Ross Douthat has an insightful reflection on why Sarah Palin's failure to perform well on TV substantively matters -- but also how that discredits the way we do politics today. Excerpt:
In the process of performing very, very badly on national television, Palin is holding up a mirror to the rest of the political world, and revealing how the mix of talking points, bluster, obfuscation and BS that nearly all national politicians traffic in as a matter of course sounds when it's filtered through someone who isn't practiced in it, and isn't ready for the spotlight. Her performances reflect badly on her readiness for the vice presidency, no question - but they reflect badly on our whole compromised, spin-happy political class as well.
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"MarcM: Don't be counting those chickens just yet. Palin may not tank tonight and I have a hunch that Obama needs at least a 5% spread in polls to actually take any given state. I think people will actually vote differently when then close that curtain."
Hidden racism could certainly be a factor in the election. But the main reason Obama, or any other Dem candidate, needs to have at least a 5% spread is that the GOP probably couldn't steal the election by that wide a margin.
Has anyone explained to 'Reaganite' that the 'MSN' she claims 'despises Palin' is (after less than a two week honeymoon) largely Republican?
Confucius Say: “Gal trying to slay dragon right and left chops off own head.”
"Palin may not tank tonight and I have a hunch that Obama needs at least a 5% spread in polls to actually take any given state. I think people will actually vote differently when then close that curtain."
State Obama McCain Start End Pollster
Florida 46% 42% Sep 27 Sep 30 Suffolk U.
Florida 49% 46% Sep 30 Sep 30 Insider Advantage
Florida 51% 43% Sep 27 Sep 29 Quinnipiac U.
Florida 51% 47% Sep 28 Sep 30 Opinion Research
Georgia 44% 50% Sep 30 Sep 30 Insider Advantage
Iowa 55% 39% Sep 29 Sep 30 Research 2000
Indiana 45% 46% Sep 28 Sep 30 Research 2000
Minnesota 54% 43% Sep 28 Sep 30 Opinion Research
Missouri 49% 48% Sep 28 Sep 30 Opinion Research
Mississippi 44% 52% Sep 30 Sep 30 Rasmussen
New Mexico 52% 44% Sep 29 Sep 30 SurveyUSA
Nevada 48% 47% Sep 30 Sep 30 Insider Advantage
Nevada 51% 47% Sep 28 Sep 30 Opinion Research
Ohio 50% 42% Sep 27 Sep 29 Quinnipiac U.
Pennsylvania 54% 39% Sep 27 Sep 29 Quinnipiac U.
Tennessee 39% 58% Sep 29 Sep 29 Rasmussen
Texas 43% 52% Sep 29 Sep 29 Rasmussen
Virginia 53% 44% Sep 28 Sep 30 Opinion Research
Read 'em and veep, Reaganite.
I've been waiting for awhile for someone to say what Ross did.
In so far as Palin is a real person and not a phony at heart, she is going to have a hard time acting like a phony, which is what the MSM demands of politicians. Indeed, even Joe Biden, gasbag that he is, has always gotten into trouble because in the midst of all his fog of words he does occasionally stumble and say something that he is really thinking, like his comment about Obama being clean and articulate.
In the context of 24/7 media, awkwardness is realness, slickness is phoniness. Palin is articulate in many contexts, and is a super speaker in person or on TV. If she can do OK tonight she'll be fine. It's John McCain, and his failure to hang Fannie and Freddie around the necks of the Democrats--who caused this crises with their affirmative-action mortgages and the housing bubble that created--who will lose this thing, not her.
MarcM
So gregorbo...you want some equality in this? Fine...let's drop Obama since he has been on your plate for the last two years, and let us dissect Palin the way the right dissected Obama. We've only got 4 more weeks to get through a lot of territory. We need to crucify...er, examine her husband's life, dig a little deeper into that cult she worships with, and get some square answers regarding allegations of infidelity that have been raised.
Um, no, for equality we should just asserting things about her and let the media eventually correct them, or not. Like what happened with Obama. I'll go first: Alaska was not a US state when she was born and thus she's not a citizen. Also she secretly has red, demon-colored eyes and wears contacts to hid this.
But anyway, the idea that the media has been 'unfair' to Palin is idiotic. It's not the media's fault she suddenly appeared on the national scene a month ago and has refused almost all interviews. The media has, actually, be exceptionally lax at pointing this out.
Saying 'she shouldn't be asked hard questions now' is akin to saying she shouldn't be asked them ever. She's the one who showed up two months from her election, and then ignored the public for another month.
So, yes, the attacks might actually even be a little more frenzied than normal, although honestly I haven't seen anything like that. But all the vetting and hostility and raised questions that the other candidates had two years to fend off, she gets one month, but that is no one's fault but hers and McCain for putting her in this situation.
McCain, if you recall, sat around doing nothing after winning the GOP primary (While the Democrats were still fighting) for longer than the amount of time between his announcement and the election. Even if he was waiting for the Democratic fight to be over for some reason, there was still another two months there!
But McCain sprung Palin literally a week before she was nominated for VP. And then people had the nerve to assert she wasn't ready for interviews, when McCain had literally been doing nothing for, what, four months? You want to point fingers at the compressed media coverage of her, you point them straight at McCain.
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