Blue Star Gibberish
The Blue Star Moms seems like a fine organization, but that’s no reason to start talking nonsense:
Palin responded to a question about the economic recovery plan, which was hashed out overnight. She answered, but she made it clear that she was then going to concentrate on the Blue Star Moms, “Bailout? Ok? Then I’m going to talk to these gals whose sons are also in the service. But, thankful that John McCain is able to have some of those provisions implemented in that Paulson proposal to have more sound oversight,” Palin said. “Taxpayers aren’t going to be assumed to be called upon to bail out so I’m glad that John McCain’s voice is heard and his leadership too.”
Oh for the days when politicians could dodge questions in complete, comprehensible sentences. That’s like a copy of a copy of a copy of a talking point.
When Palin was first picked, some people said that attacks on her inexperience would backfire because it would remind people of Barack Obama’s relative lack of experience. But my dad pointed out to me earlier today that the more she talks, the more the reverse happens — when you compare Obama and Palin side-by-side, purely abstract concerns you might have about his lack of experience tend to melt away in the face of a concrete example of a politician who’s not ready for prime time.
38 Responses to “Blue Star Gibberish”
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September 28th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Totally right about the Obama/Palin comparison. I don’t think the American people really care about experience, abstractly — from 1976 on, they’ve always voted for the guy with the shorter record in government.
But they do care about absolute cluelessness, the kind that makes great SNL fodder while terrifying you about the consequences of having your country run by someone who clearly knows less than you do about the world.
September 28th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
“Taxpayers aren’t going to be assumed to be called upon to bail out”
We’re not? That’s awesome news. When did that happen, and what does that leave of the plan?
September 28th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Meanwhile, Sean Hannity seems to think that the only difference between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin is that the former can memorize his lines.
Count on Hannity for providing unintentional comedy. What a complete joke that guy is.
September 28th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I feared that the Palin pick would be good for McCain because I assumed with no information (except that she had risen through Alaska state politics) that she was a competent politician who could bring excitement to McCain’s ticket to match the excitement the Democrats have in nominating the first Black presidential candidate.
Now that she’s become a laughing stock, of course I was wrong. (Happily).
My feeling though is that email, youtube, dailykos and the left internet echo chamber has made her into a laughingstock more thoroughly and effectively than we would have seen in previous election years.
She won’t be as bad during the debate as she was on Couric, but there may well be moments – and if there are, the left echo chamber is going to convert those moments into a hard week for Team McCain.
If there are no moments, the damage has still already been done. Her negatives are attached not only to her gaffes, but now to her accent, personal presentation and demeanor. Who she is has already become a laughingstock and there is nothing she can do any more. If she was to give her convention speech today, it would decrease rather than increase her favorability ratings.
September 28th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
She won’t be as bad during the debate as she was on Couric
Um, evidence?
Last report I heard was pre-debate prep was disastrous. If the VP debate format is like the Pres. debates, where the candidates go back and forth and can actually pose each other questions, good fucking night.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
If the VP debate format is like the Pres. debates, where the candidates go back and forth and can actually pose each other questions, good fucking night.
No, the McCain campaign specifically insisted that the debate format not be as free-flowing as the pres ones (don’t know why the O campaign and the commission agreed to that.) She will memorize a few talking points and stick to them no matter what the question is. With no follow-up, she could pull it off.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
No evidence. Just a conservative guess. What evidence could there possibly be about an event in the future?
This could get bad for Palin.
But the conservatives definitely are working to lower expectations, so I don’t take leaks of how bad she is seriously.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
That’s like a copy of a copy of a copy of a talking point.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
If the VP debate format is like the Pres. debates, where the candidates go back and forth and can actually pose each other questions, good fucking night.
It won’t be. Team McCain fought hard for it to be much more structured, and got their way. I suspect Team Obama had their reasons for going along, but that’s another story.
The point is, even knowing the structure of the debate, her prep work has reportedly been terrible. I don’t expect it to be as bad as folks are projecting, as Team McCain probably is trying to lower expectations as much as possible. She’ll likely muddle through, with one or two nonsensical responses.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
@7
The expectations game I think is totally different for this debate than any other we have seen. No matter how much people expect Palin to come off like a blubbering idiot, she can’t score points out of the debate if she doesn’t pass the mythic “presidential” threshold. So if the expectations are for an epic fail and she only “fails” in reality, she still fails to score points because expectations are irrelevant if you still show yourself to be completely unfit for the job.
At leas that’s my take. Still no harm can be done in raising expectations a lil bit.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
atrios says:
September 28th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
A problem for Biden is how can you possibly make a response to complete gibberish? Suppose she makes one of those statements that consist of a string of loosely related phrases with no discernible meaning and the moderator says, “Your response, Senator Biden?” You know he’s thinking “WTF?” but what does he actually say?
September 28th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
“That’s like a copy of a copy of a copy of a talking point.”
You’re being generous, Matt. It’s like a copy of a fax of a copy of a copy of a fax of a copy. It’s basically a bunch of smeared nonsense. There are no longer any legible letters to any of the words.
September 28th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
logged in just to congratulate you for: “That’s like a copy of a copy of a copy of a talking point.”
brilliant. i am greatly, greatly enjoying your posts in recent months. there’s almost always a pithy take-away. kudos and thanks.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
thomas jefferson says:
September 28th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I’ve been thinking about Buzz79’s problem for a while now, and I think ridicule is the wrong answer because it would lessen Biden and garner sympathy for Palin.
My proposal would be instead for Biden just to pivot to some relevant attack on McCain (preferably lumping in Bush as well). Generally, I think Biden’s strategy should be to force Palin not into defending herself, but into trying to defend McCain, and let the public judge if she does a competent job.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
unlike charlie gibson and katie couric, joe biden is free to say what he thinks about palin. it is in fact part of his job description. and i think he can walk and chew gum at the sam time, ie, call a ridiculous statement for what it is while asking palin to defend the platform she and mcsame are running on.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
This is getting to the point that I’m starting to feel embarrassed for Alaskans. This cannot be the same person they elected two years ago. She’s become a caricature of herself. Maybe she’s working really hard at lowering expectations to the point that we declare her the winner when she debates Joe Biden because she strings coherent sentences together. But why would anyone want to do this to themselves?
September 28th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
unlike charlie gibson and katie couric, joe biden is free to say what he thinks about palin. it is in fact part of his job description. and i think he can walk and chew gum at the sam time, ie, call a ridiculous statement for what it is while asking palin to defend the platform she and mcsame are running on.
Biden really won’t need to though. Most of the public already thinks Palin’s in way over her head. If she makes an obviously silly statement, Biden won’t need to point to it and say “Look at the silly statement!” It’ll be obvious to anyone. He’ll simply pivot onto what the Obama/Biden platform is or attack McCain, and ignore any obvious misstep by Palin.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
aarrgghh,
Of course Biden could ridicule Palin if she continues to sound like a doofus. I just think he shouldn’t, basically because enough other people are going to do it anyway, and it will likely be more helpful for the ticket if he stays out of criticizing her. Again, though, that leaves the question of what he should be doing, since he can’t be doing nothing in the debate. And it seems to me attacking McCain/Bush repeatedly is the safe choice.
In short, I think the ideal VP debate for the Democrats would be in effect two separate press conferences, one in which Biden was bashing McCain and one in which Palin was trying to defend McCain, with no direct clash between them.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
unlike charlie gibson and katie couric, joe biden is free to say what he thinks about palin. it is in fact part of his job description.
In general, I agree. But I don’t think he needs to jump on her if she spews obvious nonsense. There is some danger of Biden appearing to be the bully, and I’m sure the campaign is wary of him falling into that trap.
I suspect he’ll mostly focus on McCain in his responses to Palin, rather than address anything she specifically says.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I think the public would have a lot of sympathy if Biden were to say, “I’m sorry, but I really failed to hear an argument in there.”
September 28th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
exactly. ridicule needn’t be executed with a sledgehammer.
September 28th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I’ll enjoy watching. We’re having chicken-fried moose and word salad for dinner.
September 28th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I think at this point Palin’s own public statements, and the optics of McCain’s sequestering of her, have done her so much damage that she can’t even hope for an exceeding-low-expectations win.
At this point, I think even if she does pretty well the best she can hope for is to win back a smidgen of respect from the viewers, and maybe a little sympathy. I don’t see her revealing an inner Margaret Thatcher.
I don’t think it’d even help if they tried to give her an earpiece to feed her answers.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
”There is some danger of Biden appearing to be the bully, and I’m sure the campaign is wary of him falling into that trap”
There is no danger of Biden looking like a bully
Heard on Fox news today: “Palin is like a dog wistle to the liberals, they hate her because she goes to different parties then they do”
“Free Sarah”
“Let Palin be Palin”
She is going to be in full attack mode, a replay of her convention speech, not worried about displaying any knowledge, just looking for zingers
The nut vote will lap it up
But to everyone else she’ll come across as nasty. That could have worked if she wasn’t already the butt of jokes but as things are now, there’s not much Biden could do that would make him look like the bully
September 29th, 2008 at 12:19 am
You know, her answers remind me of when I used to Babelfish my French homework answers in high school from English to French and back to English again. Some of the key words are there, but the sentence makes absolutely no sense.
September 29th, 2008 at 9:34 am
For a minute I thought you were going to segue into a discussion of derivatives.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:42 am
My favorite part of the linked story is the next line:
Good job, handlers! Next time, try to get the microphone away before Palin says something!
September 29th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
She got pregnant too?
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