Matthew Yglesias » Palin Says McCain Wants to Regulate Wall Street; Can’t Cite Any Examples

Sep 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm

Palin Says McCain Wants to Regulate Wall Street; Can’t Cite Any Examples

This time around you have to feel bad for Sarah Palin. For once, it’s not her inexperience and — worse — lack of knowledge that’s really at issue here. Rather, she’s being asked to serve as a public face for the McCain campaign’s fundamentally dishonest pitch that McCain is anything other than a by-the-book right-wing deregulator of the financial system:

It’s a real moose in the headlights look.

Igor Volsky at the Wonk Room has some actual facts.

Comments
33

33 Responses to “Palin Says McCain Wants to Regulate Wall Street; Can’t Cite Any Examples”

msw Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
In the name of Jesus somebody needs to buck her up.
James Gary Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
It’s a real moose in the headlights look.

I think at this point she’s going for the sympathy vote–conveying the impression that “those mean media people” are trying to pick on “poor honest straight-talking Sarah” by asking “trick questions.” Thus, the more flustered and hapless she acts, the more she appears one of the “common people.”
Jake Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Wait – I thought she wanted to play stump the candidate. No?
marko Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
this is the most painful thing i’ve ever seen
ed Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I actually hit a moose with my car once – it had more of a sleepy-dumb “wha?” kind of look on it’s face than you associate with the deer-in-the-headlights “OHHHSHIT!”. Moose are slow, awkward looking animals that are too big to have to worry about much, so they don’t really move too quick to get out of the way of speeding pickups.

I don’t know if that information helps with any moose-related Palin metaphors, though.
DTM Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Yes it was a tough question since her premise was false, but that doesn’t really excuse the middle part of the clip (the bit starting with her description of McCain as “THE Maverick”), where she not only isn’t answering the question but also sounds like a complete doofus.
DR Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Hey, what do you think of the Letterman clip??
Anthony Damiani Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
“…he’s also known as The Maverick, though!”

“… I’ll try to find some, and I’ll bring ‘em to ya!”

wow.
Barbar Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Thus, the more flustered and hapless she acts, the more she appears one of the “common people.”

Uh no… she’s just trying to recite talking points and sound folksy. The moose in the headlights look is not intended.

When she is being interviewed by an intelligent-sounding woman, the contrast is very very striking.
John Henry Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
“…he’s also known as The Maverick, though!”

Andrew Halcro, her opponent in the Governor’s race, nailed her MO with ‘Classic glittering generalities.

Ironically, this is Palin’s greatest strength and although these types of nebulous statements drive policy wonks crazy, the average voters eats them up.’
Seitz Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
but that doesn’t really excuse the middle part of the clip (the bit starting with her description of McCain as “THE Maverick”)

But see, she understands what you people don’t. It doesn’t matter that John McCain has always been in favor of less regulation. His Mavericky maverickness will simple maveregulate Wall Street. He won’t even know he’s doing it. His mavoracious appetite for getting things right will just maverick the hell out of Wall Street. You can’t stop it. It will run maverick all over your asses. His maveritude is kinda like the incredible hulk. Don’t make his maverosity angry. You wouldn’t like it when it’s angry.

Maverick.
scott Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 1:05 am
matt and everyone,

i raise money for the dnc.

It is nice to have fun and denigrate sarah palin,
but she is dangerous.

i always hate it when someone from our side
says gw or whomever is dumb.

face it guys, gw had as good if not better grades
than jfk, gore, and kerry; and i supported them.

she is not some dumb bimbo from alaska; she
is as qualified as any of them, and her positions
scare me.

take her seriously.

scott
55 Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I’ve never thought Dubya was as dumb as he pretends to be, but I really think Palin is the real deal.
Ed Marshall Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 2:08 am
face it guys, gw had as good if not better grades
than jfk, gore, and kerry; and i supported them.

I’m some screwed up, concern troll. Don’t watch this and determine you are watching an idiot. I’m here to help.
Richard Steven Hack Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Personally, I think she handled Couric as well as anybody probably would who didn’t have every detail of McCain’s time on the Commerce Committee in front of her.

Let’s face it, they can’t prep her for every question – and this economics stuff just popped up in the last two weeks. Before that, it was all Georgia and Palin herself, and despite the stupidity of the McCain campaign policies, she worked it.

And I think she played this part of the interview very well – she very pleasantly said, “I’ll find out and bring it to you”. That’s about as straight a response as she could have given. Sure, it’s a cop-out. Any politician can be nailed and give the exact same cop-out. She didn’t do any worse than many others in the same position.

And I saw absolutely NO “deer in the headlights” on her face.

And everybody knows I’m hardly a Palin lover – I think she really is a stupid bitch from Alaska. But she’s not so stupid that she can’t act like a politician in an interview. I’ve seen really stupid responses from some much more senior politicians in my time, and this wasn’t it.

In fact, I saw Don Rumsfeld utterly SANDBAGGED by a team of interviewers once, and he sat there for an entire ten to twenty seconds unable to say a WORD. Nobody spoke. It was surreal. THAT is a “deer in headlights” moment. Rumsfeld was utterly dumbfounded that a news team would deliberately sandbag him on one his stupid quotations that he tried to deny ever making.

Compared to that performance, Palin came out as a “good ol’ girl”. She handled it as well as an moron like her could.

Matt is trying for the easy shot again. Look at his performances on video – compared to Palin, he comes off like, well, like he likes to think Palin is coming off. He shrieks, he babbles, he doesn’t let anybody get a word in edgewise – and he comes across as completely unsure of himself and his positions. If he went on Keith Olbermann or Maddow, the comparison would be stark and highly unflattering.

So for Matt to make fun of Palin is, quite frankly, laughable.

Meanwhile Obama is losing, despite any lame four to ten point lead, something Matt can’t be bothered to address.
SAO Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 4:48 am
What’s with the goofy accent, sounds like some muddled N. Dakota. Nobody I know from Idaho or Alaska sounds like that.
Obaden Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Thank god for sarah palin . democrats will finally win the white house!!!
DTM Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 7:26 am
For what it is worth, I don’t think Palin is dumb. Rather, I think she just doesn’t know much about national policy issues, and is proving bad at faking it.
Drew Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Mark Twain said it best.
Its better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt
j salerno Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 8:37 am
So a ‘dnc fundraiser’ thinks Palin is the real deal, eh? Do you also think McCain has it right on the economy all along? Palin might not be subnormal, but she clearly is not up to running the country. I do agree with you that orginally Bush and Kerry were probably similar happy bottom quarter, Skull and Bones Yalies, Kerry had the guts to go to Viet Nam and the guts to say it was a mistake based on what he saw there. He’s spent forty years getting smarter by working at it. Bush has spent forty years dumbing himself down from slightly above average.
Gore had some rough semesters (you do remember the 60s and the war, don’t you? He’s not alone.) He graduated cum laude in the end. Gore is no genius, but he’s much smarter than Kerry and Bush. Palin took 6 years to get a journalism degree from Idaho State. You do know who JFK was, don’t you? Did you ever hear him speak? He graduated cum laude from Harvard. His senior honors thesis was published and became a best seller. He later won the Pulitzer Prize. Are you going to claim with no evidence that he didn’t do his college work himself, but honest W, McCain (what was HIS class rank, 684 out of 687? ) and of course Sarah Einstein Palin did all their work themselves.
The best evidence of ability is not college grades but what you accomplish afterwards. Bush was elected as a lowbrow and proved himself incompetent. McCain and Palins are obvious incompetents. You don’t sound too bright either.
David B. Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 9:26 am
In Palin’s partial defense, she’s clearly lying. Both she and Couric know McCain’s anti-regulation, but these are the talking points.

She does have no gravitas at all.
Thlayli Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
you have to feel bad for Sarah Palin

There will be plenty of time to feel bad for her after the first Tuesday in November.

Right now: eyes on the prize.
mrgumby2u Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I sometimes find myself in meetings with a person who has been briefed on the points she is supposed to bring up, but other than that she doesn’t really know the subject in any depth. When I ask her a question that wasn’t covered in the briefing, she scans her notes and reads back to me whatever seems close to an answer. That’s exactly what Palin looked like in this clip. I have to give Couric credit for not doing what I sometimes do in these meetings, deliberately coming up with questions I know the woman isn’t prepared for just to see what outlandish answer she will try to squeeze in.

Who’d have thought that anybody could make Charles Gibson and Katie Couric look so bright?
J. P Small Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Lets call a duck a duck.
Couric did not ask for EVERY instance, she asked if Palin knew of ANY. She did not.

We are in deep doo doo if peopel are taking this woman seriously.
scott Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
to j salerno,

sorry, i couldn’t get back earlier.

re: “So a ‘dnc fundraiser’ thinks Palin is the real deal, eh?”

didn’t i say she was “dangerous?”

i do, and forgive me if i don’t think offhand jokes pass for discourse
at this time.

and your close: “You don’t sound too bright either.”

this is what bothers me about the party i have supported my whole life.

what have we come to?

and, i’ll put my phd against you anytime.

scott
Madrasi Says:
September 28th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Lord have mercy; if this wasn’t so SCARY it would be hilarious. WHO IS THIS WOMAN and has Mc Cain lost his MIND?
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Matt Yglesias

Palin Says McCain Wants to Regulate Wall Street; Can’t Cite Any Examples

33 Responses to “Palin Says McCain Wants to Regulate Wall Street; Can’t Cite Any Examples”

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