Posted on 09/29/2008 7:33:28 AM PDT by Bill Dupray
Thursday night's Vice-Presidential debate pits a first term governor against a 35-year veteran of the Senate, who is a foreign policy expert to boot. That lowers expectations for Sarah Palin all by itself. But then the Democrats (with the help of some Republicans), may have lowered them even more. Did the GOP do a rope-a-dope? From the L.A. Times.
But have Palin's Democratic opponents overplayed their hand in portraying the 44-year-old mother of five so derisively in recent days?It is significant that the debate will be televised live. . . .Was John McCain manager Steve Schmidt's puzzingly strong attack on the New York Times last week really a trap, an intentional bid to call even more attention to negative coverage of Palin to lower expectations? . . .
The upcoming downside for the Obama-Biden campaign is that its supporters became so flustered over Palin's surprisingly explosive popularity coming out of the GOP convention. They have so successfully mocked, derided and lowered expectations for Palin in Thursday night's VP debate that if she doesn't drool or speak in tongues, many millions still open to persuasion will be impressed.
Al Gore's campaign made the exact same mistake going into the 2000 debates. So all Texas Gov. George W. Bush had to do was not lose.
In that sense Democrats may have played right into a PR cul-de-sac. Biden, for instance, described Palin as merely better-looking than him. A far better communications strategy would have been to insincerely portray Palin with superlatives as a superwoman, make it harder, not easy, for her to impress. Too late now.
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotroom.com ...
Sarah Palin isn’t about spin.
That’s why she’s important.
She’s gonna BBQ Joe Biden. Live, on national TV.
Shhhhhh!!! Don’t let them in on our game plan!
Seriously. The stakes are high for Governor Palin. But I think she can handle it. This will be live, no editing by Charlie or Katie. And Biden will undoubtedly stick at least one foot in his mouth.
I suspect this debate will pull the largest audience.
Biden is toast. I have been thinking that it is a mistake for MSM to downplay, Governor Palin’s abilities. She knows journalism and was a sports broadcaster, she knows how the game is played.
She doesn’t need any of their stinking help.
I don’t know where these low expectations come from other than from Saturday Night Live. Sarah was good on Charlie Gibson and was amazing with Katie Curic and Sean.
While I completely agree with you, I don’t think she is going to change any minds if what I heard this morning is true: 1/3 of Dems thought O did well, 1/3 of Republicans thought McCain did well and 1/3 of “not sures” are still unsure.
Exactly,
Palin doesn’t need to shine, she just need to perform. Fauxbama is claiming that Biden brings him gravitas, and that’s amusing in itself.
Palin just has to let Biden speak and she’ll walk away fine, he’ll tie himself verbally in knots.
Its a VP debate, won’t change many votes, though it may draw more attention because of the Palin factor.
Palin just has to survive, Biden has to shine, if he doesn’t he loses.
Maybe these polls should stop calling the same people all the time...
I just pray tht McCain’s advisors have her ready for the very basic questions — including the Dan Quayle question and related spinoffs.
That is the simple sound bite that McCain/Palin should have thrown at the fauxconservatives and others who have been critical of her performance.
Yes, Joe Biden is such a long-serving foreign policy expert that he had the opportunity to get both the Cold War and the War on Terror wrong! If he serves another twenty years he can be wrong on the next big foreign policy issue too!
“including the Dan Quayle question and related spinoffs.”
Regarding potatoe?
Biden is an expert at being wrong for 35 years, that much I'll give him.
NO way. Palin's at a serious disadvantage on Thursday night. There's no way she can win.
First, and foremost, the media hates her. She could hogtie Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barak Obama, and Joe Biden in under 6 seconds, but all she'd hear from the media is "Sarah Palin showed the weakness of working too fast at Thursday night's debate."
The winner of these non-debates is far more determined by the spin rooms of the media than by anything else.
Also, Biden truly has been involved in foreign policy for decade after decade. He does know his stuff. Anyone who thinks that Palin has that same kind of insight is smokin' da ganja. I'm not saying that Biden's insight is the CORRECT insight, but the sheer volume of knowledge is overwhelming.
Finally, Biden is nobody's slouch as a communicator. He's funny, engaging, and populist.
In short, Sarah Palin doesn't have a chance on Thursday nigh except with her supporters and some open-minded independents.
No, the question of what you would do if anything happened to the President... the in which Quayle couldn’t respond as well as a below-average 8th grade civics student.
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