Briar Patch
Expectations couldn’t be much lower of Sarah Palin going into Thursday’s veep debate. That either means there’s a pending disaster, or the Obamist press/Dems are falling into the trap set by the geniuses running the McCain-Palin campaign … again.
NYT: Concerns about Palin’s readiness as a big test nears.
A month after Gov. Sarah Palin joined Senator John McCain’s ticket to a burst of excitement and anticipation among Republicans, she heads into a critical debate facing challenges from conservatives about her credentials, signs that her popularity is slipping and evidence that Republicans are worried about how much help she will be for Mr. McCain in November.
Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, flew to Mr. McCain’s ranch in Sedona, Ariz., on Monday for three days of preparation with a team of his aides — a sharp contrast to the less structured preparation that led up to the senator’s first debate.
The amount of time and staff power being devoted to this was evidence of concern among Mr. McCain’s associates that Ms. Palin’s early triumphs — a well-received convention speech, her drawing of big crowds — have been overtaken by a series of setbacks, creating higher stakes for her in the debate Thursday with the Democratic nominee for vice president, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.
“I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States,” David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush who is now a conservative columnist, said in an interview. “If she doesn’t perform well, then people see it.
“And this is a moment of real high anxiety, a little bit like 9/11, when people look to Washington for comfort and leadership and want to know that people in charge know what they are doing.”
Ms. Palin, of Alaska, continues to draw large crowds, is helping Mr. McCain with fund-raising and drawing volunteers, and is drumming up support among base Republican voters who were once skeptical of his candidacy, party leaders said in interviews. Yet these rough two weeks have led some Republicans to reconsider their initial assessment that she would sharply increase Mr. McCain’s appeal among women and independent voters.
Her halting interview with Katie Couric on CBS News alarmed many Republicans and gave fodder for a devastating parody on Saturday Night Live.
Right, the key SNL constituency. I’ve heard of this, that Tina Fey will drive the McCain camp to dump Palin. It’s a view, as NYT is forced to acknowledge above, that fails to acknowledge that vast multitudes of Americans don’t give a damn what SNL-Americans or anyone within the Beltway think. I have not discussed this matter with my cousin David, but would note that no matter how sincere his concerns are, he and assorted other conservative commentators could well be doing yeoman’s work in the Republican imPalinment of Obama-Biden.
The problem with the alleged Couric/Gibson hits, by the way, is that none of them quite live up to the billing. She didn’t say she’s declare war on Russia. She said the United States is committed to defend NATO allies. She never said she wants to invade Pakistan. She said if that’s what it takes to stop a terrorist threat, so be it. Those are conditional, fundamentally sound statements that don’t set any new policy. In other matters, her knowledge has been less than encyclopedic. Big deal. As governor of Alaska the Russian bear looks over her shoulder, she headed the Alaska National Guard in wartime and she negotiated with Canada. Mirth elicited. Sounds like she’s on a par or maybe even well ahead of prior governors Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the foreign policy preparedness department. There’s no little irony, by the way, after Gibson to do more than glance a glove off Palin’s jaw, that Katie Couric is the one credited with scoring blows on the former beauty queen. Boston Herald:
Sarah Palin may have survived Charlie Gibson, but she’s having a tougher time with Katie Couric, who’s taken hits herself from people who said she was a lightweight.
Things got a little heated when Couric sat down with McCain and Palin for their first joint interview together, a piece that aired on last night’s evening news. Couric interviewed Palin separately last week.
Couric asked about a comment Palin made over the weekend at a restaurant, when asked if the U.S. should launch attacks into Pakistan: “If that’s what we have to do to stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should,” she said.
Couric pointed out McCain has said that’s something you don’t say “out loud.” When she asked Palin if she was sorry she had said that, McCain interrupted: “Wait a minute. Before you say, ‘Is she sorry she said it,’ this was a ‘gotcha’ sound bite . . .”
Couric also asked Palin about the “flak” she’s gotten since their last interview. Palin replied she’s “not only ready but willing and able to serve as vice president.”
The former NBC “Today” show host, in a short skirt, was flashing her famous gams in the interview while former beauty queen Palin wore a conservative pantsuit. Last week, Palin fumbled when Couric asked how John McCain has reformed Wall Street and why Alaska’s proximity to Russia counts as foreign-policy experience. A CBS News-New ork Times poll last week showed Palin’s unfavorable rating up among women.
Newsbusters had asked if Couric, who was cuddly with Biden a week earlier, ignoring historical gaffes, etc., would sidle up to Palin the same way. Apparently not. An Instapundit reader emails from a major metro’s newspaper, it’s purposeful, blatant, systemic:
“Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working.”
I’m sure the Biden handlers are loving it, and are eager to throw the governor of Alaska into the briar patch. Especially since, as the Washington Post notes in some rare recent attention on Obama’s running mate, there is cause for discomfort in Obamadise:
Introducing Sen. Barack Obama at a rally in Detroit on Sunday, his running mate did not hold back.
“John McCain said he’d follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell,” said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. “Well, let me tell you something: President Barack Obama will follow him to where he lives and then send him to hell.”
Biden’s latest ad-lib drew laughter and cheers from the crowd, but there has been a downside to the Democratic vice presidential nominee’s freewheeling style: a string of comments that either don’t reflect campaign positions or misstate basic facts.
Unlike his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Biden has not been shy about talking to reporters, but comments he has made since Obama chose him last month have presented Democrats with their own problems and revived the longtime senator’s reputation for gaffes.
In an interview with CBS News that aired last week, Biden described how Franklin D. Roosevelt had appeared before the country on television in 1929 to explain the stock market crash. But Herbert Hoover was president in 1929, and televisions sets did not start appearing in American homes until a decade later.
In that same interview, asked about an Obama campaign commercial that mocked Sen. John McCain’s lack of computer skills, Biden called the ad “terrible.” A few hours later, after McCain’s campaign highlighted the remark in several news releases, Obama aides put out a statement under Biden’s name in which the senator from Delaware said he had not personally seen the commercial and did not have any concerns once he watched it.
The next day, confronted with a interview in which Biden had said he opposed the bailout of the insurance company American International Group, a move that Obama supported, the Democratic nominee said that “I think Joe should have waited” before commenting.
Sorry, I missed it. Did SNL do a Biden skit? Anyway, you remember what happened the last time the media/Dems set up low expectations for Palin. It turned out to be a devious, underhanded stroke of Republican genius. Here’s Politico wit report from one of Biden’s handlers that they plan to go low key:
If Sarah Palin goofs, flounders, stumbles or blunders during her debate against Joe Biden on Thursday night, Biden is going to let it slide.
“If she makes a gaffe, he underplays it,” one of the people prepping Biden for his vice presidential debate told me. “At most, he says, ‘I am not sure what Gov. Palin meant there.’”
There are three reasons for this. First, Biden does not want to look condescending. For the same reason, he plans on referring to Palin as “Gov. Palin” during the debate and never as “Sarah.” (He will sometimes refer to John McCain as “John,” however, because they have been senators together for many years.)
Second, Biden knows the press is going to pounce on any mistakes, and so he does not need to.
Third, and most important, Sarah Palin is not Biden’s true target.
“Joe Biden’s No. 1 job during the vice presidential debate is to keep the focus on the top of the ticket,” the Biden debate prepper told me. “He is going to keep the focus on John McCain.”
Four, people who live in glass houses need to be careful with the rocks.
But it helps when the moderator is in your boss’s tank. Malkin re PBS anchor Gwen Ifill:
Try as she might to deflect questions about her impartiality, her biases — and her conflict of interest — are clear. But don’t you dare breathe a word about any of this. You know what will happen if you do…
RACIST!
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:40 pm on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
5 Responses to “Briar Patch”
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September 30th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Jaw-dropping irony in every direction, indeed.
That piece from the Very Important Paper is hilarious. It fisks itself:
A month after Gov. Sarah Palin joined Senator John McCain’s ticket to a burst of excitement [it could only have been a burst, nothing lasting, I mean, get serious] and anticipation among Republicans [and no one else; pay no attention to what you have heard to the contrary], she heads into a critical debate facing challenges from conservatives about her credentials [a meaningless word here, but you get the implication], signs that her popularity is slipping [read my lips, slipping] and [unspecified] evidence that Republicans [somewhere] are worried [according to me] about how much help she will be [because goodness knows he needs it] for Mr. McCain in November.
Thanks for being a voice of reason, Jules. It helps.
Please do ask Frum what he is up to. Very puzzling.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I’m betting Governor Palin will wipe the floor with Senator Biden. If she doesn’t, I’m going to be very disappointed.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
First thing would be for the Gov to request the Sen to call her “Sarah”, and propose that she call him “Mr Biden”.
Cheers
October 1st, 2008 at 1:54 am
She said if that’s what it takes to stop a terrorist threat, so be it.
And that a sensible position! However, the point is that McCain publicly disagrees with it.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:46 pm
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