Game Plan for Palin Is Retooled Ahead of Debate

[grytpype]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The McCain campaign moved its top officials inside Gov. Sarah Palin's operation Sunday to prepare for what is certain to be the most important event of her vice-presidential campaign: her debate on Thursday with Democrat Joe Biden.

...

More broadly, the McCain campaign aims to halt what it sees as a perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin's latest remarks as well as a fall in recent polls, according to several advisers and party officials.

...

Some prominent Republicans and senior members of Congress have expressed worries about certain facets of the Palin campaign, particularly that Gov. Palin may be "overprepared" and not encouraged to be herself, an adviser said.

...


But in recent days, Gov. Palin flubbed quasi-mock debates in New York City and Philadelphia, some operatives said. Finger-pointing began, and then intensified after her faltering interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric. However, she performed better when she took questions from the press after touring Ground Zero and remarked about her parents' visit there after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

...

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122265784614384667.html?mod=rss_Politics_And_Policy

[musette_sf]

1. Adderall, an eight-ball and a wire

can't help her, much less all of the "top officials" from Magoo's campaign.

[wtmusic]

10. She'll be wired

but regardless, it could be disastrous. Does my glee show? :D

[Raschel]

16. She'll be wired

It'll be hidden in her Marge Simpson do. (sorry Marge)

[Roy]

22. Maybe Dems should employ a device

that emit high pitch noises forcing her to remove it on national tv?

[wtmusic]

25. Better yet, crash her frequency so we can provide our own answers

The possibilites are endless :evilgrin:

[Roy]

45. Ooohhh... so devious..... n/t

[KansDem]

58. "What's the frequency, Sarah?" (nt)

[snake in the grass]

31. A great idea but...

...I'm afraid they will be too wimpy to actually do that. I would love to see her get blasted with an extremely high frequency that hurts her ear and forces her to reflexively remove the earpiece. On national television that would be the gift that keeps on giving. It's annoying enough that Biden agreed to the Republican's conditions of not allowing questions between the candidates. It is totally legitimate to be able to ask questions, but, no, we just have to play nice all the time. I still have confidence that Biden will wipe the floor with her; I just wanted to see the humiliation, as well, before she slinks back to Alaska and crawls under her rock.

[woodsprite]

43. Signal scrambler or interference generator !!!! I'm all for it! n/t

[Thor_MN]

48. We call it the Wilma Flintstone, but look for a new look

with her hair over her ears. She may or may not have an earpiece underneath, but they sure as heck would rather have people talking about if she was wired than what a trainwreck she is.

[Born Free]

30. she wins if she doen't fall down off the stage

Once again, they have successfully lowered the standard so low that she wins as long as she doesn't fall down or have a wardrobe malfunction, on the other hand Biden will be expected to be perfect. People never learn, we go through this every election cycle.

[speedoo]

2. "However, she performed better when she took questions from the press after touring Ground Zero...."

Yah, in their dreams.

[wordpix]

3. "perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin's latest remarks"

:rofl: After her remark about how the Russians' flyovers make her a foreign policy expert, "perceived decline" is a LMAO statement.

[Greg K]

4. overprepared?

:snicker:

[UpInArms]

35. I'll second that

[Stellabella]

5. 'as a perceived decline in the crispness and precision

of Gov. Palin's latest remarks'.

WTF?

:rofl:

Crispness and precision?? Whenever were her statements crisp and precise? She is bumbling and incoherent when she isn't being spoonfed the words.

[superconnected]

6. let palin be palin - now thats a plan. Let the bimbo speak!

"For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week. Also, a key Alaska staffer joined the Palin operation Sunday.

Meanwhile, the more experienced advisers assigned to her by the McCain campaign are accustomed to working with seasoned candidates, not someone "completely green on the national stage," one strategist said. Several Republican backers have griped that the campaign has put the candidate in difficult situations, from sitting for high-profile television interviews to popping into meetings with foreign leaders, some of whom made sexist remarks, said several officials."

"It's time to let Palin be Palin -- and let it all hang out," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist."
--------------------
I guessed from the beginning if mccain won she would step down and he'd put in a crony. I'm still betting on that. He didn't even know her when she was chosen for his dead campaign. And he's all about cronyism. She'll use the gotta be with my family excuse.

[Raschel]

13. She's being put in difficult situations - waaaaa

Several Republican backers have griped that the campaign has put the candidate in difficult situations, from sitting for high-profile television interviews to popping into meetings with foreign leaders

Difficult situations? TV interviews, meeting GOP friendly leaders in New York? What does she think a VP -oh hell, never mind. It's all too crazy.

[grasswire]

14. sexist remarks? I want to hear them!

".......from high-profile television interviews to popping into meetings with foreign leaders, some of whom made sexist remarks..."

Foreign leaders made sexist remarks about her?

Do tell!!!

[yardwork]

40. I think one of them said that she was beautiful - tell those foreign leaders to stop picking on her!

She would be next in line to the presidency and she can't handle foreign leaders complimenting her?

[krabigirl]

42. LOL - she hasn't been being herself? Give me a break. I hope she spouts some crazy BS on Thurs, then

[kurtyboy]

53. You heard it from me first--the fundies win on this even if they lose

"For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week. Also, a key Alaska staffer joined the Palin operation Sunday.

That, that right there, is the trickle of water INTENTIONALLY started by the McCain campaign to set up the exit of Palin if she totally bombs. Why did that tidbit make the Wall Street Journal? Only because the campaign wants an out--the WSJ didn't go get this, the campaign GAVE it to them.

If this plays out in that way, and Palin bows out, what will be the long-term impact? Unfortunaltely, a perpetuation of the myth that a Mom cannot have it both ways, that a woman's place is in the home, etc. She will have set back women's progress for a decade or more, all by being a dolt who cannot answer simple questions about history and policy.

Mission accomplished, for the fundamentalist right wing. They can get a win out a loss every time....

[DefenseLawyer]

7. I think she is just going to be "folksy" and repeat Toby Keith lyrics

She has no shot on substance and they all know it.

[wtmusic]

8. Ok, the pig is Sarah after all

and all the lipstick in Manhattan won't make her look good against Joe Biden come Thursday

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Maybe she could get some pointers from Dumbyass...

She could stuff the box between her boobs and nobody would notice.

[kath]

11. "Gov. Palin may be 'overprepared'". Uh. Yeah. Right.

Overprepared. That's the ticket.

[quidam56]

12. GOD SAVE US if Palin takes over Energy.

Guess Sunday was put the lipstick on the pig day. END MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL ! www.wisecountyissues.com

[Raschel]

15. I read that they want to unleash the "pitbull" for attack

I hope they do. Then she'll be stupid and unlikeable.

[zeek 463]

17. dizzy need's more then Retooled.

[truthisfreedom]

18. Translation: "Sarah Palin being Retooled"

Nobody's buying it, and nothing on earth could be done to make her VP material. Not in a million years. And they only have 3 days.

[Tarheel_Dem]

19. Don't fall for it people. All these alleged "leaks" from inside the campaign..

fretting publicly about her performance, makes me suspicious. There's some serious bar lowering going on here, and if everyone falls for these stories, all she'll have to is show up, and the media will be impressed. I think she's been well prepared, over the past couple of weeks, and the interviews with Gibson & Couric may be a bit misleading.

[DaveT]

20. Not so sure about the "leaks" being con jobs, but

never in the history of TV politics has "the expectation game" been set as low as it is for Sarah on Thursday night. She has become a national laughing stock -- and if she just manages to string three or four coherent sentences together, it will indeed be a huge improvement over the mush-brained performance she gave in the Couric interview. Remember, she was terribly lame with "Charlie" but the wingnuts came up with all kinds of spin in her defense.

Putin's head flying over Alaskan airspace, on the other hand, finally broke the back of wingnut audacity . . . .

I would expect the handlers to prime her with a couple of jokes, and if she belts them out the way she read her lines at the RNC, the Right Wing propaganda machine will be gleefully spinning at full tilt about how she confounded the "liberal elite's" contempt for real Americans . . . and blah blah blah.

Biden has his work cut out for him in maintaining a friendly, upbeat tone without showing any hint of contempt for her. Not an easy task if she starts babbling incoherently about the need for reform to reform things that have to be reformed.

[chat_noir]

32. Putin's head....

[Kiwinet]

21. Check her for wires!

She will probably be wearing an in-ear monitor so they can feed her her lines.

[Old and In the Way]

24. Biden should have a jamming device in his pocket to disrupt any RF signals.

Wouldn't that be a hoot? She'd be really freakin' out on stage.

[bdamomma]

60. I am sure Uncle Karl has her wired up.

[TheEuclideanOne]

29. Yep. It has happened before. The more I think about it, the

more I am believing (and fearing) that if she has weeks to prep for this debate, she will not do half bad. In a few weeks time, you can throw every possible question under the sun at her and have her practice memorizing some decent answers. Don't forget the nomination speech. although she did have a teleprompter there. Give her enough time to memorize and there is no reason that there can not be a couple of sound bytes with her name on it looking really good. All of a sudden the media will be treating her as though she is a master of foreign policy and will forget everything about her background that we know up to now.

[Old and In the Way]

23. Everyone knows that she's in over her head.

Yes, she and millions of other people can give a great speech when reading off the teleprompter. She can't do spontaneous Q&A....not even in easier venues like one-on-one softball interviews. She didn't become Alaskan governor because she's a brilliant public servant. She had a good PR team. This ain't Alaska.

[northofdenali]

26. Prozak, some 'lludes, maybe a Valium or two.........

Even if Joe took 'em all, he'll still only have to utter ONE WORD and "win" the debate.

What word it is won't matter.

You could put 1000 Sarah Palin's in a row, and one word from Joe would knock them all down.

I'll look forward to the party afterward! (Snow or no, I got hold of some cured hickory wood, and am cooking ribs, beans, corn, potato salad, slaw, and lots of other go-with stuff in celebration of OBAMA/BIDEN).

BTW, Obama is WAY ahead in campaign contributions....from the GREAT STATE OF ALASKA - than McPalin/Shrub....uh, McShrub/Moose Barbie........uh, whoever them folks are. This was noted in none other than the Fairbanks Daily News Miner (our local very-right-wing daily rag) in the headlines for Sunday, September 28. MORE MONEY contributed to -GASP- Obama than to McCain.

Maybe we'll be at least purple this year. Especially if we can elect Berkowitz instead of Young, Begich instead of Uncle Ted.

My heart beats rapidly!! Bring on the VP debate, I need the humor!

[heliarc]

27. "decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin's latest remarks"

Wow... I didn't realize there were instruments accurate enough to measure a decline of crispness and precision in Gov. Palin's remarks... the readings must be so low as to render any observation of decline inconclusive...

[radfringe]

28. Palin's only debate hurdle may be a chalk mark on the stage floor

Gov. Sarah Palin came off of a series of interviews, which have left most of us saying "WTF???!!! You have to be joking", even some respected conservatives are balking at drinking this koolaid. Like, many of you, we are gleefully looking forward to the Vice-Presidential debates on Thursday, October 2. This is going to be good.

Well, not so fast. The debate hurdle is being lowered for Palin, at the moment the hurdle is about 6 inches off the floor - by debate time, the only hurdle may be a chalk mark on the stage floor.

From Crooks and Liars:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/tag/vice-president-debate /

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates. McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

This morning on CNN - a blatherhead was asked about expectations for Palin, and what did Palin have to do in the debate for it to be considered a win.

The blatherhead stated Palin needs to be herself, that with all the talk of Main Street vs Wall Street, Palin was Main Street and Biden was Wall Street. Palin is regular people and just has to give her down to earth Main street answers. She went on to talk about how Palin "connects" with Main Street.

In other words, Palin doesn't have to score, she doesn't have to shoot, she doesn't even have to wave a pom-pom, and it doesn't matter what she says as long as it's "folksy" and she "connects".

From Capital Chronicles:
http://blog.mlive.com/capitolchronicles/2008/09/sarah_palin_and_the_lowered_ex.html

Sarah Palin wins the lowered expectations game
Posted by Susan J. Demas. Chronicles September 28, 2008

Why? Lowered expectations. No one expects her to know as much as Biden. But traditional debates favor talking points, which Palin can memorize, and attacks, which she lands with glee. America might just love the comely mom of five telling off the blowhard senator. Stick it to the man, Sarah!

Coupled with the fact that it will be viewed as a huge victory that she can just pronounce the name of Waziristan, it looks like Sarah Palin will be declared the winner just by showing up.

For the past eight years we've been been "led" by a guy most people wanted to have a beer with - eight years later, most of those same people are wondering if they can even afford a beer. We have a republican presidential candidate who not only flip-flops on issues, but lurches irratically in all directions at once. Standing next to him, is a republican machine styled "hockey mom", being sold as "one of us", someone many would like to to have a cup of coffee with and just chat.

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/the_looming_problem_for_biden.php

I'm not joking about this: in the wake of her catastrophic performance in the Katie Couric interview, Sarah Palin has set expectations so low that she is very likely to do "surprisingly" well against Joe Biden on October 2.

That is, to seem more flustered and incoherent than she did against Couric, Palin would have to move herself into "Eagleton zone," where her presence on the ticket would no longer be sustainable.

Any informed-seeming answer she gives will be her first such answer under press questioning -- which in practice means the Gibson and Couric interviews. This is especially true if it's to a "but what about....?" or "are you saying...?" follow-up question. Those follow-ups, from Couric, were the truly lethal ones. Odds are that Palin will manage to handle at least one exchange of this sort, maybe more, and therefore show "improvement" and beat the expectations game.

Either that, or she and the ticket are mortally wounded.

[Loudmxr]

33. All she has to do is appeal to teh stupids and she will win.

Here is the stratergery. Bash BO. Family. Experience. Bash BO. Hockey Mom. Bash BO. I'm not from Washington, thank you.

I hunt moose. I believe in God. I am a maverick and a reformer. Bash BO. Did I mention I have a family??

She wins. :smoke:

[cstanleytech]

34. "perceived decline in the crispness and precision"?

Did she even ever have any real "crispness and precision"? all I've been seeing since that one well done speech she did with the lipstick is one fumble after another by her which has proven to me shes not ready for such an important position in the government.

[Nevernose]

36. She's a frighteningly IGNORANT woman

She's probably not evil or stupid, and probably also a very good, likable public speaker, but she doesn't KNOW anything. Her answers to Couric weren't laughable because they weren't "crisp" or "precise," they were laughable because it was painfully obvious she's got no idea what the hell she's talking about.

I've got fifty bucks says she can't name the prime minister and president of Canada and Mexico, respectively.

[yardwork]

41. She is mean. She made rape victims pay for evidence gathering.

She put a bounty on wolves' legs to increase revenue from caribou hunting. She encourages aerial hunting of wolves and polar bears. She sued the government to get polar bears back off the endangered list.

She is evil. She's not likeable.

[Virginia Dare]

37. Anything short of a brain transplant is futile...n/t

[MadinMo]

38. Even David Brooks says it is embarrassing to watch her

and that it makes him want to turn off the tv.

[Orsino]

39. Even McCain is confusing her with Tina Fey. n/t

[CoffeeCat]

44. Oh...my....stars....

"But in recent days, Gov. Palin flubbed quasi-mock debates in New York City and Philadelphia , some operatives said. Finger-pointing began, and then intensified after her faltering interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric."

Can you imagine???

You've just been plucked from obscurity and catapulted onto the national stage...and suddenly everyone
around you is violently arguing and trying to blame each other--for how stupid, ignorant and fucking
clueless you are.

Oh dear. This can't be good for her self esteem.

:rofl:

[DeepModem Mom]

46. K&R

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. The understanding that Biden and Palin will have of the financial problems

won't even be on the same planet. I predict Palin will have to fall back on meaningless slogans like "I'm supporting the taxpayer" because she won't be able to actually answer any of the questions they're bound to be asked about the credit crunch.

[kitty1]

49. The woman had better brush up quick on her stats & support them

[kitty1]

50. They will ask what regulations McCain is going to implement....

in the future to make sure this can't happen again. I wonder if she'll have the outline talking points ready.
How long before the taxpayer is compensated some and how will that play out.
Reply: Well John McCain and I are working on that right now, and I can guarantee that we will have a program that will involve tap dance tap dance.....

[daleo]

51. Heh, heh - they said "re-tooled"

Insert Beavis and Butthead laugh.

[yoodle]

52. This should be hilarious!

We need some comic relief this week, and Biden's dismantling of Palin should do nicely!

[Supersedeas]

54. sequestration but for three interviews -- she had been be VERY GOOD

[IDemo]

55. Here's a snapshot of Saruh's debate performance tonight --

- Which Supreme court decisions do you feel should be overturned?

"Oh, all of 'em. Just all of 'em."

- How would you best balance the energy needs of the US with environmental concerns?

"I would drill, drill, drill in the area adjoining Russian environs. Ha! Oh yah!"

- Which former vice president would you most like to emulate?

"Which would i like to emulate? Hey, that's not a sexist question, is it?"

-No, it means, who do you think would provide the best guide to you as a good vice president?

"Oh, all of 'em. Just all of 'em."

[bamacrat]

56. So she got the question before hand?

I hope tonight sinks the McCain campaign. Can you imagine if she performs like she has thus far, with Biden on the other side, it will be amazing.

[GinaMaria]

57. For my own selfish reasons

I really need her to come through tonight with the lamest of lame antics. I need something to laugh about that will carry me throughout the year. I think she could end this depression I've been in. Better than Prozac, Sarah Palin VP candidate }(

[bdamomma]

59. all this talk about Palin

how is Joe doing? He is so cool I am sure he is not sweating this.

[sutz12]

61. They have to train her to stop acting like Tina Fey.

:)