Painful
October 2nd, 2008That debate was just miserable. The only person who had a worse time than those watching it was whoever was forced to transcribe it.
Palin started strong but it’s clear that her only strength is that folksy, “gosh, y’all” shtick. And while it’s charming at first, it gets really old, really fast.
Moderator Gwen Ifill seemed hamstrung by the format. It looked like all questions had to be asked of both candidates so there wasn’t much room to dig deep.This increased the boring factor by a bazillion.
A few blogs have pointed out some glaring errors such as Palin getting the name of the Army Commander in Afghanistan wrong. My favorite bit was when Biden called Bosnians “Bosniaks.” (Only a CNN anchor during the first Gulf War calling the residents of Bagad, “Bagdaddies” is goofier.) CORRECTION: As reader R points out, Bosniaks is the correct term. Last time I try to correct Joe Biden on international terminology.
I’d have given the win for the debate to Palin until the end where Biden got choked up when discussing his family’s past hardships. Since these debate are clearly not about substance, that emotional high-point made Palin’s robotic, plastic folksiness seem like an animatronic Country Bear Jamboree.
I’m so glad it’s over and that there won’t be another one.
– Steve
Stumble it!
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
[...] I blogged about the debate here. [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:45 am
Actually, Bosniaks is a correct term. I too thought he was just being weird, but I checked, apparently it’s legit. Biden was just being… smart, I guess. Bosniaks are a specific group of Bosnians (the Muslim population).
Cite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosniaks
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:36 am
Unfortunately, folksy charm seems to be the road to the White House. Just look at the past three decades.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for the correction, R! Making the fix!
– Steve
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I would have to disagree with you on it being a total loss. Like many others, I watched just to see the train wreck that didn’t happen. Was that a win on the Republican side? Yes, but I find it very interesting that it’s considered a major win when your candidate doesn’t blow it.
Was it boring? Yes, but in things like this, boring is good. No gossip at the water cooler as it were. The one item I noticed was that Biden did a fairly good job early on pointing out his side’s agenda while Palin rarely ever pointed out anything her side was doing but liked to beat on “Gosh, they’re gonna raise your taxes” drum. Sadly, Biden started resorting to pointing out the problems of the McCain candidacy as well.
I thought Palin’s handlers did a good job of directing her with the “I’m so glad how you went against Obama on such and such, Joe!” a few times; it seemed like Biden had a little trouble responding to that offhand attack. Down here in the South, we call that the “Bless your heart” insult. In essence, you can say anything you want provided you begin or end with “Bless your heart.” For instance, “Bless your heart, but you are a cheap, money grubbing, philanderer.”
All and all, I think it was a limited success for both parties. Most likely Palin will not be the leading skit on SNL, and no one will say Biden can’t debate in concise language.