"I've debated Sarah Palin more than two dozen times..." a must-read

[npincus]

This is what Biden is up against tomorrow, for better or worse.


http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1001/p09s01-coop.html

Anchorage, Alaska - When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full.

I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.

On paper, of course, the debate appears to be a mismatch.

In 2000, Palin was the mayor of an Alaskan town of 5,500 people, while Biden was serving his 28th year as a United States senator. Her major public policy concern was building a local ice rink and sports center. His major public policy concern was the State Department's decision to grant an export license to allow sales of heavy-lift helicopters to Turkey, during tense UN-sponsored Cyprus peace talks.

On paper, the difference in experience on both domestic and foreign policy is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing a bullet. Unfortunately for Biden, if recent history is an indicator, experience or a grasp of the issues won't matter when it comes to debating Palin.

On April 17, 2006, Palin and I participated in a debate at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks on agriculture issues. The next day, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner published this excerpt:

"Andrew Halcro, a declared independent candidate from Anchorage, came armed with statistics on agricultural productivity. Sarah Palin, a Republican from Wasilla, said the Matanuska Valley provides a positive example for other communities interested in agriculture to study."

On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment that highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

While policy wonks such as Biden might cringe, it seemed to me that Palin was simply vocalizing her strength without realizing it. During the campaign, Palin's knowledge on public policy issues never matured – because it didn't have to. Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on populism instead of policy.

Palin is a master of the nonanswer. She can turn a 60-second response to a query about her specific solutions to healthcare challenges into a folksy story about how she's met people on the campaign trail who face healthcare challenges. All without uttering a word about her public-policy solutions to healthcare challenges.

In one debate, a moderator asked the candidates to name a bill the legislature had recently passed that we didn't like. I named one. Democratic candidate Tony Knowles named one. But Sarah Palin instead used her allotted time to criticize the incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. Asked to name a bill we did like, the same pattern emerged: Palin didn't name a bill.

And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has a canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level. For example, asked to name a major issue that had been ignored during the campaign, I discussed the health of local communities, Mr. Knowles talked about affordable healthcare, and Palin talked about ... the need to protect hunting and fishing rights.

So what does that mean for Biden? With shorter question-and-answer times and limited interaction between the two, he should simply ignore Palin in a respectful manner on the stage and answer the questions as though he were alone. Any attempt to flex his public-policy knowledge and show Palin is not ready for prime time will inevitably cast him in the role of the bully.

On the other side of the stage, if Palin is to be successful, she needs to do what she does best: fill the room with her presence and stick to the scripted sound bites.

[soleft]

1. Here's my take - I'm not worried.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=7265042&mesg_id=7265042

[speedoo]

10. I agree with you. I'm not at all worried either.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=203441&mesg_id=203456

[BridgeTheGap]

2. Her interview with Katie Couric indicates otherwise...n.t

[Frustratedlady]

3. Don't you recall the many times Couric kept repeating the question?

For instance, on which newspapers she read? She absolutely would not be specific.

I think Biden needs to do exactly as this article suggests and when she answers, act puzzled...which is probably how he'll feel. I don't look for him to be rude to her, but he can diminish her by being informative and dignified.

[Terran]

17. Yes but her non-specificity came out sounding ludicrous

"Oh Katie, I've read all of them." I'm sorry, but there are limits to this strategy, and if that was the top of her form, then I don't exactly agree she's a master of the non-answer. And this was a total softball question, which she could have easily answered with a couple of specific names, and yet she chose not to. What does that say about her? I think she's on autopilot. I think she will destroy herself in the debate, while Biden just watches.

[demmiblue]

20. That is the same thing I was thinking, however...

I thought I read that there would be no options for rebuttal in the debate. I wish this was not the case, as it may take take a little of the edge off her complete ignorance.

However, I still think her non-answers will fail miserably! Especially when they are in stark contrast to Biden's answers.

I am thoroughly looking forward to her losing it!

edit: grammar

[npincus]

23. I can't wait to see what Tina Fey does with it...

[npincus]

5. this is informative...

based on past strategies, it sounds like she will come to the debate packed with anecdotes, charm, and folksiness, will "be Sarah" not for the American audience, but the socially conservative, anti-intellectual, anti-"liberal elite" audience out there. I suspect it won't go over, but based on the performances described by one who has knowledge through experience, that will be her debate strategy.

[RichGirl]

4. In Alaska she is a big fish in a small pond.

She is doing so badly because she is in a completely different world right now, where cute snarky women are a dime a dozen.

It's like the valedictorian of a small town high school, who barely squeaks into a good college. They may have been the smartest kid in the class before, but now they are scraping the bottom.

[npincus]

6. or a small moose in a big forest.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

7. Biden is going to wipe the floor with Palin - in a respectful way, of course.

[Jersey Devil]

8. Faking it against a state assemblyman in Alaska just ain't the same thing

I've seen some videos of her Alaska debates and she speaks the same way she did in her answers to Katie Couric - sweeping generalities, no specifics, cute little zingers (like about Biden's age). The difference is that in the veep contest she actually has to know at least something about issues she has never dealt with (or apparently even thought about) before in her life like foreign policy, world geography, serious economics, etc.

I ain't worried.

[nxylas]

9. It sounds like that's what he's planning to do anyway

Didn't he say something about the debate being "a conversation with the American people?" I take that to mean that he is going to ignore Palin's twitterpating as much as possible and talk directly to the voters instead. Probably a wise move, though I'd LMAO if he interrupted Palin's 23rd folksy story about herself with "there you go again".

[Overseas]

11. She spun her non-answers fairly smoothly in the Alaska gubernatorial debates.

I think she'll just do the same and say meaningless platitudes to every answer.

SHE will be the gotcha person for some questions. That may be why she was talking so much about gotcha journalists when they weren't being tough. She's gonna toss in some slam lines.

She will also have rehearsed sentences for various situations.

Republicans have allowed her worst interview clips to be aired and reaired and laughed about. So now, if she doesn't stumble too badly, she will have "won."

[codjh9]

12. Yeah, I think your suggestion for Biden is good against The Empty Suit

[Sugarcoated]

13. The great thing about Biden that the MSM is missing

is that, though he is encyclopedic with info and very experienced he also has that "everyday guy" appeal. He knows how to connect with average hard working small town people, and that's tricky in places like PA where he's popular, Ohio, Michigan. I think he'll appeal to those kinds of voters enough to trump her yup yup folksiness.

[Silent3]

14. She may have been able to pull that off in Alaska...

...where possibly she might not be as woefully ignorant of local issues as she is with national and foreign policy issues. Everyone has seen, however, when it comes to posing as a viable VP candidate, Palin can't even get enough of the talking points straight to form a crude facsimile of a reasonable answer to many fairly easy questions.

She doesn't know, and hasn't been quick enough a study to learn, a sufficiently useful collection of those "glittering generalities" for her current situation. Part of what has made her interviews so painfully embarrassing is that you can see her clutching at straws, trying to form answers by cobbling together disjointed bits from a limited, ill-suited bag of tired rhetoric.

She might be a good debater in her league, but the whole problem here is that she's clearly out of her league now.

[zonkers]

15. Yeah, that might work in Alaska.

[mtnester]

16. So, she will be talking only about no new taxes

and terrorism

no matter what questions is asked.

[Indenturedebtor]

18. Heheh those bush league tricks won't work this time.

Especially not with all of the problems we're facing right now... I don't think that the "cute idiot" is so appealing anymore.

[BeyondGeography]

19. Except this is the rare year when "glittering generalities" won't fly

Sorry, babe.

[ginnyinWI]

21. Her success would require an audience only looking to be pacified

If the people are sufficiently alarmed by recent events in the economy, they aren't going to fall for more Bush-like tactics. We are so tired of the good old boy or girl non-statesman like politician. We know we want someone capable. I hope!

Look at Florida. If that state can turn blue...

[rucky]

22. Biden's common sense impresses me more than his factual knowledge.

He can go toe-to-toe with Palin on a populist message, the difference being he'll have the facts to back it up.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. Palin will have set phrases that the right wing media will use and repeat to her advantage

This is how it works. When you heard Bush in a normal conversation he couldn't string 2 words together correctly but when prepped, there he was rattlings off those snappy phrases that the media picked up.

I think Biden can make it snappy too without droning on and on. I think Biden can interject with Palin if she gives one of her rambling non answers. He can keep at her until she looks utterly foolish.

[hamsterjill]

25. I think everything is going to be just fine.

It's not that I don't believe that Palin will have some tricks up her sleeves, etc. (more likely a wire in her ear!!), but I think that Joe is going to do us all proud.

I believe that he genuinely knows the issues and I believe he will communicate the Obama/Biden positions clearly and in a personable way. I have a lot of faith in him. And I think he's taking this debate very seriously and reverently.

I don't expect any die-hard McCain/Palin voters to be swayed away from voting for them because of the VP debate. But I do think that every time that Palin speaks, and reminds everyone just how very unqualified that she really is - each of those instances makes an undecided voter think, or reinforces to a potential Obama/Biden voter WHY they should vote for the Democratic ticket.

[GreenEyedLefty]

26. She's the "downright moron" H.L. Mencken referred to.

Lucky us.

[Maven]

27. 1) This is a national audience. Much bigger pond, much bigger issues.

2) Sounds like this guy was a megawonk with not a lot of charisma. Yes, knowing your stuff matters but you have to be personable and be able to communicate your POV and your policies in a relatable fashion. Joe is a master at doing just that.

To me, this article doesn't say much except that Palin is likely to be overconfident based on her past experiences debating, which will backfire.

[DeeDeeNY]

28. Folksiness did work for Reagan

This debate appears to be such a mismatch that it's easy to get carried away on what a cakewalk it will be. The bar has been lowered so much, that if she doesn't show herself to be a complete idiot, the pundits will spin it that she "held her own".

[oviedodem]

30. Yeah but Raygun did have a policy behind it all.

[smoogatz]

29. I think Biden just has to keep saying "That was a nice story, but

she didn't really answer the question" in his rebuttal time. Then he can quickly re-state his position.