I think Palin is going to come across in the debate as capable,

[Perky]

Why? I just cannot fathom her as being as bad as her interviews suggest. That is just unimaginable to me. Not that I don't want her to be a national embarassment. I just expect her to be evasive and gaffe free.


If she makes me wince like Admiral Stockdale did, I will be elated. But I suspect she is going to better than anticipated.

[Marsala]

1. It IS hard to imagine that she could fail as much as we expect

But then, she certainly has surpassed all expectations so far.

[tblue]

2. She will. I'm bracing for her to do okay.

No that she isn't still a nasty, evil, vindictive, heartless woman.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. Exactly. Also the format don't allow for her to be a total buffoon.

[tblue]

7. Can you explain that to me pls? I keep hearing people say that but 90 seconds is an awful

lot of time to fill, seems to me.

[MidwestTransplant]

21. She doesn't need to fill it. Also there is no back and forth between the candidates.

She can just talk about Freedom, Terrarists, Drill Drill Drill in generalities and look reasonable (i.e. not like a total uninformed moron).

[rvablue]

26. YES THERE IS!

Each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond followed by two minutes in which the candidates may address each other.

Read the debate outline....it's in there.

[MidwestTransplant]

34. They can't do what McCain and Obama did. Its expressely forbidden.

They can't ask questions of each other or address each other. That's what I recall when the debate format was agreed to. It was a big deal for that reason.

[Blue_Roses]

4. yeah, I have to agree and it makes me nervous since we

never know what the repubs will pull. Rather than run a campaign on truth and policies--oh, wait, they have none--they resort to reaching in their black bag and pulling out their tricks.

I have no doubt Joe Biden will do well, but he is really being put at a disadvantage with all the "rules" the McCain camp wants for sister Palin:eyes:

I'm so sick of her. I shudder to think of having to hear her or McCain for the next four years:argh:

[TwilightGardener]

5. I think she'll operate on cuteness, snappiness, and charm, and have

just enough memorized to pull her through--and her "holding her own" against the old Senate veteran will be declared a win. BTW, if Biden makes even one mistake, the press will pounce on it.

[DefenseLawyer]

6. Winks and Giggles and Toby Keith lyrics n/t

[davepc]

8. I've watched the Alaska gubernatorial debate clips on YouTube, and she wasn't that bad

Full of non-answers and personal antidotes and lacking any type of intellectual curiosity...but not that bad.

[iceman66]

20. And that was without being coached for weeks by the McCain people.

[rvablue]

31. The psychogical environment of the two are in no way comparable.

Gubernatorial debates get notoriously low ratings.

She was sitting at a table with two journalists that she knew well and debated two opponents she knew well on a handful of issues she knew well in a relaxed enviroment, watched by few and with few expectations.

Before that debate, she was not skewered all over of the web, on SNL, on the View on the Daily Show and on every cable show by some talking head as being an incompetent know-nothing.

Now either she's been watching all of this talk of her, or she has been told NOT to turn the TV -- either way this has to get to someone who has NEVER been under this kind of scrutiny.

On Thursday, she has to go stand on a stage, behind a lecturn, under glaring lights that make the audience look like a silent dark abyss and answer questions on ANY subject under the sun, all the while trying to make herself look capapble next to someone who is famous in D.C. for having one of the most encyclopedic knowledge bases and warmest personalities in politics.

Yeah, she may want to bring a "personal antidote" as you wrote, because personal anecdotes are not going to cut it at national debate for the second highest office in the land (or world for that matter!)

[okieinpain]

33. I agree, look at how al gore did in that first debate, he over did it.

so imagine how this women must feel. but I still just can't see her being as bad as she's been the last couple of weeks.

[City Lights]

9. I think the ticket to her success is short answers.

Enough buzz words to come across as having an understanding of the topic, but short on details, which is where she tends to get lost. She's at her worst when she's trying to fill empty air and resorts to repeating herself over and over again.

[davsand]

10. The expectations are SO low for her I doubt anyone could actually be that bad.

Yes, she really IS a nasty woman with horrible hurtful attitudes about so many things, but I just can't fathom anyone being as bad as some of the DUers are expecting her to be. It would be really funny to see her go on TV and actually act as silly as Saturday Night Live has portrayed her, but I just am not expecting that to happen.

I am also hoping I am wrong.




Laura

[napi21]

11. Every time I read predictions that she will fail, I think of the time

our Company sponsored a week long training seminar for all of us buyers. At the end of the week, we were paired off into 2's where one person played the buyer & the other played the salesman, and we were to apply the lessons of the week to see who would win. All you heard in the background of the room was people saying "Oh God, please don't let it be me who gets paired up with the boss!" (He was a very experienced purchasing Director who we all respected.) Yea, you guessed it! I got the short straw, and had to battle my boss! You can't believe how SHOCKED everyone was when I came out the winner! BTW, I had only been a buyer for about 2 years at that time.

I learned that day that NOBODY should ever underestimate the opposition!

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. I think she's gonna come off as a Single-A player trying to play in the Majors

She'll be affable enough, and engaging, but affable and engaging don't cut it in this game. The initial impression will then be that she did well, but her non-answer style will turn the voters off, and you'll see that reflected in the results for Indy's especially.

Notice in the McCain-Obama debate that many of the pundits got it completely wrong the night of. They said, well McCain was tough, and Obama agreed a lot, so McCain won. But McCain actually lost badly, and the polls then demonstrated, because Obama was playing to the undecideds, who did not like the snark, nastiness, and attacks launched by McCain, but wanted a ore conciliatory approach. Obama read it perfectly, and his strategy paid massive dividends. The pundits are still scratching their heads.

The same will happen here. Palin will concentrate on non-answers, while Biden will go detail-heavy. The pundits will say he sounded "wonky," while Palin "connected on a personal level." But people dn't want personal connection right now. They want wonky, and the polls will go that way after the fact.

If there's one defining quality of this election cycle, it's that the pundits have consistently misread the electorate.

[Labors of Hercules]

23. May I kick the shit out of you?

KICK KICK!!! :kick:

[dchill]

35. I think you have it right...

Even when she is mostly coherent, her answers are wrong. Wrong. Regardless of all the hype, complaints of "sexism", and unfair comparisons to Obama or Biden, she is wrong - AND way out of her league. It would take her until next Friday to know barebones facts about what she needs to know this Thursday. She knows about the existence of Roe v. Wade, and that's about it. And she doesn't remember the name of the newspaper in which she read about it. If she did.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Capable if you don't expect her to do much.

Which in that case makes her unqualifiably unqualified.

[AndyTiedye]

14. She'll Have a Wire

[CakeGrrl]

15. And Biden should remind people that that is not good enough.

This isn't about coming out of the debate gaffe-free and thereby being good enough to help lead the nation. It's about making the stronger case that you're up to the job of VP and the potential to step up as president.

THAT is what Biden should take the opportunity to remind the voters, and do it by laying out what he plans to bring to the role.

[leftofcool]

16. According to shot of her old debates when running for mayor and

governor, she did very well.

[chiefofclarinet]

28. Maybe as governor, but this is a whole different ballgame

I've heard the analogy of comparing her to a AA-Minor League player that got called up to the majors. Sure, she had success in Wasilla, but it is a small town at best. Sure, she did all right in the Alaska gubernatorial debates, but that still doesn't mean much. Alaska is much different than the lower 48 and Hawaii. People have different ideas of what is important and how government should work. And, she's facing one of the strongest Democratic senators currently. I don't see it's going to be a bloodbath, but she will seem like she's way above her head.

[I_Will]

17. "Who am I, and why am I here?" She could quote the the good Admiral :)

[Mike Daniels]

18. If she tries to rely on snark and charm I think she'll bomb - she needs to show some competence

If she relies more on snarky comments like holding her finger in the air to see where the wind is blowing it's going to backfire. Her base will eat it up but I think the general public will be "O.K. we've seen this already. Give us something that shows you understand the responsibility ahead of you if you end up winning in November".


Incidentally, I expect if she tries to do the "community organizer" bit again that Biden is going to school her and the idiot public about what community organizers do for the country.

[hisownpetard]

19. Her answers will be filled with more one-liners than Don Rickles. I'd bet on it.

Since she wants to avoid details at all costs, she will rely on her "charm" to disarm people.

Never underestimate the ignorance of the low-information voter.

I'm scared.

[HuckleB]

22. Of course she will, McCain fixed the "debate" format to fit her.

"... the McCain campaign demanded changes in the debate rules to include shorter question and answer times and limited interaction between the two candidates to prevent any free flowing discussions...
This is why we need a press conference. This debate was rigged to allow a know-nothing to mouth platitudes and charm. We need to know if she knows anything. And we need follow-ups."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/quote-for-th-41.html

[agent46]

24. If past debates are any indicator

Doesn't matter how she performs really. All the pundits have to do is "say" she did well, even in the face of obvious incompetence. If history is any indicator, the Amerikan public is likely to accept any premise they're offered by a talking head - immediately disregarding the creeping uneasy feeling that comes from cognitive dissonance. (Even if we didn't think so at first, it must be true she won/did well. After all, we heard it on tv!)

Remember Bush's abysmal "win" over Kerry in the 2004 debate? The guy came off like an idiot savant on speedballs. It was obvious he was wired (in more ways than one) and said almost nothing of substance. The talking heads simply said he won and Amerika followed.

Afterthought:
There's an adversarial, predatory relationship between the media conglomerates and public "consumers" (formerly free citizens). How to roll back television and radio's death-grip on public perception management is a tough question.

[Johonny]

25. the damage is already done

She's already a running joke. It's pretty impossible for her to recover.

[EstimatedProphet]

27. I doubt she's going to come out in a clown suit playing an accordion

I'm sure she'll come across as somewhat capable, but there's more to winning the debate than just that. A lot of the discussion in the past couple of days has made it seem that people think if she doesn't come across as a complete embarrassment, she wins. That's just not true.

[Mike Daniels]

32. Actually, if she had the guts to do that (appear in a clown suit) and I lived in a safe Obama state

I'd vote for her just on that alone.

[Stop Cornyn]

29. Palin may not "come across in the debate as capable," but I'm sure that's how it will be reported.

[Overseas]

30. Republicans are hoping we didn't see the Alaskan gubernatorial debate tapes

that CSpan repeated after she was nominated. She was fairly smooth in those.

They want us to think of the awful replies to Katie.

Then, if Palin doesn't fall down she'll be considered to have succeeded.

[Vinca]

36. I honestly don't think she is capable of more than parroting a few

talking points. She hears the trigger word, she spews the line. To date she has uttered nothing specific about anything. I think the Couric interview sealed her fate. She knows we know she's an empty pantsuit.