<-Thoughts on a Hectic Day |Main|Who Am I and What Have I Done with the Real Ismael?->

Who the Fuck Is this O'Biden Character?

October 2, 2008 11:50 PM

have said and still believe that the substance of what's being said matters more than the person saying it. I think that a natural extension of that principle is that you have to try to look past the words someone uses--or misuses--to express an idea to the idea itself. It's the ideas that ultimately matter.

I really did try to apply these axioms during the vice-presidential debate tonight. But at times it became nearly impossible to find any meaning in the jumbled of words she was spewing. I mean, what the hell did she mean when she was talking about climate change? Did everyone catch the part where she said that climate change caused man's actions? That was awesome.

But, ok, it's the biggest debate of her life facing the biggest audience she's ever had. I can understand that she's nervous and stumble over her words and, though a lot of them were extremely embarrassing and are likely to get a lot of play, all of that really was secondary to the substance of her responses. Or, more accurately, the lack of substance.

Palin steadfastly refused to answer a lot of the questions. That's pretty much par for the course, sadly, and it does put her in step with both McCain and Obama's performance at their first debate. But the fact that she kept returning to her stupid talking points even when they were completely irrelevant to the question or the ensuing discussion was infuriating. We get it: energy independence, mavericks, raising taxes kills jobs. But can you explain any of those concepts? Or how you'd bring about energy independence? And how do higher taxes lead to reduced jobs, exactly? My favorite was her nonexistent Iraq exit strategy which boiled down to "basically, what we did was good."

Contrast all of this with Joe Biden. I swear, there were times during that debate when I wished that Biden was running for president instead. He was clear, articulate, and compelling. Yeah, he dodged his fair share of questions, but he answered a hell of a lot more than Palin did. To be fair, he also gave real, direct answers to a lot more questions than even Obama or McCain did. It was never in doubt that he knew much, much more about foreign and domestic policy and that he was infinitely more experienced. Still, he never talked down to Palin.

And speaking of talking down, was I the only one who thought that Palin consistently insulted the intelligence of the audience? I'm sorry--you're not going to get my vote by winking at me. You're just not. And all your folksy aphorisms just came across as forced and condescending. To me, anyway.

The best moment of the debate for me was watching Joe Biden choke up when he was talking about watching a loved one recover from a life-threatening injury. I mean, I'm sorry, but that came across as extremely genuine. In that moment, he came across as extremely human. If the rest of his performance tonight demonstrated that he is intelligent, articulate, well-informed, and thoroughly prepared, then that moment showed that he is someone who, while perhaps not quite an everyman, definitely understands that struggles of the average American. I think the anecdote about the man who doesn't know how much a full tank of gas costs because he can never afford one also helped that image.

I knew who I was voting for before this debate, and I bet most of you did, too. And I also bet none of you are considering changing your minds. But seriously, how can anyone tell me that Palin is prepared to be Vice President?



9 Comments


tRJ said:

This is where I blow your mind and tell you that Palin was awesome last night.

October 3, 2008 9:43 AM



Valerie said:

Yes, Palin did awesome -- she didn't vomit on herself. Furthermore, despite the fact that she looked like she was about to cry, she didn't actually break out into tears even though she had to answer questions (or avoid answering them) about issues she doesn't even understand, never mind have any expertise in. She isn't prepared. Nor is she capable of ever being qualified. I know where my vote is going, and it's certainly not to her!

October 3, 2008 12:33 PM



The Reeg said:

Palin was not awesome. She just sucked a tad less hard than she did in the Couric interview, so her shaky performance exceeded peoples' (including my own) extremely dismal expectations. If NOT being unable to coherently and accurately answer an easy (or at least fair game) question is your rubric for awesomeness, okay, but that indicates that something is very, very wrong with the whole selection process.

What I took away from the debates was that she has extremely limited knowledge of the differing policy needs--goals, even--in Afghanistan vs. Iraq vs. Iran vs. Pakistan; that she thinks she can coast as a politician on pushing her flawed energy policy despite knowing nothing about taxes or even, really, basic macroeconomics; that she thinks voters are stupid and gullible and is deliberately pandering to that gullibility; and that she was coached a little TOO much on how to pronounce "Ahmadinejad." I can't believe she even told the moderator "I'm not going to talk about that; I'm going to talk about drilling for oil instead." Dodging questions happens, but I've never seen it be so blatant.

Even if I were leaning towards McCain before, I'm positive that I'd have changed my mind by now. It is decidedly un-Presidential to be a 72-year-old cancer survivor and pick a trainee as your second-in-command. I hope that undecided voters spend some time parsing the two candidates' statements and realize that she is completely unfit to be in a position of this magnitude.

I also think it was bullshit that Biden couldn't just lay into her--pointing out someone's considerable flaws, even if that someone has a vagina, does not make you sexist, and should be an acceptable par for the course in a debate. If Hilary were running for President, McCain would be harsh, and rightly so because that's how campaigning works. It disgusts me that a sucky female candidate is being treated with kid gloves by her opponents lest fair critiques come across as evidence of raging misogyny--in an election this rough, it's fair to bust out the brass knuckles sometimes, and no one should be barred from doing so because of the sex (or race) of their opponent. If she were a dude, she would have been torn to shreds last night and that is exactly how it should have gone down. I'm proud (in a slightly disappointed way) that he exercised such restraint; it was way the hell better than I would have done.

I think my response was almost longer than your blog entry. Sorry about that.

October 3, 2008 12:49 PM



The Reeg said:

Also, check out this website--it uses Markov chains to generate Palin-esque responses to questions, using her own words and phrases. My dad describes it as "an artificial intelligence experiment gone horribly right."

http://interviewpalin.com/

October 3, 2008 2:31 PM



NT Is All In said:

Palin is hot! I would much rather look at her than McCain's crusty teeth and/or Biden's horrible comb over. I think she is a lot sharper than people give her credit for. Sure she doesn't have a grasp on international affairs compared to sitting US Senators. Why would she? She is a governor. Should she? Maybe, but I don't think its fatal to a candidate. Look at Obama for Christ's sake. He has been in the Senate for two years. How well versed can he be? Speaking for myself, I don't care how much experience the ticket has. I'm more concerned with my belief that they will surround competant people around them that have the experience to advise them and will act in our country's best interest after being briefed. No one is going to convince me that sitting in the Senate for over 20 years makes a person qualified to have all of the answers. Shit, if they are so great and have all of the answers, why are we so messed up right now? Not knowing the answer to what is causing our problems right now, but being confident that it is complex, what makes people believe that inserting someone else is the White House is going to somehow fix our problems. In a nutshell, I think that the most critical role that a President can play is to make the country feel good about itself. That instills confidence in people and increases consumer confidence, which increases spending, which increases revenues, which increases tax revenues, which increases...you get the idea. Right now I believe that there is a general feeling that it isn't cool to be American, both abroad and at home, and I think most people blame Bush...whether he deserves the credit or not. He has surrounded himself with people that have promoted policies that have alienated us internationally and have upset the majority of people here at home. He fucked up. I think Obama will make people feel good about being Americans again and this will help us at home and abroad...but Palin is hot!!!

October 3, 2008 3:04 PM



morenonesense said:

Andy, do you still want Richardson?

October 3, 2008 11:57 PM



Justine Henin said:

I agree with what you say criticizing Palin. However, I think she would be fine-to-good at doing whatever it is that the vice-president does.

And this 'cancer survivor' thing is a little ridiculous. It's not like McCain had pancreatic cancer or something. Someone I know also had melanoma, and it was completely removed, just like John McCain's. That is irrelevant to her current health, just as it is to John McCain's.

It is true that McCain is old, and so his vice presidential choice is more relevant than usual. And Palin is not qualified to be president, so that's bad. But Obama isn't qualified to be president either--and he's actually running for fucking president.

Obama's initial criticism of Palin was this: Hey, I've been campaigning for president for like a year now, and she hasn't been campaigning at all. So I'm really experienced and qualified to be president, and she's not.

Maybe it was Biden who pointed out to him how ridiculous and self-defeating that argument is?

October 5, 2008 11:16 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

tRJ,
Even though I was fully prepared for you to say that, my mind is still blown. How could you honestly believe that she not only exceeded the extremely low expectations but that she objectively did "awesome"? I am incredulous!

Valerie,
I tend to agree with your assessment: not only do I think that she's currently unqualified, I don't think she even has the potential to ever be qualified. I mean, ok, I don't think that someone needs to have gone to Harvard or Yale to be a qualified to be a high-ranking official in our government, but Palin, according to Wikipedia, anyway, went to several community colleges before graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in Communications. Community Colleges! A degree in Communications! That's not Vice-Presidential material.

The Reeg,
Good points all around. I have to say that this was the first time I really saw Palin speak, so my expectations weren't nearly as low as I think most peoples' were. And she still came across as a complete failure to me. It was embarrassing for everyone concerned. If I was John McCain, I would have booted her from the ticket after that performance.

NT,
I totally agree that Palin is hot. I mean, if I ever have a wife who's that old, I hope she's that attractive. But that's hardly relevant to whether she should be VP.

As far as your point about experience not being fatal, I tend to agree--the important thing is that a candidate demonstrate that they are capable of making good decisions given reliable information. And that's yet another reason why I think Palin is entirely inadequate.

Let's assume for the moment that Palin and Obama have comparable levels of experience. In other words, let's say they both have no experience at all. I've personally seen Obama speak, and he came across as extremely intelligent and thoughtful. It wasn't just charisma or eloquence--he genuinely came across as someone who is capable of complex thought. And his record demonstrates this: you do not get accepted into Harvard Law School or elected the president of the Harvard Law Review if you aren't at least pretty smart. So, even with his lack of experience, I would trust Obama to be able to take vast amounts of information, understand it fairly quickly, and then make a decision that takes into account both immediate and long-term repercussions.

After seeing Palin in the debate, I would have no confidence at all in her ability to do the same. Remember that the Palin we saw was the result of days, if not weeks, of intense debate preparation with some of the world's best minds in the areas that came up during the debate. And Palin still couldn't do better than side-stepping questions and winking. That's sad. And it's scary.

Mr. Morenononsense,
Obama's entire campaign is about change. I think that Richardson--who is clearly also very smart and very experienced--would have been an excellent choice in terms of demonstrating that Obama was serious about change. I mean, Richardson is definitely a politician, but he's a little more "outside" than Biden. Not to mention that he isn't white. When I first saw that Obama picked Biden, it seemed like an extremely traditional, transparent, safe choice: Obama picked the old white guy. That didn't strike me as very changeful at the time. And that part of it still doesn't.

But after the debate, I think Biden was an excellent choice--he's knowledgeable, smart, eloquent, and he has enough of a reputation as both a "maverick" and as someone who'll reach across the aisle to get something done that he does set himself aside from the rest of the old white guys that Obama could have chosen.

Mr. Henin,
I generally think that the idea that McCain's gonna drop dead any second is a little overblown. At the same time, though, the man is fairly old and, realistically, he's coming up against the average male life expectancy pretty soon. Still, I do think that tactic has been overused.

And as far as experience goes, I think that Obama is more experienced on more of the issues than Palin is, if for no other reason than that he's had to deal with things on a national and international level during his brief tenure in the Senate. While Palin has been the executive of a state for significantly longer, I don't think that job really requires that the person develop an understanding of complex issues outside of his or her state. Or I could be wrong. But the point is that I think it's pretty hard to compare the two positions.

October 5, 2008 11:48 PM



NT Is All In said:

I agree with you, but that wink was oh so nice and inviting. It was like she was winking at me and me only.

October 6, 2008 9:02 PM



Leave a comment