Tonight, as we all know, is the Vice-Presidential Debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Leading up to the debate, the press, following four interviews, has thrown a great deal of analysis and conjecture at Palin’s qualifications. Quite simply, with all of this recent analysis and abhorrent performances, I am concerned the bar has been set so low, her not calling for a bombing of China or a Supreme Religious Cleric leading the Federal Government would be considered a “Win.”
Watching her two tête-à-tête interviews with Couric were quite painful; the same with Charles Gibson’s. Moreover, the third interview with Katie Couric, where McCain sat next to her, and spoke on behalf of her qualifications, to me, seemed like a young woman’s father assisting his daughter during a college entrance interview. In short, the lead up has been rough, and the press, having been held off of her, cannot get enough of the stuff.
In short, here are my thoughts on the strategies of the two campaigns—the quick and dirty. For Obama and Biden, I believe with the economic turmoil and war, their strategy has been to lie low allowing the news to do most of their work for them. The Bush Administration and Republican Party have done so horribly in the past eight years, taking a step back will do nothing to damage the brand. In short, the country knows the DNC’s plank, and Obama’s supporters know where his campaign stands on things. Obama was doing most of his work this summer, and right now, his campaign is allowing the GOP fruit to eat itself.
For the McCain campaign, they went a surprise direction selecting Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska for VP Candidate. Governor Palin plays the part of being a Governor from the more “Libertarian” West with religious credentials to enliven the Religious Right, with which McCain has always struggled. Beyond that, she, like Bush, is an affable and photogenic candidate with youth on her side. In short, she makes up for what McCain is not.
However, there is a problem with Palin; she is as intellectually incurious as George W. Bush. Watching her on the Couric interviews and with Charles Gibson, one could liken her answers to questions like a doe in the headlights. Quite simply, our country has been duped twice by electing someone for whom study, foreign policy, and intellectualism are not interesting or worth knowing. With a current President who has only been duped by any and every policy salesperson with whom he has spoken, we cannot be ready to elect someone on a ticket making that same mistake again. Those are my hopes.
Of course, with their mastermind strategies, as is evidence with Wall Street deregulation and Neo-Conservative Middle Eastern policies, maybe just maybe, the McCain Campaign has been engineering the expectations for Palin to be incredibly low! “This here is a woman who can spit clichéd talking points ad nauseum! Just watch her resort to them every time she’s asked something to which she doesn’t know the answer!
Watching her two tête-à-tête interviews with Couric were quite painful; the same with Charles Gibson’s. Moreover, the third interview with Katie Couric, where McCain sat next to her, and spoke on behalf of her qualifications, to me, seemed like a young woman’s father assisting his daughter during a college entrance interview. In short, the lead up has been rough, and the press, having been held off of her, cannot get enough of the stuff.
In short, here are my thoughts on the strategies of the two campaigns—the quick and dirty. For Obama and Biden, I believe with the economic turmoil and war, their strategy has been to lie low allowing the news to do most of their work for them. The Bush Administration and Republican Party have done so horribly in the past eight years, taking a step back will do nothing to damage the brand. In short, the country knows the DNC’s plank, and Obama’s supporters know where his campaign stands on things. Obama was doing most of his work this summer, and right now, his campaign is allowing the GOP fruit to eat itself.
For the McCain campaign, they went a surprise direction selecting Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska for VP Candidate. Governor Palin plays the part of being a Governor from the more “Libertarian” West with religious credentials to enliven the Religious Right, with which McCain has always struggled. Beyond that, she, like Bush, is an affable and photogenic candidate with youth on her side. In short, she makes up for what McCain is not.
However, there is a problem with Palin; she is as intellectually incurious as George W. Bush. Watching her on the Couric interviews and with Charles Gibson, one could liken her answers to questions like a doe in the headlights. Quite simply, our country has been duped twice by electing someone for whom study, foreign policy, and intellectualism are not interesting or worth knowing. With a current President who has only been duped by any and every policy salesperson with whom he has spoken, we cannot be ready to elect someone on a ticket making that same mistake again. Those are my hopes.
Of course, with their mastermind strategies, as is evidence with Wall Street deregulation and Neo-Conservative Middle Eastern policies, maybe just maybe, the McCain Campaign has been engineering the expectations for Palin to be incredibly low! “This here is a woman who can spit clichéd talking points ad nauseum! Just watch her resort to them every time she’s asked something to which she doesn’t know the answer!
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