Palin Could “Win” Debate
The “expectations game” could really result in Palin “victory” in the VP debate. Palin went from provoking joy and confidence in conservatives and panic in liberals to provoking hilarity in liberals and panic in many conservatives.
Palin has supported the Obama position on Pakistan only to be told by McCain that she doesn’t really believe that. She has made jest of Biden’s age and said that voters will have a choice between his “age and experience” and her “bringing something new and fresh”, despite her running mate being 72 years old (6 years Biden’s senior) and also despite this being a seeming mirror image of Obama’s own line of argument. SNL is repeating her interviews word for word and getting laughs and the latest is that the cringe-worthy clips with Couric aren’t even the worst of the bunch, there being one where she responds to a question about naming a single Supreme Court decision outside Roe vs. Wade with total silence.
But in the twisted world of 21st century politics, could this actually work to her advantage in the debates?
At this point, the VP debate is creating the expectations of a monster truck rally. It will be watched purely for the spectacle, to see big cars errupt in flames. The narrative is basically set in stone that this VP debate exists to see if Biden can actually achieve putting his whole leg in his mouth and to see if Palin can actually achieve speaking for upwards of an hour without saying anything coherent.
The expectations are so low for Palin, after these disasterous few weeks, that if she comes accross as even vaguely hominid, she may well be declared the victor, especially if Biden manages to go haywire (and he tends to) and Palin can be portrayed as being bullied by a sexist and condescending Biden. Expectations have never been lowered so much, not even for President Bush. Palin WILL exceed expectations if only because it’s almost physically impossible not to.
Palin apparently performed rather well in the governers race debate. We’ve also been told that her horrible performances so far are due to the fact that McCains campaign has stuffed her with “too much information” and that now they’re trying to deprogram her to let her be herself, which will supposedly help improve her skills. Like a college student cramming for an exam (and I’ve been there) Palin may have been wound up so tight, so terrified of straying from talking points, that it may have been counterproductive.
She might panic, she might say something outrageous yes. But maybe not, maybe she’ll smile a lot, give a lot of platitudes that don’t mean much but are disarming and seem to quietly stand aside as Biden, in his eagerness to show he’s on a completely different level in preparation, manages to hang himself.
I do believe that Sarah Palin will win debate hands down. She is all about change. Biden is old school that we don’t want anymore.