Punchy
Can anyone link to this youtube-ally? I missed it
cleek
Nailin Paylin!
Drill, baby, drill.
South of I-10
Was there a debate? Through my wine induced haze, I saw a fake folksy lady spewing repub talking points and not actually responding to anything in any sort of meaningful way. I was talking to some people in my office this morning, and even the ones who are supposed to like her were annoyed by the down home girl routine. She is the VP candidate – we should be able to have expectations above knowing she will make the car pool on time.
AkaDad
As a completely non-biased independent, who obviously has no horse in this race, I must say that Joe Biden sucked ass and Sarah Palin clearly gave one of the best debate performances that I’ve ever seen, perhaps the greatest in history.
I was leaning towards Obama, but I’m going to switch from registered Independent to Republican today.
DougJ
Yes a blithering idiot. Her answers made no sense. The only reason she didn’t look worse is that there were no follow-up questions.
kilo
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
Well played!
Krista
I confess to not having watched either debate. I’m glad I was spared watching Palin, and closer to home, I already know for whom I voting, so the debates would have just been a pointless exercise.
So I did some knitting instead. Much better for my blood pressure.
Krista
Holy crap, we can edit our posts now? Sweet!
zzyzx
I actually thought that she didn’t meet my expectations. With the debate format being what it would, I figured she wouldn’t have any meltdowns and would have a couple of prepared, funny zingers to attack Biden with. Instead it was forgettable except for a few minor meltdowns (the nuclear weapon question), one gaffe (bankruptcy bill) and one moment of bizareeness (shout out to her friend’s class).
cleek
here ya go
ksmiami
Speaking as a woman, I found her a lightweight, insulting, overly hammish and I don’t really like her voice. Her flirtyness with the audience seemed tacky and inappropriate and her non response to Biden’s family tragedy made her a bit less human. I think even Bush would have made a more gracious overture. I told my spouse that I bet men liked her more and women like Biden more. Biden makes me feel secure – Her, not so much, but I will wait for the peanut gallery to give me feedback and I am a coastal elite, so what do I know, u betcha!
Punchy
@cleek: Wow. I forgot all about Biden’s loss. Yeah, she couldn’t jump in fast enough to hit another talking point. Callousness is putting it mildly.
Comrade Face
Doubt it. I got repremanded by the lady friend for calling her less-than-polite names. She pulled a stunt that drives guys insane–she would smirk while cutting down Obama (and sometimes Biden). A less-than-serious approach to the debate.
I doubt many independent men enjoyed this overt arrogance.
Justin
She was reading off of note cards. She has previously worked on TV. Why in the world did anyone think she couldn’t speak English? As to what she was supposed to do, answer questions about policy issues, she failed utterly.
cleek
i wanted to retch when she followed Biden’s story with that "Jahn Mikkaynes bin the consummit Maavrik" nonsense.
Comrade Ed Drone
Joe Biden’s failure was that he didn’t have one of those memorable encapsulating descriptions of his opponent, as he did in describing Rudy Giuliani — so I’ll offer mine:
Sara Palin in a nutshell:
A noun, a verb, and "Maverick, ya betcha!"
I think that pretty much covers it, ya know?
Tovarisch Ed
Zifnab
POW! MAVERICK! POW! MAVERICK!
If there’s one thing that wins an election in this country, it’s mindlessly harping on accolades you received between 4 and 40 years ago. That never ever gets old. Just ask Rudy 9/11ani
Bootlegger
Did anyone else pick up on her answer to the "2-state solution" question? First, she said she supported a 2-state solution (a very liberal position in Israel), then as she rambled on it was clear she had no idea what "2-state solution" refers to, she mentioned Egypt and Jordan as important partners but never mentioned the Palestinians!
Ths missus and I exchanged shocked looks several times last night and had to drink every time she didn’t answer a question and changed the subject. We went to bed a little buzzed still in disbelief that someone so clueless could be so close to the presidency.
comrade chopper
i know. biden really needed more of those moments during the debate – they showed that all she really is is just a talking points generator with nothing substantive to say.
i like how he got her to agree with his stance on bankruptcy and civil unions that way. mccain’s camp has to be spinning furiously over that shit.
Lab2112
It’s glaringly obvious that you white flag-waving surrendering defeatists were put off by a genuine example down-to-earth American values, Sarah Palin, which is why, in your flailing panic, you’re all desperate to find any faults with her winning performance in the VP debate.
Furthermore, what makes your unpatriotic bias so clear is how you’re willing to give a pass to that staggering fraud with the Cheshire cat grin, Joe Beltway Insider Biden.
Sarah Palin and John McCain represent the values and reform that real Americans have been eager for, whereas your cheering for the Traitor Team, Nobama and Lyin’ Biden is exactly what will drive our nation’s patriots to the polls in record numbers this November 4th and overwhelmingly vote for the winning leaders that truly represent Country First.
comrade chopper
lab, you forgot ‘libtards’.
comrade chopper
oh, and on the 84% – from TPM:
ouch. that’s the kind of fail that leaves a mark.
Not My Fault
As an aside, the debate format totally sucked. I think that the short answer format hurt them both and made it less a clash of ideas and more a clash of one liners. They BOTH struggled to pack 10 lbs of shit into each 5 lb bag of time that they were given.
If we are going to have another speed debate, I think that they need to have one of those chess clocks in the middle and each candidate will hit it when they finish speaking on at topic. No less dignified and it allows the audience at home to play along too!
As an aside to my aside, I don’t think Biden knew he was on camera when Palin was speaking. He made some pretty funny faces. In reality, it was clear that he was just keeping loose, and preparing to talk without pause when his turn came. I hope a narrative of "Biden was making faces at Palin" doesn’t emerge.
ksmiami
All I can say is Thanks To John Cole and Balloon Juice for "Being there". I don’t think this election would be survivable without BJ.
cleek
lab reminds me: i need to re-do my pie filter to deal with the new layout.
D-Chance.
Ditto for the Michael D/Tim F "stooge" filter that ImJohnGalt wrote… the stooges are making reappearances after the changeover.
JGabriel
Justin:
Because we’ve only heard her speak Gibberish.
.
nicethugbert
My pocket lint for a follow up question!
Bill H
How many picked up on the "move our embassy to Jerusalem" bit? Was that her Christianist fundamentalism at work? Can she do that with her expanded power of the Vice-Presidency and piss off the entire Arab world?
cleek
that was a real dog-whistle. i have no idea what she was talking about there.
Soylent Green
So Palin successfully read a stack of index cards to the nation. But they still aren’t going to let her anywhere near reporters.
jake
Was it my over-heated imagination or did her "Thank you’s" after the debate sound like a beauty contestant who has just won the shiny tiara and a dozen roses?
Also, thanks to the constant stream of hecks and doggone its, she now reminds me of Butters from South Park, which is foolish.
Because I know she is really a Day Walker.
Bootlegger
I thought lab2112 was more awesome satire. We’ve come full circle again eh?
Shade Tail
See, this is exactly why I have a major problem with such lowered expectations. We *should* expect, nay, **DEMAND** high performance of our politicos, and we should be surprised and offended when they fall short.
And this is exactly how I feel about Palin. The fact that she is such a joke should not make us shrug our shoulders and think, "eh, what did you expect?". I’m deeply offended that McCain chose this utterly incompetent hack as his running mate. For that matter, I’m deeply offended that the GOP chose that utterly incompetent (and very old) hack as their presidential candidate. I am pissed off about how so many people in our society celebrate mediocrity and incompetence, as if they simply can’t take the idea that there are people better than they are.
Me? I made my peace with that years ago. I’m pretty damn good with math and logical thinking, but when it comes to things like, oh, say, understanding art or complex foreign policy, I am happy to admit my limits. We need a president who excels, like Obama or Biden, not a worthless loser like McCain or Palin.
Zifnab
You’re such an elitist.
Xanthippas
Seriously. I expect the rubes who don’t spend their workday surreptitiously reading blogs to think that way, but the rest of us ought to have known that the format would allow her to not appear to be a moron. She did. So what? When the polls next week show McCain to be about where he has been, and Palin disappears into bars to have a drink with "Joe Sixpack" and never talk to a reporter again, her "success" in the debate last night will quickly be a thing of the past.
Crusty Dem
I’m just upset about the "Palin is Bush with Lipstick" or "Palin is Bush in a dress" comments. That’s not right, while she matches Bush in her general command of the facts and ability to complete sentences, she doesn’t even attempt any level of compassion or connecting with "regular people". A better analogy is "Cheney with a lobotomy". She reminds me of a local TV anchor prepped to debate in a week or two, which I think is pretty much what she is.
I expect they’ll limit her appearances in the future to a handful of joint appearances with McCain and a bunch of private fundraisers. No more 1 on 1 interviews with anyone to the left of Hannity, no more appearances where questions might have followups, and sure as hell no press conferences.
As far as "exceeding expectations", she could’ve gone on stage, rocked back and forth saying "10 minutes to Wapner, 10 minutes to Wapner" and gone over 50% in that poll..
Prematurely Grey
@cleek:
Hey there cleek,
I’m wondering where Palin’s speaking in NC. Just saw that Obama debate camp #2 will be in Asheville (my ancestral home, complete with mom, uncle and grandmother still living there).
And don’t bet against a surprise appearance by Johnny Drama. He doesn’t seem to like going anywhere without her these days.