It’s all starting to make sense now
Tonight is the vice-presidential candidates debate and I've got to hand it to the Republicans, they sure know how to spin and set expectations. Everyone knows that just before the debate, both sides are building up their opponent to be the world's most effective debater and that their poor, little, ole candidate doesn't stand a chance. Therefore, when their candidate manages to walk and chew gum at the same time, it becomes an astonishing, presidential even, achievement.
So after Palin's incredibly popular performance at the Republican Convention, lip-stick on a bulldog and all, her handlers realized they had a serious problem. They were going to have to make Joe Biden, of the American people saw FDR on television and known to be occasionally veracity challenged, look like a champion debater against whom Palin wouldn't have had a chance.
So what do they do? They have Palin start verbal stumbling so that the press can't help but question her ability to face Biden. And the press fell for it! Let's face it, how could a candidate not name one newspaper or magazine that she reads to keep up with news? Even if she doesn't read a word and has aides summarize the news, she still could have thrown out the Wall Street Journal or Time Magazine. It wasn't like Couric was going to ask her to quote stories from the publications. It was an obvious attempt to look dumb.
Then there's the bit where she says that the right to privacy is guaranteed by the Constitution with regard to Roe v Wade and she couldn't come up with a single court case she disagreed with. Again, duhh, if nothing else, Roe v Wade? Surely there is some court case that is annoying Alaskans in general? And then we're expected to believe that her "advisers" (since she doesn't have a debate coach) didn't mention a couple of cases that undermine or support Roe v Wade?
Are we really supposed to believe that she is that dumb that when she has a second opportunity to back away from supporting Obama's position regarding bombing Pakistan to support McCain, that she doesn't do so, it's purely accidental? They even managed to get SNL to parody her, not once, but twice, since the convention! The press has fallen for this so hard that people actually feel sorry for her! If Biden doesn't give her the answers to the questions, he's going to look like some sort of insensitive, mean spirited, anti-feminist, ogre–the man who pushed for making violence against women a federal offense.
Has anyone ever done a better job of setting expectations for a debate than Palin and her handlers? At this point, if she's able to answer that the vice president is second in line to the presidency to the question of who succeeds the president, the press will be declaring her a genius. And if she's able to walk and chew gum at the same time, her presidential caliber will have "dazzled" Biden and the audience. And everyone is falling for it…
