BBC Interviewer: "Don't you think she's errrr rather inexperienced???"
Congresswoman Ford: "Well, no, I mean, she's a working mother with wonderful experience running a household..."
The VP debate with Biden will not be a pretty sight...
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Quote of the Day
Best quote of the day (meaning no disrespect to housewives) from BBC interview with Congresswoman Ford on the anouncement of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate:
The VP debate with Biden will not be a pretty sight...
The VP debate with Biden will not be a pretty sight...
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12 comments:
Presumably Biden will review some of Neil Kinnock's old performances on PMQ?
He's had a decade to conjure and rehearse his retorts. Perhaps the repubs strategy is to garner the sympathy vote when she is slaughtered like roadkill..?!?
-C-
Knowing how Karl Rove works, I suspect this is the outcome of a large number of focus groups.
That doesn't mean it will work - I don't like focus groups that much, but Karl is the Grandmaster of that particular discipline.
If I'm right, then they're trying to play a perceived gap between the successful "sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits" and "ordinary" women, who simply never dared to walk the walk on their own.
Many women admire Hillary (as Palin seems to do), but the perceived difficulty of the daily battles involved in success makes them desperate for a "smoother way". So here we have the new story line: "nice girl", friendly and assertive, but still smart, has success without the "unreachable" stamina of Hillary (or every other independent, successful woman). And if you dare to attack her, you're the one to shatter the dream.
Once again: I'm not insinuating it will work, but that's exactly how a strategist from the Rove school would try to implement a focus group outcome.
Sorry, wanted to say: "not too assertive"
normal being:
That's my thought too, that the Republicans might attempt to turn a Democrat strongpoint on its head by painting all those mocking Democrats and supporters as hypocritical misogynists. Handing out enough rope to let Democrats hang themselves with so to speak.
If Democrats take their strengths for granted, rest assured Karl Rove will blindside them and turn supposed strength into weakness. Fortunately it appears McCain's pick was impulsive rather than based on careful planning so Republicans will have precious little time to form a narrative against Obama.
Y'all seem to forget that Biden has a very severe case of foot-in-mouth disease. I don't think he will do well in debates, and I think that, inevitably in the next few months, he will say far dumber things than she does.
She should do just fine. I think she will shock people with how articulate she really is.
This comes from a non-voter, so I have no dog in the race. Biden just strikes me as less measured, and more prone to stupid, careless mistakes.
Biden is precisely filling out his role. He will get briefed what to do in a debate.
Steve Schmidt and Karl Rove are definitely professionals, who know a thing or two. But I haven't seen a political campaign like Obamas in my life, not even an ad campaign. He seems to be always three steps ahead and every subtle maneuvre hits.
I'm an old strategy buff and love to watch this kind of stuff, but he simply blows me.
I expect the really hard attacks from his side very late in the race, when everyone is convinced he is serious and presidential and well mannered. I think the Alaska Independence Party thing will work perfectly. Lack of patriotism, exactly what McCain needed.
Normal Being,
I too have been impressed with the scaffolding beneath Obama. And Hillary wondered "why" her poisonous disagreeable entourage was snubbed!
I like your analysis. Not wanting to underestimate Rove & Co., nor be overconfident, I do think they have over-reached, and underestimated the damage 8 years of Cheney/Bush has done to their marginal recruits.
wondering if you would like to offer a reassessment of Palin post speech. be curious to hear hear what has been so brilliant by Obama. Say nothing and say 4 more years of Bush? if that amounts to brilliant strategy, well he should be appointed to the Fed
I think her speechwriters did well and she did a fine delivery. And she's probably a fairly decent mother-in-law too. But I believe that while many of the diddies she delivered resonate on the surface - they do not hold up to scrutiny. Comparisons to the mayor as CEO somehow being superior to those of a Senator in terms of gravitas adn experience are simply fallacious. For the US is ostensibly a democracy - not a dictatorship, and as such the legislative process is necessarily one of compromise, colaberation and negotiation - not executive imposition. Hence while it sounds plausible to the average voter, it's bogus.
I am not invested in Obama, the man. But I am confident that the dems (as a team) have and will deliver more integrity and reality-based government. Globalization continues to depress real wages, and fairness remains central to accepting austerity - something the Dems are more able to impose, just as the Social Democrats in Germany were more able to push through labour reforms.
The GOP has failed the honesty test - whether promising freedom by war without imposing its finance and hence sacrifice upon the people; clinging to the demagoguery drivel about "fighting for freedom" in Vietnam or Iraq as a cornerstone in the war on terror; or Mrs Palin said last night, "failing to see how taxes make people better off", when GOP tax cuts (for the top quintile) were themselves responsible for the fiscal morass. Indeed, as demonstrated by GOP energy policy (pump more produce more), there is no recognition that imbalances and deficit problems are in any way caused by excess demand. This demagoguery continues to be difficult to combat, because after all no one WANTS higher taxes....
This election is not about Obama. This election is about restoring some semblance of reality to the political process. The dems (as with most dem admins before them) will be less bad than the GOP either before or after. This is demonstrated in the historical numbers, and has never been more sorely needed than the present.
S:
The two things that surprised me about Palin's speech was that the first half was devoted to her family and the rest put so much emphasis on values rather than policies. Made the assertion that Obama is all speech and no substance ring hollow. Sounded like she rode the familiar old conservative hobby horses, trying to deflect attention from more concrete issues. That she could do speeches is hardly surprising, she has after all successfully campaigned for governor.
I have to say I was far more surprised by how poor a speaker McCain was in that infamous green screen speech. After that I could understand why he chose to campaign in smaller town hall style settings where his personal touch shines through. The only problem is that those meetings rarely make the news. Obama drawing a big crowd is news, and big enthusiastic crowd makes him look like a winner. MCain's playing to his own strengths is in this case putting him in a media shadow.
A number of embarrassing miscalculations in the image battle is certainly not helping McCain, like responding to Obama's Berlin speech from a pseudo-German restaurant. Perhaps he meant it as a mockery of Obama but that sure boomeranged on McCain. Maybe he'll let Palin handle the national stage from now on as she's the better speaker of the two?
No doubt McCain will have rehearsed his acceptance speech thoroughly to sound much better in front of a national audience. It would be catastrophic for McCain's campaign if he comes across badly again.
Hmm - watching Dem supporters struggling to come to terms with Palin is good sport.
A star is born. Yeehaw!
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