"When you stage a train wreck of this magnitude..."
An excellent article on Palin in Salon this morning, from Rebecca Traister. Traister has absolutely no sympathy for the disaster that has become Sarah Palin's candidacy for veep:
Traister also cites Kathleen Parker's latest column, in which she urges Palin to withdraw, but most of the all-too-predictable response from the wingnutosphere is to blame the media. As NPR pointed out this morning, she's still a rockstar on the wingnut circuit, pulling in larger crowds than McCain ever would on his own. Of course, her stump speech is pretty much the same thing she said at the RNC, with the blatant lies removed.
Keep in mind, debate expectations are important. It's critical that your candidate not lose a debate. McCain accomplished not-losing last week by setting the bar so low, all he had to do was to show up. This week, the pity-party sets the expectation that Palin will treat us to another Couric interview, giving Tina Fey fodder for SNL cold opens all the way through October. If Palin can put together two coherent answers at the start of the debate, the MSM will lean over their computers and begin the storyline that she's not as dumb as Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric would have you think.
It's all about expectations. Remember, the campaign is in the hands of Bush operatives. They only know how to win at all costs.
It was so predictable that we would get to a pity-poor-helpless-Sarah phase. The press was already warming up for it on the day McCain announced her as his running mate, when NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell speculated that McCain's choice was designed to declaw scrappy Joe Biden, whose aggressive style would come off as bullying next to the sweet hockey mom from Alaska. Now, of course, we know about the hockey moms and the pit bulls; the more-powerful-than-expected Palin juggernaut forestalled the pity/victim/mean boy/poor Sarah phase.
Traister also cites Kathleen Parker's latest column, in which she urges Palin to withdraw, but most of the all-too-predictable response from the wingnutosphere is to blame the media. As NPR pointed out this morning, she's still a rockstar on the wingnut circuit, pulling in larger crowds than McCain ever would on his own. Of course, her stump speech is pretty much the same thing she said at the RNC, with the blatant lies removed.
Keep in mind, debate expectations are important. It's critical that your candidate not lose a debate. McCain accomplished not-losing last week by setting the bar so low, all he had to do was to show up. This week, the pity-party sets the expectation that Palin will treat us to another Couric interview, giving Tina Fey fodder for SNL cold opens all the way through October. If Palin can put together two coherent answers at the start of the debate, the MSM will lean over their computers and begin the storyline that she's not as dumb as Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric would have you think.
It's all about expectations. Remember, the campaign is in the hands of Bush operatives. They only know how to win at all costs.
I heard Traister on one of the news shows last night make the same remarks. It's scary. I hope Biden can turn to her frequently and zing her with : But Mrs. Palin, what do *you* think. Joe's got his work come out for him, but I think he ought to put his lipstick on and go for the jugular.