Palin's answers were 'scripted' before TV debate with Biden: GOP strategist

[babylonsister]

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/28/palinsanswers-were-scripted-before-tv-debate-withbiden.html

Palin's answers were 'scripted' before TV debate with Biden: GOP strategist
Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 17:16


London, Apr. 28: Leading Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, the brain behind John McCain's presidential campaign, has disclosed that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's answers during her TV debate with soon to be US Vice-President Joe Biden were almost rehearsed.

Pitted against the formidable Biden and with time running short, Palin's preparations for the debate were so poor that the campaign was facing a "crisis" according to Schmidt, and according to him, to avert a complete debacle, Palin was thoroughly tutored.

"These are the questions. Here's what he's going to say. Here's what your most effective response is. That we want to be able to come out of this debate saying you were on offence. If you hear 'A', you go ahead and say 'B', and so to that degree it was somewhat scripted," Schmidt told Sky News.

Incidentally, Schmidt himself had recommended Palin to McCain. They later fell out with Palin accusing McCain's team of being "too controlling" in her book 'Going Rogue".

Schmidt refused to respond to Palin's accusations directly, saying "I don't have anything more to add to it on a personal level other than to say that there was a good outcome to that debate.

[raouldukelives]

1. Shocking!

But that would explain why all her answers had noting to do with the question.

[mfcorey1]

2. It will take more than scripts for her low intellect.

[muffin1]

3. Don't you mean

her debate with O'Biden? :crazy:

[tallahasseedem]

4. And water is wet...

Schmidt only has himself to blame for unleashing this psychopath on the US.

[Kahuna]

5. File that under, Duuuuh. nt

[gratuitous]

6. Mini guv said that herself, right from the get-go

Palin prefaced her remarks by saying that she was going to speak to the American people without any media filter, and it really didn't matter what the moderator asked or what Biden said. She then proceeded to do just that, blurping out sound bites and word salads that didn't have any discernible connection to the topic at hand. I wonder if this story will get much (or any) play stateside, rather than just the overseas press?

[Ian David]

8. You're right, I remember that. And very few in the media pointed it out, either. n/t

[Ian David]

7. The secret to debating Palin and people like her is The Kirk Cameron Doctrine.

Instead of sticking to the standard territory usually covered, you bring out something new and unexpected, whether it makes sense or not.

For example, a banana.

[Toasterlad]

9. And Biden's Weren't?

What a stupid article. EVERY politician worth his/her salt rehearses before a debate, or any public speaking event. You think Obama didn't rehearse what he was going to say in his debates with McCain? Are they trying to blast her for someone coaching her? Cause all politicians get coached, too.

My god, if anything, this gives me MORE respect for her, rather than less. At least she treated the debate like a professional undertaking, not like the lazy, shoddy approach she genuinely employs.

There's more than enough to rip Palin for without this penny-ante shit.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Rehearses yes. Scripts????? HUGH difference IMHO

Sarah's answers (if you can call them that) were most definitely scripted. I'm sure Biden did some rehearsal for the debate but he, unlike Sarah, actually answered the questions he asked whereas Sarah just blurted out a bunch of random catchphrases, talking points, soundbites, "word salads", and comments no matter how directly (or indirectly) they were related to the questions being asked. Don't tell me you can't see a difference between how Obama and, yes, even McCain debated with each other versus how Palin responded to questions posed to her by the moderator during her "debate" with Biden.

[Toasterlad]

16. My Point Is the Way It's Being Presented

If this guy wants to come out and call Palin a moron, more power to him. But it's being presented as if she's being somehow dishonest because she was working from a script. ALL politicians work from scripts: Palin, Obama, McCain, Biden, Pelosi, McConnell, everyone. The only difference between Palin and the rest of those people is that she needed a SIMPLE script which included many fewer talking points than Obama, McCain and the rest are capable of handling. She lacks the talent - if not the intellect - to conform her script to the question asked. She's not dishonest (about this). She's a lously speaker (and probably an idiot).

The story isn't that Sarah Palin rehearses and works from a script. The story is that ALL politicians rehearse and work from a script. NONE of them answer questions genuinely. That's what politics IS: telling people what they want to hear, and doing it as broadly as possible, to avoid pissing off as many people as you can. If more people realized that, this country would be in much better shape.

Sarah Palin was no more fake or phony in her debate than any other politician. If this guy wants to call Palin a moron, he should just come out and call her a moron. Not try and pretend she was doing something no one else does.

[Johonny]

17. Yah, you can tell the difference in that she didn't answer the questions

she simply responded to questions and topics based on a few memorized scripts. Which she said at the beginning of the debate she was going to do! I mean it's a big difference rehearsing for a debate and then responding accordingly with the flow of the debate and what Palin did. So I agree totally with you. Even Bush was a better debater... well in 2000, in 2004 he totally melted down in the first debate.

[Ikonoklast]

10. I hope they kept him on and gave him a bonus.

Schmidt can do just as good a job for them in the next election.

[frylock]

11. that reminds me of this positively surreal picture..

[Obamanaut]

12. Isn't this similar to what all debate coaches do prior to the debate?

And lawyers prior to the witness taking the stand?

Something to the effect of "When they say this thing, you respond thusly."

[Toasterlad]

13. Exactly. This Is a Complete Non-Issue

All the things to mock Palin for, and people are seizing on THIS. Dumb.

[CatWoman]

15. there is a HUGE difference

between "rote" and "rehearse"

Just sayin...............