at least the conservatives at the American Spectator blog are honest- this debate reaction is helping me get over the poll disappointment. Hopefully the new and deflated Sarah Palin will register negatively in public opinion before too long.
http://www.amspec.org/blogger.aspAwful Ad, Awful Palin - Friday, September 12, 2008 @ 1:56:26 PM
I have to agree with Phil that the McCain ad is just absolutely horrendous -- "pathetic," indeed. If I see one more attempt to play the victimized woman card, I might vomit. It's one thing to rightly fight back against outlandish media treatment, but to go around proactively seeking victimhood status even when the opponents haven't done anything obnoxious is, well, disgusting. And if they keep doing it, they will seriously overplay their hand and the backlash against them will be strong and swift. Over at The Corner Rich Lowy made the point I've been making on radio, which is that now that McCain has gotten a short-term benefit from Palin, he needs to shift his campaign back to real substance, on real issues where he holds a real political advantage over Obama. Right now his campaign is looking horrifically unserious, and that completely destroys McCain's biggest argument in his favor (if the campaign keeps this up).
Meanwhile, I also agree with Phil that from what I saw in the Palin interview with Gibson (and I saw only portions of what has been shown so far), she seemed terribly out of her element. She really did seem like somebody who had crammed for an exam at the last minute and was trying to remember what the "right" answers were instead of really knowing them. And unlike Stacy, I do not think she came across in any way that would be reassuring even to most of her own supporters. She needs to be far more impressive when the debate rolls around, and I don't mind saying that I am rooting for her to be so.
Posted By: Quin Hillyer
Re: Palin Wins - Friday, September 12, 2008 @ 1:30:48 PM
One should actually be all the more concerned about Jim Antle's use of the word, "tutor." The idea that the potential head of state will be receiving... tutoring? She will be the president of the Senate! Grammatically speaking, this interview reeks of disaster, the consequence, unfortunately, of nervousness. She sounds very similar to the Miss Teen USA from South Carolina. This doesn't mean she's stupid -- it just means that she's fantastically nervous. Wlady just pointed out that she prefers to just take the points from advisers and to work on them on her own. That's a mistake. She needs to spend time with her journalism-school trained journalists and have them ribbing her. She needs to get used to this. There need to be cameras. Lights. Uncomfortable chairs. I agree with Philip's concern about her inexperience on foreign policy, and further her lack of knowledge on national security. If McCain's supposed to be the foreign policy the-world-is-a-dangerous-place candidate, Palin needs to convey a better sense of what's going on, not simply the first principles.
Posted By: J.P. Freire
Re: Palin Wins - Friday, September 12, 2008 @ 11:50:59 AM
Unfortunately, the problems that were evident in Bush's debate responses came back to haunt us when it came to actual governing. In that sense, Palin's performance is not encouraging. Even those of us who think it would be a good thing if more politicians had never heard of the Bush Doctrine have reason to be concerned -- if she doesn't bring any prior knowledge to the table here, she is going to be very influenced by whomever the McCain campaign sends to tutor her.
Posted By: James Antle
Re: Palin - Friday, September 12, 2008 @ 11:03:29 AM
Stacy, maybe you're misunderstanding me. You may be right that her performance will prove good enough for swing voters, especially given that McCain will be at the top of the ticket. But I was criticizing conservatives who are actually defending her on substance. National security is of paramount importance to me, and for nearly eight years I've had to endure a president who is utterly incapable of clearly and intellegently articulating positions that I am inclined to agree with, so it bothers me that it's happening all over again. Palin is a politician who is going to do the best that she can in such interviews to get elected, and party members are going to fall in line to defend her. But conservative commentators actually have the freedom to be honest, if they choose to be, and so it's troubling to me that those who seriously debate and think about foreign policy and national security matters can watch that performance, and actually defend it, not just on whether it is effective enough politically, but on its substance.
Posted By: Philip Klein
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