Blogs > Politics
The Palin Drone
Loading ...
How Sarah Palin’s Performance in the VP Debates Resulted in a Zero-Sum Gain for the McCain Campaign
The bigotry of low expectations has worked in Sarah Palin’s favor. But to what extent? What has she proven with last night’s performance?
She’s charming, engaging and downright captivating. You want to listen to her, with her folksy demeanor and her ‘you betcha’s, because it feels comfortable.
But, and this may sound familiar, when the roar of the crowd fades away and those lights go out, what exactly is Sarah Palin’s plan? It would seem that she has none. The Alaska Governor was neither coherent, articulate, nor witty. Her charm got her to open our doors, but she couldn’t fully make the sale.
Joe Biden talked circles around her, and in return, Palin spoke in circles, never answering a question, never reassuring the American people that she would be ready to take on the mantle of POTUS, should the unfortunate happen.
No, she only issued Pavlovian signals to the base she’s meant to garner support from–ultraconservatives and women.
“White flag of surrender!” Ding! “Obama wants to cut and run.”
“Redistribution of wealth!” Ding! “This reaks of socialism”
“Tax increases!” Ding! “Democrats want to tax and spend.”
“Government is the Problem!” DING! “Ronald Reagan! Ronald Reagan!”
And in this respect she won the debate. While she doesn’t seem to have garnered any support outside of her base, based on polling, she seems to have stopped the hemorrhaging of votes away from McCain, and probably shored up her base’s support for November. Simply put, she survived.
But in many other respects, she was an abysmal failure. Her inability to effectively to think on her feet, to have answers to pointed questions, topics on national security and our financial crisis, is appalling. She makes a great parrot, but a national leader she is not. Had Hillary Clinton or Madeleine Albright skirted issues in the manner Palin did, the public outcry would be enormous.
The ultimate question is this. Was her performance enough to keep independents and undecideds from running away? The CBS Opinion Poll indicates that she did just that. According to the poll:
55% of these uncommitted voters said their opinion of Palin has changed for the better as a result of the debate; just 14% said they have a lower opinion of her after tonight, and 30% said their views of her did not change.
Prior to the debate, her rating on knowledge and preparedness hovered in the 40% range, and afterwards, it hovered in the 60% range. So she was effectively able to stave off the perception that she is, as Chris Matthews affectionally remarked, a dolt. Unfortunately, however, the same questions polled Senator Biden at 97%. The question is simply this. Is her likeability going to seriously impact people’s voting habits in this dangerous time? Or will conventional wisdom play out and the American public will vote for the top of the ticket?
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
