Sarah Crashed and Burned
Today is Friday, 3 October 2008.
For those with a formal background in classical debate, Sarah Palin’s performance last night was familiar. Like W. Bush and McCain, Palin obviously learned very little in her college career about how to think logically. Like the former, Palin didn’t even bother to learn much in the way of facts about history, economics, etc.
Thus, her debating style: memorize talking points and sound bites, and regurgitate them rapidly when triggered by terms such as “national security”, “the economy”, etc. This provides the gullible with the illusion of “statesmanship”, when it is no more than a parrot “talking”. Even the sound bites are memorable only for their plethora of code words and vague generalities.
(When Palin tried to get clever, she made a fool of herself, as when she admitted the Bush regime had made many major blunders, but condemned Joe Biden for “playing the blame game” when he pointed out those blunders. Also the howler describing the McCain-Plain duo as a “team of mavericks”, when the whole point is mavericks aren’t team players.)
Tack on her aw-shucks phony hick act, Josephine Six Pack (though Sarah and Todd seem to have a net worth of some $1.2 million, perching them far above the majority of working Americans).
Season with Barbie/Gidget. The question of marketing Palin’s appearance isn’t something insubstantial I cooked up: those thousands of buttons and signs distributed at the Republican National Convention, reading, “Sarah is a Hottie!”, were the creation of her own handlers, part of the strategy to exploit her alledged sexiness.
And what was the winking at the audience about?
Some will conclude Palin exceeded expectations, by doing more than showing up breathing. The debate format was friendly to her: an opportunity to rattle off short canned responses to questions one is expecting in a controlled environment. (If there was a question about Palin's cutting Wasilla city funding of rape kits, while spending taxpayer dollars on a mayoral SUV, I missed it.) The real Palin is on display in the ABC and CBS (unscripted) interviews: rambling, stumbling, and clueless.
McCain revealed the depth of his contempt for this country and humanity when he proposed such a featherweight to have a hand near the nuclear button.
For those with a formal background in classical debate, Sarah Palin’s performance last night was familiar. Like W. Bush and McCain, Palin obviously learned very little in her college career about how to think logically. Like the former, Palin didn’t even bother to learn much in the way of facts about history, economics, etc.
Thus, her debating style: memorize talking points and sound bites, and regurgitate them rapidly when triggered by terms such as “national security”, “the economy”, etc. This provides the gullible with the illusion of “statesmanship”, when it is no more than a parrot “talking”. Even the sound bites are memorable only for their plethora of code words and vague generalities.
(When Palin tried to get clever, she made a fool of herself, as when she admitted the Bush regime had made many major blunders, but condemned Joe Biden for “playing the blame game” when he pointed out those blunders. Also the howler describing the McCain-Plain duo as a “team of mavericks”, when the whole point is mavericks aren’t team players.)
Tack on her aw-shucks phony hick act, Josephine Six Pack (though Sarah and Todd seem to have a net worth of some $1.2 million, perching them far above the majority of working Americans).
Season with Barbie/Gidget. The question of marketing Palin’s appearance isn’t something insubstantial I cooked up: those thousands of buttons and signs distributed at the Republican National Convention, reading, “Sarah is a Hottie!”, were the creation of her own handlers, part of the strategy to exploit her alledged sexiness.
And what was the winking at the audience about?
Some will conclude Palin exceeded expectations, by doing more than showing up breathing. The debate format was friendly to her: an opportunity to rattle off short canned responses to questions one is expecting in a controlled environment. (If there was a question about Palin's cutting Wasilla city funding of rape kits, while spending taxpayer dollars on a mayoral SUV, I missed it.) The real Palin is on display in the ABC and CBS (unscripted) interviews: rambling, stumbling, and clueless.
McCain revealed the depth of his contempt for this country and humanity when he proposed such a featherweight to have a hand near the nuclear button.
posted by HH at 12:41 PM
1 Comments:
When the Republicans went off their rockers comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, who knew we were hearing their own blueprint for "success" with Palin?
Indeed, after seeing all the aforementioned parties in action, Hilton looks to be the most level-headed and business-savvy of the three. She has certainly had more international relations experience.
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