Posted on 09/05/2008 4:36:51 PM PDT by markomalley
Joe Biden can beat Sarah Palin by pretending she's a man. And that he's not Joe Biden.
You have a problem. In less than a month, you will face off against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a vice-presidential debate in St. Louis, and were you anyone but Joe Biden, it would likely be a rout. Last week, Palin proved herself a charming, confident, and gifted reader of speeches. But that doesn't change the fact that two years ago she was the mayor of a town of 6,000, crusading against dirty books at the local library. You are a six-term senator and chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee. World leaders routinely friend you, unbidden, on Facebook ("Wait … Is this the Angela Merkel?"). World leaders had never heard of Gov. Palin until last Friday.
That's your problem, Joe. Everyone expects you to win the debate, and to trounce her on the substance. But the rules for debating Gov. Palin are different. If you lecture her, you'll be seen as a sexist bully. If you act too smart, you'll be seen as a sexist bully. If you condescend to her, you'll be seen as a sexist bully. So this longtime parliamentary debater (and longer-time female) is going to humbly offer you a few tips on how to debate a girl.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Is this supposed to be a serious qualification for President? How many world leader friends you have on FaceBook? That's right up there with how many times one has been on Meet the Press.
“So this longtime parliamentary debater...”
Oh, the author is a master-debater.
Poor Sarah, she won't be able to fly her own aircraft home, Biden's head is pretty hard.
Joe plagiarizes when he is up against the wall.
Twice, that we know of. How many more times has he plagiarized?
The man is a dishonest scumbag.
Who cares what he says? His statements are the intellectual work product of others. He is, in short, beneath contempt.
You will need to match Palin point for point in the blue-collar-off. If she invokes her sister's gas station, bring up your cousin's Laundromat. (Try to locate one in the coming days, if you aren't in possession of one already). If she mentions the threshers, you need to see her the threshers and raise her the bailers. If she mentions the Washington media elite that hate her, you can truthfully tell her they've been calling you a blowhard for decades.
Caution: Sarah Palin is funny. And it's the kind of jeering Ann Coulter-funny that's assuredly going to irritate the heck out of you. She'll suggest you are a coward and unpatriotic and also (heh heh) that you are corrupt and dishonest. Keep your poker face. . . Poker face when she says she has plans to sell Barack Obama's next celebrity memoir on eBay and give all the money to special-needs children. Don't lunge (a la Lazio).
I don't like the author's attitude. But there are some funny stuff here.
Talk about hutzpah!
Which is to say, Dahlia knows that her side is losing, and losing badly...else she wouldn't feel so compelled to out-parent the equivalent of her dad.
I think the author is a woman (see below). But I do believe the small part is right. Small minded.
“So this longtime parliamentary debater (and longer-time female) is going to humbly offer you a few tips on how to debate a girl.”
Sarah doesn’t debate Democrats, she disembowels them.
Which turns out to be easy, as she finds nothing where their guts should be located.
OH, boy, Joe is a big cheese on Facebook!!!! :^)
Did she actually write that??
How about “Joe you are a pompous gasbag who had damned well better learn to not to blather on carelessly as you usually do. Study Sarah Palin’s speech and try to learn to talk like her!” :^)
I don't think Dahlia gets it. Never, ever believe your own propaganda. You can spout it, use it to "frame" an opponent, twist it, and pretend that you believe it but if you really do you'll go into the debate underestimating Sarah Palin. Sending a lump like Joe Biden in disarmed that way is sheer cruelty.
But go ahead, please do. Frame this as "debating a girl." Dismiss Palin as a neophyte about to be schooled by a master. And watch what happens.
Whoa! She did divorce work in Reno.
Clearly, she is one of the jurisprudential giants of our times!
Further affiant sayeth not.
Three times that we know. Once in law school for his grades. Once on a campaign ripping off Kinnock. At least once on a campaign ripping of Robert Kennedy verbatim.
“..and gifted reader of speeches”
That might have been an advantage if her teleprompter had been working correctly.
I DON’T KNOW HOW TO BOLD MY CHANGES...BUT HERE GOES...
Dear Sen. McCain:
You have a problem. In less than a month, you will face off against Illinois Senator Barack Obama in a presidential debate in _______, and were you anyone but John McCain, it would likely be a rout. Last month, Obama proved himself a charming, confident, and gifted reader of speeches. But that doesn’t change the fact that two years ago he was a community organizer, crusading against dirty books at the local library. You are a six-term senator. World leaders routinely friend you, unbidden, on Facebook (”Wait … Is this the Angela Merkel?”). World leaders had never heard of Senator Obama until last month.
That’s your problem, John. Everyone expects you to win the debate, and to trounce him on the substance. But the rules for debating Sen. Obama are different. If you lecture him, you’ll be seen as a racist bully. If you act too smart, you’ll be seen as a racist bully. If you condescend to him, you’ll be seen as a racist bully. So this longtime parliamentary debater (and longer-time woman) is going to humbly offer you a few tips on how to debate a black man.
Sen. McCain, let’s be clear. Great Supreme Court oral advocates will tell you that a flawless oral argument will never win a case, but a bad argument can lose one. You have a similar problem. If you engage, fight, bicker, or bluster, you can lose this debate. Think Rick Lazio. So my advice, in a nutshell: Don’t lose it.
Your real problem with Obama is not actually going to be his race. Assuming you don’t call him boy or ask him to fetch you a coffee, you probably won’t do anything truly career wrecking on the racism front. Your real problem is that Obama is not a serious candidate. I don’t mean to suggest that he is not a serious person or even a seriously impressive first-term senator with real potential to shake up national politics. Nor do I want to imply for an instant that Obama is not a serious competitor. I just want to state here what you will be unable to say out loud at the debate: That by every obvious metric—experience, knowledge base, decades of public service, policy experience, understanding of the world—Obama is an unserious candidate for the presidency of the United States. And as any college debater will tell you, it’s far harder to beat a clumsy opponent than a good one. (That’s why you do better in your judiciary committee hearings with John Roberts than with Alberto Gonzales.) But if you even hint that Barack Obama may be opining on the Israel-Palestinian peace process with something Michelle pulled off Wikipedia that morning, you will look like a snotty professor lecturing an undergrad. And if you look like a snotty professor, you will come across as a racist bully.
I stand corrected. Didn't know about that / those event(s). Thanks for the fact check.
Lithwick was born in Canada and she remains a Canadian citizen.
Biden was the only one with little enough sense to accept the position.
I have a Liberal friend who is just utterly depressed because of Sarah palin.... I mean SERIOUSLY concerned! McCain hit a pure WHOPPER in selecting her as VP.
Oh she went to famous schools alright, but she is a lefty tool . She is one of the many on that side who see big danger in Palin.
ROFLMAO!! And Sarah can truthfully reply that even the biased MSM is right on target sometimes!
No, I think Joe will have enough sense to stay away from that kind of statement.....
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