So Palin had enough prepared notes to avoid sounding like a community college dropout on drugs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Unless you’re running for the second highest office in the land.
Let’s see what some journalists had to say.
She subverted the whole purpose of the exercise by merely repeating the key points of her running mate, Sen. John McCain and ignoring questions that called for more specific answers.
…Palin’s answers in the debate were more about herself than about the policies of McCain or George W. Bush or even the country’s current economic crisis.
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, one of the fastest-rising and most enigmatic personalities in talk television, listened patiently to Buchanan’s praise for Palin’s presentation and responded, “Boring but right versus exciting and wrong — that’s America’s choice?” Commentators on many of the networks marveled at Palin’s insistence on avoiding substantial comment on issues and on simply ignoring questions she couldn’t answer convincingly.
Palin basically stated early in the debate that this would be her strategy. She said she wasn’t necessarily going to respond to the questions of the moderator or charges from Biden, but instead, “I’m gonna talk right to the American people.” Since this was billed as a debate, not a speech, her remark came across as arrogant, and as an admission she would duck tough questions.
By Tom Shales Friday, October 3, 2008; Page C01Washington Post
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Palin, in her 90 minutes on the stage Thursday night, left the firm impression that she is indeed ready to lead the nation — with an unnerving mixture of platitudes and cute, folksy phrases that poured from her lips even when they bore no relation to the questions asked.
“Let’s commit ourselves just everyday American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation,” she proposed when asked about the mortgage crisis. (HUH?)
“I want to go back to the energy plan,” she said when asked about the federal bailout plan.
“I want to talk about, again, my record on energy,” she said when asked about bankruptcy.
At other times, her answers defied comprehension, as when Ifill asked about her trigger for using nuclear weapons. “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period,” she answered. (WTF?)
When backed into uncomfortable terrain, such as defending the Bush administration’s economic record, she exploded into cliche and non sequitur: “Say it ain’t so, Joe. There you go again pointing backwards again. . . . Now doggone it, let’s look ahead.” Before finishing her answer, she mentioned her “brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here’s a shout-out to all those third-graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.”
By Dana Milbank Washington Post
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My Gal: On sarah Palin’s speech patterns. Satireby George Saunders September 22, 2008 The New Yorker magazine—————————————————————————The End Is Near
Posted by George Packer September 29, 2008 The New Yorker magazine
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2008 election, Blogroll, Common Sense, Election Politics, Satire, conservative politics, politics, progressive politics | Tagged: Barack Obama, conservative politics, dana milbank, economic crisis, George Packer, George Saunders, george w bush, joe biden, John McCain, politics, rachel maddow, sarah palin, Satire, the new yorker, tom shales, vice presidential debate, washington post | 
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