My reaction to the Biden and Palin debate

[Joanne98]

I watched the VP debate last night and was again very uncomfortable seeing Palin in action. Perhaps it is because I am a woman, but to see her so out of her league makes me upset. Women have fought so hard to be able to break into politics, against stereotypes that we are intellectually inferior to men and can't go the distance. And now to see Palin emerge on the VP scene as unprepared as she is, well, I wish it were different.

The fact that the media is falling over themselves to increase their ratings with nonsense "analyses" after the interview is equally troubling. To call her style "folksy" and to say that because she surpassed expectations she had a victory is nothing but media spin.

This is what I saw from my couch. I saw a woman who, because she didn't know enough about the subjects and thus refused rudely to answer the posed questions, resort to flirting. I saw her wink and use voice and body language that was inappropriate to a professor, let alone a VP presidential candidate who might become a President one day. Her remark to call John Biden by his first name was not folksy. It was rude and pretentious. Her invocation of socceer moms and Joe six packs, her use of slang jargon, and her mispronunciations were not cute. They were demeaning, as if the middle class of which I am a part, cannot understand anything but street conversation.

George Stephanopoulos of ABC gave her debate an A- and her style an A. Based on what? The fact that she was coherent, even though she had little knowledge of the issues that were being debated? As a professor, this is so offensive, I don't even know where to begin. We don't give grades based on exceeding sub-standard expectations. We give grades based against a knowledge-set that must be met. We don't give grades based on "a good try." We give grades based on the quality of the work. And Palin performance was neither of these. It showed how much she doesn't know (as oral exams often do).

http://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-reaction-to-biden-and-palin-debate.html

[SoonerPride]

1. You hit it out of the park. Great post.

Kick & Rec

[Dulcinea]

2. Well said.

When Sarah Palin asked Joe Biden, "Can I call you Joe?" my husband quipped, right on cue, "Sure! Can I call you Toots?"

Just had to share that with everyone! :rofl:

[AFSCME girl]

3. K&R!

[Ron Green]

4. Stephanopoulos, by the way, don't forget,

is nothing but a corporate media WHORE with not one higher thought but his own career.

[seabeyond]

5. hit the nail on the head. right on. this is why i have been angry.... how long

has she been the candidate....

yup

[Dollface]

6. Maybe its because we're women that we caught the flirting. It was pretty embarrassing to watch.

She displayed brilliance in weaving together Replicant talking points. Had there been a single follow-up question it would have been the Couric interview all over again. Watching Morning Joe (I have a strong stomach) it was Mica who pointed out that there was no substance to her while the men gushed about Palin. They teased Pat Buchanan about being in love again but that wasn't too far from the truth. I think they had to insist that he keep his hands out of his lap. All in all, Palin won with her base but no way did she win the debate. She is clever and ruthless but uninformed, shallow and incurious with respect to what is really going on in the economy, the government and the world.

[calimary]

10. That's a really great point. Because we're women, we picked up on all the schtick.

I watched it on CNN, so I could watch the "people meter" - that showed instant and ongoing reaction from men and women - undecided Ohio voters in this case. The women were NOT fooled. We had people over and we were all watching, and EVERYBODY picked up on that. People kept saying "the women don't like her." "See, the men are loving her." "The women ain't buyin'." It was really true, consistently throughout the debate. Women weren't buying. They clearly and strongly preferred Joe Biden. Men seemed bored with Biden but sheesh did they respond to the pretty girl winking and flirting and vamping and shining for them up there onstage.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7296429

It was REALLY transparent. And I saw that damned mean streak slither back up like a cobra's head from a snake charmer's basket. It was a slam-dunk for me. It confirmed for me that I. Just. Do. NOT. Like. Her.

:puke:

[kayakjohnny]

7. Thank you for this. We should raise the level of what we expect from our leaders.

Not lower. We've had 8 years of lower.

[zulchzulu]

8. Palin's performance was one part infomercial Barbie doll and one part robotic cheerleader

I tried to watch with an open mind, but Biden was just so much more sincere, honest and knowledgeable in his answers. Palin wreaked of sounding like an infomercial and her "doggone's", her winks, her "you betcha's" and her cheap sideswipes and outright debunked lies just made it very apparent that she was out of her league.

The biggest surprise to me was that she wanted the VP to have more power that the position has now. I got shivers just imagining her doing what Cheney has done...

[hamsterjill]

9. Well said!

I agree with all that you say here.

I felt, as well, that there were several times in the debate when she was just plain ugly to Biden just for the sake of being ugly and without provocation.

I felt that 90% of everything that she sang out was memorized sing-song which I doubt very seriously she understands herself.

It is a great dis-service to this great country for anyone, media or otherwise, to claim that this woman is qualified to be Vice President when it is so very plainly apparent that she would not be capable of handling the job.

[pberq]

11. Great analysis

It's so sad that we have reached this point - it's an insult to the country to have someone like that running for VP

[1776Forever]

12. Agree - Why aren't the MSM talking about the War Monger talk she spewed out?

Were they so infatuated with her winking or cutesy talk not to hear what the H she was saying? It didn't get by this 62 year-old woman! She is a neo-con Princess just like the Prince of Darkness Cheney she so loves and the man who couched her!

Meet Randy Scheunemann:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-real-news/who-is-randy-scheunemann_b_124838.html

[Kablooie]

13. There's a time for flirting and a time for working. This was not the time to flirt.

[rocktivity]

14. She made all the gravitas and credibility she could have given herself (and all womankind)

vanish in the blink of an eye.



:headbang:
rocknation