I watched Saturday Night Live last night, and Tina Fey made Sarah Palin look like a dunce (even though, surprisingly, Tina Fey was more articulate on certain occasions than Governor Palin herself). And that’s pretty much how the media are portraying her. The New York Times even suggested that McCain drop her from the ticket.
Wasilla Kilkenny portrays Palin as someone who’s able to bully people and get her own way on account of her popularity (see Palin the Hun?) Well, if that’s how she truly is, then she’s probably beginning to realize that it’s a whole different ballgame on the national level.
I’m really hoping that Palin gets the last laugh and shines at the coming debate. I know that she has within her the capacity to come across as intelligent and articulate (see A Good Palin Interview and Palin on C-Span–Old Interview). Maybe McCain is hiding her and she’s doing badly in the interviews because McCain wants to lower expectations, or make the Biden camp smug and complacent.
We’ll see how the debate turns out…
James' Ramblings 
I’m still clueless as to why you want to like her so much?
I also don’t think the McCain camp is trying reverse psychology here but I also don’t think Biden is not going to take her seriously. But if it at all gets back and forth in the debate I don’t think it’s going to look good for her at all. Just imagine if Obama had debated McCain yet didn’t have any knowledge of the subjects, especially foreign policy. I predict in this next week the McCain camp will be trying to throw another hail marry.
I thought it was funny when I was watching the debate on NBC and it was over and they had Biden on to talk about it and then they said we asked for Palin to come on and speak with us but the McCain camp declined and the Republicans sent Rudy Gulliani (sp?) instead. You know this can’t be good internally right now for the Republican party if that’s happening.
I think we need to consider the real possibility that Palin could drop off the ticket. It’s a big gamble but McCain has been making big gambles. If she does drop off it won’t officially be for the obvious reasons. Instead they’ll have to come up with something that makes her and McCain look good. So what would it be? Some sort of family issues? health? crisis in her home state?
Bryan L
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Hi Bryan,
1. It’s not so much that I “want” to like her. I do like her. I’ve seen her give good interviews. And I do believe she’s a reformer who challenged her party’s establishment. It’s just that I’m disappointed with how she’s done in some interviews.
2. There was a time when Obama didn’t seem to have much knowledge on foreign policy–when he was debating Hillary. But he had time and opportunity to grow in this area–through debates, through his experience on the Senate. Personally, I don’t think that a lot of what Sarah Palin says is dumb. She just needs to package it a lot better.
3. I don’t think she’ll be dropped. I don’t even think Biden will be dropped (Hannity’s claims notwithstanding). You just don’t see VP candidates replaced all that often. Bush I stuck by Dan Quayle, when he was portrayed as dumb and inexperienced. And, overall, even if Palin does poorly in this coming debate, she’ll stay on. Bush II did pretty poorly in his debates–as far as demonstrating a solid grasp of the issues in an articulate manner was concerned. But that did not hurt him.
Plus, you really don’t see too many politicians like Sarah Palin. She has a compelling story. And I don’t know too many real reformers who buck the system. Huckabee and Romney weren’t really like that when they were governor (as far as I know).
I think it would be nice if they let her out more, but it’s hard when the media will blow any gaffe out of proportion. And I think part of that has to do with media bias, but it’s not the whole story. The media are used to Biden’s gaffes, so they don’t make too big a deal out of them. But Sarah Palin is new, and–as a result–she’s under the spotlight a lot more. Maybe that would be a good reason to let her get out more.
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Put simply, she’s completely out of her league. I don’t like her becuase she’s a far right idealogue with connections to churches that make Rev. Wright look like a sane, gentle person, but also because she really has no applicable skills to bring to the job of VP, and lots of skeletons in her closet.
Picking her for VP candidate was one of the stupidest things McCain ever did, but it probably did what he wanted it to for a week or two. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
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Yeah, I don’t know what skeletons you mean, Russell, but the AP reported this afternoon that as mayor she received gifts and tried to influence the city council to do something with zoning ordinances so she could sell her house. What’s weird is that I heard a clip of her on a radio show when she was governor, and even then she sounded ethically scrupulous.
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troopergate, there are rumors of an affair (not that I care, but her base certainly should!), troopergate, bridge to nowhere, etc., etc.
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oops. I mentioned troopergate twice.
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1. Troopergate’s probably like Watergate in the sense that what Palin’s accused of doing is not that big of a deal, but the Palin Administration’s actions to it after the fact look like a coverup. Not that it is that, since she may be afraid that the partisans conducting the investigation will put a negative spin on her actions regardless of what it finds. But I can understand why some may feel she’s not being forthright.
I think she may have expected the issue to go away once we found out what type of person her ex-brother-in-law was, but it didn’t.
2. The affair was a tabloid speculation, as far as I know, so I’m not too worried about that.
3. The Bridge to Nowhere is also not too big of a concern to me, since she did kill it, when she could have used Congress’ money to help fund it. And she did run up against powerful interests when she did so.
But there are other problems–projects she supports that many claim are wasteful, now the special favors the AP is reporting, etc.
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Keep in mind that the tabloid that broke the affair story also broke the John Edwards affair story.
Which turned out to be true.
Which is why I’m not dismissing it out of hand.
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Yeah, that’s true. It was the Enquirer that broke that (I think).
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