Palin did a good job

[Shotgun 1]

I found her answer to this question interesting:

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IFILL: Thank you, governor.

Probably the biggest cliche about the vice-presidency is that it's a heartbeat away, everybody's waiting to see what would happen if the worst happened. How would -- you disagree on some things from your principles, you disagree on drilling in Alaska, the National Wildlife Refuge, you disagree on the surveillance law, at least you have in the past. How would a Biden administration be different from an Obama administration if that were to happen.



IFILL: Governor.

PALIN: And heaven forbid, yes, that would ever happen, no matter how this ends up, that that would ever happen with either party.

As for disagreeing with John McCain and how our administration would work, what do you expect? A team of mavericks, of course we're not going to agree on 100 percent of everything. As we discuss ANWR there, at least we can agree to disagree on that one. I will keep pushing him on ANWR. I have so appreciated he has never asked me to check my opinions at the door and he wants a deliberative debate and healthy debate so we can make good policy.

What I would do also, if that were to ever happen, though, is to continue the good work he is so committed to of putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington.

I think we need a little bit of reality from Wasilla Main Street there, brought to Washington, DC. . .

So if they get elected, and something happens to McCain, I think what she's saying is that she is such a maverick that she'll do whatever she pleases in her own presidency, regardless of what McCain may have thought?

I don't know... I thought she sounded just a little too enthusiastic in answering that question, but maybe she was just caught off guard and didn't really know how to answer it.

[Amazon 7]

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California twice elected actors to the job

And the Excellent Adventure of Ahnold in Charge is 7 billion over budget and looking for a bailout too

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27006906/

[Andy9o8 0]

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So if they get elected, and something happens to McCain, I think what she's saying is that she is such a maverick that she'll do whatever she pleases in her own presidency, regardless of what McCain may have thought?

I can't believe I'm defending the gal, but I don't think that's an unreasonable answer. Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson all built upon the legacy of their predecessors to a degree; but their administrations were THEIR administrations. There can only be one President, and that's the one that's in office today, not yesterday. Her job, her prerogative.

That being said, each voter should ask him/herself: if need be, who do you most trust to have the nucular nuclear codes; face down the Russians, Chinese, N. Koreans, Iranians and the whack job in Venezuela; and deal deftly with the Pakistanis, Indians, Arab countries and Israelis - Biden or Palin?

[Shotgun 1]

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So if they get elected, and something happens to McCain, I think what she's saying is that she is such a maverick that she'll do whatever she pleases in her own presidency, regardless of what McCain may have thought?

I can't believe I'm defending the gal, but I don't think that's an unreasonable answer. Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson all built upon the legacy of their predecessors to a degree; but their administrations were THEIR administrations. There can only be one President, and that's the one that's in office today, not yesterday. Her job, her prerogative.

Fair enough. I just thought she sounded too enthusiastic about it.

But I guess she's in a position where she's trying to prove that she is ready to be President if need be, so it was probably a more difficult question for her to answer than it was for Biden.

[Lucky... 0]

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That wasn't a debate. I didn't get to see all of it but what I saw was 2 people parroting the campaign. I think it had to do with the format. Gwen was scared shitless to have any appearance of bias.

That's why I like interviews so much more, the interviewer can reask the question several times or simply state that the interviewee is dodging.

[Lucky... 0]

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>neither objects to a same sex union. Just don't call it marriage.

Which would be fine with me too. Call it a marriag if it makes people feel better about their marriage-with-an-E. The important thing is that people are given the same rights under the law.

Even tho Biden agreed with her, if it comes to issue and Congress sends something to them giving same-sexers rights, I doubt Obama would veto or Biden would urge him to. That was panderring on Biden's part.

[Lucky... 0]

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California twice elected actors to the job

And the Excellent Adventure of Ahnold in Charge is 7 billion over budget and looking for a bailout too

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27006906/

Shall we have another recall election to terminate him

[Remster 24]

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That wasn't a debate. I didn't get to see all of it but what I saw was 2 people parroting the campaign. I think it had to do with the format. Gwen was scared shitless to have any appearance of bias.

That's why I like interviews so much more, the interviewer can reask the question several times or simply state that the interviewee is dodging.

As I understand it, the McCain ticket negotiated for a very non confrontational format. Thats what you got.

Remster

[Andy9o8 0]

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That wasn't a debate. I didn't get to see all of it but what I saw was 2 people parroting the campaign. I think it had to do with the format. Gwen was scared shitless to have any appearance of bias.

That's why I like interviews so much more, the interviewer can reask the question several times or simply state that the interviewee is dodging.

As I understand it, the McCain ticket negotiated for a very non confrontational format. Thats what you got.

..which still wouldn't have stopped Biden from saying, "You know, I gave direct answers to questions about X, and Y, and Z; but it's interesting that Gov. Palin keeps evading answering them. I challenge her to give direct answers to those questions right here and now."
That's what you do in a true debate, and you can do it respectfully without seeming like you're beating up on your opponent. But he didn't do that; and for that, I deduct a few points from Biden for his timidity.

[Shotgun 1]

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..which still wouldn't have stopped Biden from saying, "You know, I gave direct answers to questions about X, and Y, and Z; but it's interesting that Gov. Palin keeps evading answering them. I challenge her to give direct answers to those questions right here and now."

I don't think there was any reason for him to say that. It was pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain. And those without half a brain would have just said that he was being condescending if he pointed out her inability to answer a question.

[PeregrineFalcon 0]

<<>>

You're right. It helps with independents, but it hurts with the conservative base who may not show up in huge numbers because they're not to keen on McCain. They're never going to vote for Obama, but they may just not vote at all.

[BGill 0]

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..which still wouldn't have stopped Biden from saying, "You know, I gave direct answers to questions about X, and Y, and Z; but it's interesting that Gov. Palin keeps evading answering them. I challenge her to give direct answers to those questions right here and now."

I don't think there was any reason for him to say that. It was pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain. And those without half a brain would have just said that he was being condescending if he pointed out her inability to answer a question.

Yup. And by not attacking her on those points, he wasn't giving the McCain camp ammo to use against him, leaving it up to the merit of the candidates alone. I think it's a respectable strategy.

Then of course there is the Palin strategy...

[riddler 0]

I don't think she did a good job at all. A debate is where a moderator asks questions, you answer them and then both sides discuss with each other.

Palin evaded nearly every question that was given her - might as well have just been a VP candidate speech. That's fine if she just wants to read from a script, but the real job of VP won't come in a packaged format that she can respond with a script. The only thing she proved was that she can't handle real-world questions in real time.

Biden did a better job of answering the questions, at least, but his responses were repetitive political babble that he's been repeating ever since he took the role of VP candidate. The points are valid, but why repeat them? We heard you the first time.

This was the Politically Correct debate. The moderator was afraid of cementing the label of Obama-supporter that the media gave her - does anyone think the moderator was biased, now? I wonder if Rush will take back his words ... Biden was afraid of attacking Palin and being labeled a woman-basher, and losing the women's vote. Palin was afraid to open her mouth after she proved she can't answer real questions in real time in front of Couric. And everyone just read from the script.

BTW, Lehrer is a MUCH better moderator, and no one accused him of being prejudiced against Obama because he's white and he's from the south.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[kelpdiver 2]

I thought the questions were good. You can't force candidates in a modern debate to answer, but you can at least present them and let the public see the evasion.

I liked

1) the question on use of nuclear weapons by the US that neither of them touched (Palin either misunderstood it entirely, or had nothing packaged to answer, and Biden following decided to go along with her on it)

2) repeating the question of what the Administration would have to give up in light of the bailout. Biden sort of answered, but was optimistic about solving it with ending subsidies. Palin pretended nothing would need to be done.

3) role of the VP as Chaney espoused

4) pointing out where the two differed from their leading man, and how they would behave if the succeeded him.

[kelpdiver 2]

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California twice elected actors to the job

And the Excellent Adventure of Ahnold in Charge is 7 billion over budget and looking for a bailout too

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27006906/

California's woes exist in spite of the work of the actor, who has unsuccessfully tried to get the state to even out its boom and bust budgeting models.

A recall has been threatened, by the prison guard union, who reacted to his attempt to renogotiate their ridiculous contract (they think they're more godly than NYC fireman)

As for Palin, for a small city state like Alaska, she's about the caliber of governor you can expect and need. It's not a hard state to govern, and there is more money elsewhere in the state, so the top talent will go there.

[Andy9o8 0]

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>Palin did a good job

Agreed. She didn't melt down, and she did not go into the weeds on any of the questions.

That's not the definition of "a good job", Bill. At best, it's the dumbing-down of the definition.

[billvon 2,400]

>That's not the definition of "a good job", Bill.

For her it was.

I mean, a good job on an AFF level 4 is quite different than a good job on a 4-way. This is a woman who has not had a lot of experience debating, and who only a few months ago didn't know what the vice president did - and who had been having trouble answering questions. She is clearly a fast learner. And given her new ability to answer a question with an unrelated (but beneficial to her) answer, she will fit in well in Washington.

[SpeedRacer 1]

It looked to me as though she had a few carefully-rehearsed, memorized talking bits. And if the question strayed from what she had studied, she would just say, "I'm not going to answer that question, I'm just going to talk straight to the American people!" and then she'd give one of her memorized bits.

Shit, when I was in college, I wish I could have done something like that on my final exams!

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[quade 3]

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>neither objects to a same sex union. Just don't call it marriage.

Which would be fine with me too. Call it a marriag if it makes people feel better about their marriage-with-an-E. The important thing is that people are given the same rights under the law.

Hell, call it a mirage . . . it's all an illusion anyway.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[quade 3]

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Has anyone else gotten to the point that the word "maverick" grates on the nerves almost as much as the word "extreme"?

Blues,
Dave

Just remember, if McCain is Maverick, that makes her Goose.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[billvon 2,400]

Didn't Goose die in training?

[quade 3]

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Didn't Goose die in training?

I didn't open the door to the metaphor . . . but it did happen just after the bailout.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[billvon 2,400]

>I didn't open the door to the metaphor . . .

Goose would be a terrible nickname anyway. Now Moose . . .

[Andy9o8 0]

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>That's not the definition of "a good job", Bill.

For her it was.

No, it wasn't. That's still dumbing-down the definition of "a good job". Some things are absolute. Rising to the level of insipid mediocrity is not "doing a good job."

[jraf 0]

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>That's not the definition of "a good job", Bill.

For her it was.

I mean, a good job on an AFF level 4 is quite different than a good job on a 4-way. This is a woman who has not had a lot of experience debating, and who only a few months ago didn't know what the vice president did - and who had been having trouble answering questions. She is clearly a fast learner. And given her new ability to answer a question with an unrelated (but beneficial to her) answer, she will fit in well in Washington.

Bill, the problem is that, to use your terms, she was not interviewing to pass the AFF 4 exam. She was in fact interviewing to be head organizer of the next 305,000,000 way jumping out all the planes the United States has.

She has continued her streak of failure as she would one way or the other. She did not do a good job, she was a disaster - our disaster, your and mine. She repeated talking points that she was force fed for weeks now. What he has shown again is that she has a VERY limited capacity for memorizing facts. She also lacks the ability to compose separate talking points into permutations of the base material.

I stated in another post - her intellectual abilities are as shallow as a cookie sheet. The fact that she did not stumble greatly last night is no success. We as a nation should get the F mark for allowing anyone to suggest that a person so lacking intellect, knowledge and general hunger for wisdom should become the second most important person in this country.

jraf

Me Jungleman! Me have large Babalui.
Muff #3275