At moments — that is how the talking head circles preface comments on Palin’s sit down with Gibson. At moments she was on her game, upbeat, on point. Even repeating her theme song on the ‘bridge to nowhere’.
Other moments? We are told she stumbled. Why, she could not even name the new President of Pakistan the so-called Bush Doctrine. Although, as our friend Anon noted under the earlier Brooks post, oddly most foreign policy professionals themselves all give different descriptions. (Even Krauthammer can be right by sheer accident).
One Palin interview does not a political phenomenon neutralize. Yet is it really about her? Or is Palin herself a surrogate for internal Democrat deflation. When they know this one should be an Adelman-esque ‘cake walk’. Even E.J. Dionne realizes that something else is at work:
Nonetheless, it’s clear that Obama has lost control of this campaign. And he will not seize back the initiative with the sometimes halting, conversational and sadly reluctant sound bites he has been producing. The excitement Obama created at the beginning of the year has vanished, perhaps because his campaign (and, yes, many columnists) bought into the McCain campaign’s demonization of the big rallies. Absurdly, McCain is now contesting the terrain of change — and doing so at celebrity rallies of his own.
This moment eerily resembles the situation in 1988 when George H.W. Bush used his convention to define the campaign and never again ceded the agenda to Democrat Michael Dukakis.
No argument here that the Boy King needs to get his smackdown going. We’ve said as much.
Doing it smart is another matter. The new McCain age commercials (although updated from the primaries) *at this time* exude more than a whiff of desperation and panic.
To create a new equilibrium, the Boy King needs fresh compelling visuals of his own to re-charge his narrative. We’re still with Mike Deaver when he was Reagan’s image czar.
He told an exasperated Leslie Stahl back in the day (paraphrasing) – “Leslie, no one is going to care about your vocal/reporting voiceovers [criticizing Reagan]. We want and you give us the visuals. That’s all that matters.” So, too, with Palin. Troops to Iraq to fight those who attacked us? Ultra Neocon on Georgia? Details lost in the white noise.
Her visual narrative (beyond the personal phenotype) are intimate, relatable and simply overwhelm the Boy King’s mass adulatory persona. It is the perfect corrisve acid — for the moment. Small town in Alaska? Her large family she raised from a young age? Hockey games? Putting things on eBay? Happily hunting? A childhood sweet heart husband who loves to snowmobile?
How many Americans have any idea what Harvard is like? Let alone being on a silly law review (we say that being ‘not unfamiliar’ with ‘helping to run’ a peer law review)? Forget the Rightist ‘Muslim’ and ‘Hussein’ innuendo. Or the Kenyan or Indonesia biographical details. Let’s assume Axelrod et a. did well countering with Kansas, etc.
Almost every Boy King visual and accompanying narrative since Iowa is a crescendo of mass. Mass crowds. Presumptuous foreign trips with network anchors in tow. Visuals of thousands of Germans, etc. (which if one thinks about can cut a couple of different ways in the subconscious). Mega rock star appearances in a 75,000 seat stadium with Flavian adornments, fireworks, etc. (Sadly, Pink Floyd’s laser show must have been on the road elsewhere).
How many Americans can relate to that? And isn’t that quasi imperial mass scale exactly what the Wardlord gave us for eight years? By contrast, storms in the Gulf aside, the Republican unwitting and improvised simplicity in St. Paul created intimacy. Antidote to the Boy King’s balloon.
Palin herself we think is just a stand in. We suspect there are those who disagree with Palin on this or that. Or are appalled she was chosen at all. We believe these same people ironically also feel good about her. Why? She smiles in the arena, happily sharing her new and fresh visuals like someone-they-know, cheerfully dissolving mass foundations of Boy King inevitability.
In the end, we do agree with Bubba. Dionne is wrong. It is 1980, not 1988. Americans are trying to make up their minds. Choose an unknown (and because of the mass visuals) with little feel? Or go with the familiar, likely disappointing, but predictable warhorse. Palin’s visual narrative will not determine this ultimate choice. But she has thrown the Boy King off his game. And erased ‘Dole’ from the ticket — as of now.
Aldershot says
re the SNL skit, I thought it was poignant when Hillary said something like, ‘I didn’t want to be the first woman president. I wanted to be president, and I just happened to be a woman.’
Aldershot says
“People here may be tired of the casual observation…”
Not.
DrLeoStrauss says
People here may be tired of the casual observation, but we used to deal regularly with VPs and Presidents of AIG’s component parts (it is set up like a Chinese trading company, given Hank Greenberg’s past) who reported directly to Hank. This was in late 1990s to mid 2000s.
Utterly, utterly ruthless corporate culture even for Wall Street, brutal, savage and mean spirited inside and out and all around: even, as mentioned, for Wall Street. If it weren’t for the systemic impications, a collapse of AIG couldn’t happen to a nicer group.
We’ll try to toss a fresh post tomorrow. Thanks for everyone’s patience.
Comment says
On second thought McCain’s dumb gimmick of a commission was unnerving. McCain has never venerated business success. Recall the sincerity of his contempt for Romney’s one good quality – success in business – Now note his admiraton for Romney’s bad quality = pro McCain blathering.
McCain has been lying a lot more than normal lately. It’s interesting he still gets CNN to repeat his talking points.
OBama’s strength is that he is pretty pro free market for a liberal – due in part to his Hyde Park pals.
But they would all probably bail out AIG –
Anon says
A small problem Obama has are his on-air advocates – First of all – Biden. Painful to watch. As bad as we think Bush has been helping to bring about today’s money crisis, we trust him to deal with it more than Biden. (On this issue -we rate Obama and McCain equally, with an edge to Obama and Palin a wildcard) – But it’s just so easy to imagine Biden in the WH during a crisis inviting competing PhDs to the Oval Office and rejecting the advice from someone who wasn’t Ivy or Nobel – Or maybe floating trial baloons with award winning economists from Brookings and being taken in by some Ken Pollack-type economist
Anon says
It’s fascinating watching Greenspan try to escape any blame for this – He’ll succeed – with a few nicks and cuts. But after they scab – his role in helping this happen will be forgotten
Anon says
It’s getting weird out there – Hey Howie Kurtz SFTU – politicians looks have been a big part of commentary, for better or worse, for a long time – It didn’t begin with Palin – But we give a big thumbs up to the GOP for taking your measure and making you spout talking points.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/ita_on_palin.php
Anon says
Interesting that McCain failed to mention this old story in his convention acceptance speech – We think no one mentioned it – Are we wrong? If it was a true story it would be almost impossible to keep Republicans from broadcasting it. So maybe it was faked. We don’t know:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/17/122230/161/239/569299
Anon says
Speaking of mixed business records:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_09/014731.php
Carly Fiorna is sort of correct – The SNL skit was obviously pro Dem to the extent one can measure these things –
But was news – what made it significant was the fact that it was not some gross pro Obama attempt that backfired
In other words – they did portray Palin somewhat accurately but with appropriate caricature –
Usually SNL and many liberal comics can’t pull that off – Their anger gets the better of them and they want to portray Palin as Jaaaysus Shouting Pistol Packin’ Combo Redneck/Bimbot/Stepford Dubya in a skirt – then hope for the dribbling Ogre Olberman to jump up and down and sing.
In a similar fashion – the lower elements of the right wing are whipped up into a similar frenzy portraying Hillary as as a ^*)^(%^(^(*%^&%$^%$^&(^%$%& (let Tweety ‘I hate her’ fill in the blanks.
So it was refreshing to SNL pull of some actual humor with a slight (but appropriate) liberal pov.
We missed that gold medal swimmer who was on later – but he should just make his money while he can – Obama was also wise to miss the show. There was no upside to his showing up on SNL (failing to be funny) and then have two weeks of ‘celebrity’ analysis afterward (while Texas is hit by a hurricane)
DrLeoStrauss says
Tom Hill, Shearson/Lehman, RJR and KKR lol. It was sad.
We worked with Hill later when he was with a different bank.
Anon says
Might be worth noting that Lehman is actually a pretty new place – They went thru a Kuhn Loeb phase – Then there was the Shearson detour – Then they went private and public again. Or something like that.
DrLeoStrauss says
The candidates at least are offering slogans. AIG stock and a campaign slogan are approaching the same thing . . .
DrLeoStrauss says
While driving today in Imperial City traffic listening to the usual suspects on radio it is surreal how the conversation still remains Palin, Bush Doctrine, etc. with almost no real engagement on the weekend’s events (except for Tina Fey — one does have to concede that Palin’s response that she found it hilarious and is going to dress as Tina Fey for Halloween pitch perfect).
Granted derivatives and other arcane details are a barrier to entry for most non experts. Still, how jarring the disconnect.
Anon says
It’s really a sign of the times that Bear Sterns – a firm that always has a whiff of bucket shop taint to it – gets the Feds to rescue. Meanwhile Lehman – once respectable – is now cap in hand looking for sympathy.
Meanwhile – Murdoch is happy
http://timesonline.typepad.com/uselections/2008/09/sarah-palin-pic.html?OTC-widgets&ATTR=tolblogs
Comment says
The NY Times profile of Palin on Sunday is filled with some gems. Yeah – she brought her Wasilla HS mafia to run rampant thru the salons of Juneau Alaska.
But the probklem is that the profile was poorly written – written by a committee.
Hopefully Palin has peaked (she will peak again after she beats Biden in the debate – but remember Quale was destroyed by Bentsen. Does it matter? No – Biden would like to style himself as the Bentsen in the debate – But he is not. He is the Quayle – running against Annie Oakley
Comment says
In fairness to Charlie Gibson – we just noticed FNC running old footage describing Bush launching the “Bush Doctrine” – which they describe as pre-emption. But we have to revise and extend our remarks — Gibson was looking thru glasses at Palin.
re Community Organizer – McCain expressed his very deep respect and sincere admiration for community organizing at Columbia.
It’s sort of funny how people are shocked at McCain this cycle – Arguably McCain is better behaved – no rape jokes.
re Buchanan – saw 2 hour interview with Pat at his house in McLean on c-span – They toured his library (seems to be in his basement with no windows – nice thought, but bunker jokes are inevitable). Some predictable volumes were visable on the screen. It seemed a strect when he referenced Sam Francis as a conservative thinker. Pat indicate Race War will be is next project – We guess he will contextualized gang conflicts in LA by begining with talk about conflicts with the Ibo in AFrica and other tribes – then he will compare these to conflicts between Nordics and Khazars
Aldershot says
This is interesting:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/13/abc-news-edited-out-key-parts-sarah-palin-interview
Aldershot says
I only saw Maddow on the first night, and I agree there was a sense of strain as far as keeping the conversation going. The strangely empty set helps nothing. She should try round-tables to keep the conversations light. Was Pat on the nights you saw? He should be a regular, like Milbank on Olbermann.
DrLeoStrauss says
Agree that today was another blow on the Obama/Biden camp. Rudy did crush on MTP. The first question by Brokaw about his convention address on ‘wtf is a community organizer’ — Rudy just chuckled, smiled and breezed past it. While making the point again.
How strange that Woodward on Iraq and the WaPo on Addington out of control seem as au courant and timely as NASA engineers expounding on exploding space toilets.
Given today’s other events, discourse September 2008 borders on the willfully hallucinatory.
Comment says
Sometimes it really seems like the Dems are clueless. On some of these opposition blogs and such you read various pundits wonder why the conjugal morality of members of the Palin family is not being debated – as if they cared. Charges of hypocracy abound! These people are clueless
Comment says
Another reason Palin won the day – Her true weakness – her true gaffe was the dishonest (provably) way she introduced herself to the country – But grownup journos don’t want to bore themselves with silly questions about stuid earmarks – So this whole fake weakness (Bush doctrine) has supplanted a real weakness (honesty and ruthlessness).
Another week goes by with the debate about Iraq shifting from McCain’s warmongering into Iraq to Obama’s failure to support the surge (which will collapse – eventually)
We keep hearing that Obama, unlike Kerry, will respond – But why isn’t McCain responding?
re McLaughlin – that Nixon woman (crowley) pretending Obama was calling Palin a pig. That was a successfull dirty trick –
Comment says
Speaking of Tweety – that dumb ass thought Palin feel on her face with her alleged gaffe in not knowing “the Bush doctrine”
This is what happens when idiots socialize with each other and reinforce each others opionions
Abortion is another examples – Of all the ways to spread the word to (moderately and semi-reluctantly) pro choice women that Palin (who is chosing her words carefully – making her position sound like Cuomo’s ‘personally opposed’) is in favor of criminalizing abortion – The liberals like Feinstein are all going about it the wrong way – like saying Palin wants you to stop your daughter from having abortions.
Feinstein should know by now that people don’t listen to words so closely and they just hear Feinstein speaking gruesomely and speculatively about their families. No one wants to hear what may or may not happen to their daughters and they really don’t want to hear Feinstein or a pro life person talking about it.
Obama lost the day – He had the (secretly weak for Obama /w a Giuliani supporting wife) Schumer on MTP getting wiped out by Rudy. Feinstein was less than helpful on CNN
Maybe we are wrong – We hope
DrLeoStrauss says
re Tina Fey
It is a bit uncanny.
It’s also funny to think how Palin could care less about it all while Tweety clings to his SNL mockery in a needy, prideful way.
Anon says
re Tina Fey as Palin – Not bad – Much better than we expected – Restrained and witty at times. Fey had some of the key body language down – Here’s the Youtube
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/09/saturday-night.html
DrLeoStrauss says
re Bush Doctrine(s) — all exactly so. This weekend we are careening into stunned Democrats. Hilarious. Not one of them could have answered the question any better. Not even a Biden-esque rambling you noted.
The same pathetic crowd that didn’t see the ‘playground’ dynamic in the W/Gore and W/Kerry debates. This cavalcade of perennial losers are *still* in a huff today about Dingel-Norwood. Palin’s ‘Bush Doctrine’ thing will haunt them down unto 2024.
Anon says
Not only can we imagine McCain giving the same answer to Gibson about The Bush Doctrine (wtf?) – but we bet Gibson and the Times et al would not have noticed any error.
Anon says
Annals of the easily impressed:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/what-books-on-america-has_b_126134.html
Anon says
We feel bad for Bob Herbert – He obviosly has no friendly editor to warn him that some of his lines will expose him to mockery and scorn.
Herbert occassionally has a good column – but usually he is boxing above his weight. He is a pretty good reporter – but he lacks interp skills.
Herbert’s sneering might be okay while he is nipping canapes and sipping wine at Moma or ICP or some other gallery near the Times. But this is too much:
“You can’t imagine that John McCain or Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman would not know what the Bush doctrine is. But Sarah Palin? Absolutely clueless.”
In fact – we can imagine all of them wondering what trick question Gibson was aksing – We can easily imagine Obama thinking “which Bush doctrine.” We can imagine McCain giving the same answer as Palin and then following up with a committment to allies and democracy. We can imagine HRC laughing and laughing. And we can imagine Biden saying something stupid like :
‘No Charlie, I don’t like the Bush doctrine at all. Hmmm Ahhh …..I was against Iraq … I mean I was appalled at the way they handled Abu Ghraib and God, if I knew what they would do, on my Dad’s grave and I tell you Charlie – and i mean this in a bipartisan way – we have to put an end to this Bush doctrine. Now we have to get Russia out of Georgia fast and I plan to end the Iraq war …”
Anon says
Herbert – Leaning Tower of Lightweights:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/opinion/13herbert.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The neocons are gonna get a kick out of this
Anon says
re Flavian adornments – This is just a guess on our part – But we think that Column decoration on the stage behind Obama was mostly modeled (in part) on the Victor Emmanuel monument in Rome – The top part of it.
Comment says
We count 7 “Bush Doctrines” – YMMV – Two of the “doctrines” have disputes sub corrolaries – Consider Bush Doctrine #3 (If you harbor terrorist, we will treat you as a terrorist / You are with us or you are against us) – Okay this was fairly defensible. But the Lupus Maximus come out and gave a sub corrolary (we will end states that sponsor terror) – This let the whole neocon cat out of the bag – Ironically, it helped Bush by accident because people just assumed he was a puppet of the wicked Wolfie and his Cleanbreakery war fantasy.
So General Jello rolled his eyebrows and told pro war Tom (“I’m afraid my kids with not be able to compete with India, so lets bomb Iraq”) Friedman that Wolfowitz was a F***ing Comblicker. But while respectable people bowed to Powell, Serious people knew that Wolfowitz would come close to winning and that Powell would be rolled.
We forget what the other disputed subcorrolary was.
Comment says
Krauthammer may have stemmed any meme damage from Palin – We think Charlie Gibson will be regarded as the loser.
This stuff is all silly – But consider Bob Herbert blowing the possibility of the MccCain ad being seen as racist by the MSM – Herbert made some embrassing factual errors (he though the Prussian victory monument was the leaning tower of Pisa) and he was too over the top.
If you wanted McCain’s ad to be coded as vaguely racial, you have to get a white third party validator to raise the issue first.
Kristol and the gang on FNC are expert at this kind of things – Bob Herbert was just silly.
Comment says
One thing is funny – Both Krauthammer and Comment imagined Charles Gibson was staring down Sarah from behind his glasses – But he wasn’t – We just imagined it – Just like people still assume Tucker Carlson wears a bow tie even though he quit wearing one following a decent interval from his being mocked by Jon Stewart on his own show.
Comment says
Wow – we just read that Krauthammer piece and we were glad he gave the factual backup to what we said – We recalled from memory – from reading that infernal magazine.
Ofcource Charles is right – but wrong too – He is just as snobby as Gibson. True, he is a lot brighter than Gibson – but he is also sort of a dark soul and seems to glee at the prospect of war.
Krauthammer thinks the stupid phrase has currency – But we would challange Charles the Snob to back up his claims with a show of support for Democracy. Does he really like Democracy in Gaza? How about for non cynical reasons? How about Lebanaon? Does he really want the ‘stans to be Democracy?
We are having second thoughts – Charlie Gibson may be a hero in error – Gibson may have defined the stupid Bush doctrine in its most politically unpalatable way going forward.
Also – Kennedy’s hawkish inaugural was in the contest of resisting Soviet advances – not conquering Muslim lands. Kondracke thinks it’s a distinction without a difference – but it is a huge difference.
Comment says
More seriously Maddow should have Pat on to debate his most recent abortion-culturewar article. Pat starst off strong by comparing Obama’s baby mistake gaffe with Palin’s pro life lifestyle.
But he quickly dissolves his argument in his own bile by portraying the coming battle over Roe (which may not even happen no matter who wins) in apocalytic terms. Pat says “all is lost” if Obama wins – Obviously ridiculous – since an Obama win will obviously lead to a GOP comeback and this whole paddle tennis game about justices will continue.
If Obama wins – he will probably replace Stevens and Ginsberg with two liberals like Ogletree and his other Prof from Harvard whose name escapes.
It may be a wash – If McCain wins – he may not be able to get a Scalia thru the Senate – he may pull a Gang of 14 and compromise. Or he may appoint a real conservative and then lose in 4 years and a raft of liberals come on the court.
Comment says
MSNBC should re-hire Michael Savage and have him do a crossfire type show with Amy Goodman.
Comment says
Pretty clever of McCain to go on the view and have Joy Behar scream at him. Some liberals like to lose – they really do.
Comment says
Maddow show prob won’t last – She’s been talking up her military brat upbringing so she’s aware that she has to broaden her audience (keith has a residual sports base) – But if Obama wins, she’s toast. And she wants to Obama to win – so this undercuts her show
Comment says
Here’s Norm Coleman ad v Al Franken –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eypiqtAdvg
What a poor choice for Minn. –
DrLeoStrauss says
Aldershot, great stuff lol. The first was great. Love the Heart video.
The Wilson sisters and Heart singing Barracuda ain’t so bad. After all, Kid Rock got another hit this summer ‘borrowing’ Werewolves of London’ and ‘Sweet Home Alabama’from around that mid 70s year.
On another subject, Joan Walsh was on the to me very flat and not particularly interesting Maddow show. They were just nodding at each other, uttering simple declarative sentences:
‘So, how did Sarah Palin do?
‘Rachel, she is completely unqualified to be Vice President.’
{3 seconds of dead air}
‘Thanks Joan. We’ll be right back.’
_____
What is the point of the Maddow show? It must be simply to hold Olbermann’s demo through 9:00 PM.
Aldershot says
Seen this?
http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpkitLUbeEg
Curmudgeon says
Obama would be in trouble even without Palin. Throughout the campaign, the Dems have followed their traditional play book of standing like a deer in the headlights as the GOP uses media manipulation to define the campaign and reduce the Dems and their policy positions to ‘also-ran’ status.
Palin isn’t Obama’s big problem. His big problem is that the GOP has absolute control over the Overton window. It’s next to impossible to win when your opponent can tilt the field at whim.
DrLeoStrauss says
A shame that Tom Foley is not around to look balefully into a camera and flatlessly intone “these are serious allegations that require a serious investigation . . .”
Comment says
We still think Obama lost more votes at Saddleback than he did with Palin – The two are linked – But we suspect McCain was prepped (it will be leaked two years from now that Mccain was prepped) – McCain was better at Saddleback than he has ever been and it was concerning a subject that he us usually weak.
Comment says
Palin’s original speech:
” we grow good people in our small towns – that meth your son’s using was made in a small town. We make the speed traps that provide the revenue to build the prisons that your son drives by on the interstate. We but the Lotto tickets, we eat the fatty foods and the corn syrup …”
Comment says
re Westbrook Pegler – It makes sense – Pat has been truly enthusiastic about his gal Sister Sarah.
Alas – the rollout was poor – It would have only worked if Palin was surprised about it on some Sunday type show and she made a gaffe. Pegler can be explained away and discounted – It was a great speech line. As Klein noted though – our small towns do not make our food anymore. That was the magic – It was total nostalgia. It was already out of date when Pegler wrote it. No one would ever believe Palin is an anti semite – She’s obviously a sweet gal and has a good heart. We don’t like Tweety’s Norma Rae comparison, but we still haven’t found the proper comparison – Though in some recent pictures – like the one of her sipping her soda with McCain at a BBQ kitchen made her look like a 30s movie gal in one of those movies wheer the woman plays the secretary who really runs the firm. Maybe
Comment says
Interesting that aside from 9-11 services – the only other bipartisan day of rest was Russert’s memorial service.
Did you catch Gibson with his semi-puckered semi-smirk ask Palin about the “Bush Doctrine?” He reminded us a bit of our worst Latin teacher in HS asking us a stupid but “hard” question only because he thought we weren’t paying attention or that we’d make a mistake.
Gibson probably does not know that Bush Doctrine was first set out in a magazine – He probably thinks (the way a marginal priest int relious doctrine that) it was promulgated after some serious process conducted by serious men.
Does Gibson think it means the right to pre-emption if an imminent threat is detected? No – didn’t Condi explain to him that if we wait until an imminent threat then the smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud.
In fact – the best answer was Palin’s – Bush’s worldview. One day it means DEMOCRACY and Freedom’s On The March – The next day he is holding hands with Sa’ud and planning to undermine the Iranians or the Venezuala or Boliva or Russia (all very imperfect authoritarian ‘democracies’ far superior to Bush’s Saudi pals or our sicko allies in the ‘stans.) – Or the faith based Hezbullah ‘democratic’ movement or the Hamas democracy.
But Gibson – the ultimate conformist – has an “answer” to that dumb question
How about a possible Tweety interview:
——-
Matthews: Governor Palin – I’aint – as they say in Philly – gonna bother you about that dumb bridge, but what about your mixed record on taxes? Are you gonna …
Palin: Take your hand off my thigh and mover your seat back, please!
Matthews: Well go to a commercial …
Comment says
Palin has delt a body blow to a certain strain of feminist thinking – Not women’s rights – but that weird middlebrow pop intellectualism featured on Microsoft’s double chromosome sometimes saucy XX Slate site and similar HuffPo type sites. Lots of that has bled into the MSM and constitutes much of the BS attacks on Palin. They did not object to Palin for being a potential warmonger or that she surely spent two weeks tellingfalsehoods about Bridges as her main selling point — No – it was almost all personal and it backfired totally. They really don’t care that much aboout the war in Iraq or bombing Iran or the looming crisis in Pakistan
Comment says
EJ Dionne has poor instincts on predicting – He has too much to lose sometimes and so his mind does not feel free to really think outside of certain parameters – He usually expresses a safe-liberal consensus right before a shift occurs. Obama’s drifting is just about over – Media madness over Sarah will dissipate – We go back to 50-50 in the key states – We think Sarah (assuming she doesn’t have a crisis) will “win” (both in spin war and actual) the debate with Biden. Obama and McCain is iffy – Obama is lucky he did poorly in debates before (weird) now for the expectations game — Still the media tends to read “character” in McCain’s inability to speak
We always smile when we see Sarah on TV even though we think she has basically been lying about most things. She’s just a pleasant person –
Btw – what would Deaver think of Biden criss-crossing the stage yelling into his mic: “that’s not change …”
Comment says
If you assume Obama wins at the end and then think of the campaign as a book or a movie – Palin is an interesting plot device.
One thing we noticed today was how different Palin is on the radio compared to seeing (and hearing) her on TV. On the radio – she sounded very bad with Gibson – But the same scene we saw on TV her voice was contextualized as part of her amazing ordinary-beautiful visual package.
We were chatting with a friend in London and they noted how Palin would rock the UK if she visited middle class towns and it would shock the establishment and The Establishment because they regard her as an American thing – But there are a lot of Palins in Europe – Maybe not in Brussells or Davos – but elsewhere.
The snowmachine champion racer husband is such a rich touch (Pat almost cries speaking about him) that Joe Klein would have resisted putting him in the novel.