BlackLiberalBoomer

Palin-backing Republicans are probably ecstatic after Thursday’s Vice-Presidential Debate, but they shouldn’t be. All Sarah Palin showed was that she is good at memorizing and regurgitating talking points; she barely actually answered a single question. Sarah Palin has a good stage presence and prior experience as a sportscaster, so she is familiar with, and comfortable speaking directly to an audience and a camera. But that is not enough; just like being geographically close to two foreign countries is not nearly enough for “foreign policy experience”.

Most people  were probably looking for Sarah Palin to act as clueless as she has been acting during the few real interviews she has had; she didn’t. Many were also looking for Joe Biden to put his foot in his mouth; he didn’t. Sarah Palin lived up to her extremely low expectations; Joe Biden proved he could be disciplined and stay on-message.

But did Sarah Palin prove she was ready to be president? Absolutely not. If anything, she again proved how extremist she and her views are: 1) she stated she believes that she should be a vice-president in the mold of Dick Cheney and have the ability to exert even more power over the United States Senate–showing a total misunderstanding of the US Constitution; 2) she misstated the name of the General presently in charge in Afghanistan (called him “McClellan” as in the U.S. Civil War), and didn’t even realize she made that grave error; 3) she very dangerously  suggested that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel alone–completely disregarding the history and present conditions of the politics in that region–while simultaneously sticking to the talking points of “the United States is a friend of Israel” and there should be a “two-state solution”; 4) she gave absolutely no reasons why or how McCain/Palin is now or would ever be a “change” from Bush/Cheney except to spout “we’re mavericks” ad nauseum. Everything Sarah Palin said about policies for America and the world were straight out of George Bush’s mouth.

Like the McCain Campaign as a whole, Governor Palin was combative, condescending, tone-deaf, and non-feeling. She tries to portray herself as such a “caring hockey mom”, but she made two huge gaffes in the “touchy-feely” department.

First, when referring to Jill Biden’s career as a teacher, she blew off teachers in general when she said that she (Jill) would “receive her reward in heaven”, meaning teachers should wait to get any tangible rewards here on earth; and even worse, she showed she had no respect for the memory of Joe Biden’s first wife who was tragically killed in a traffic accident along with Joe’s infant daughter.

Then Sarah tried to tell Joe Biden that he couldn’t relate to women raising children, trying to up her cred as a mom with five children: BIG mistake. Joe blew her away with his chastisement of her insenuations, reminding her that he was a single dad for several years and knew how it felt to have children hanging onto life in a hospital for weeks. Senator Biden choked up during that exchange, still feeling the pain of the most tragic part of his life over thirty-five years ago. Governor Palin did not acknowledge that or even seem to hear him, as she immediately started spouting her talking points about her ticket being “maverick-y”.

All in all, Sarah Palin excited the Republican base that was feeling pretty frightened about her, but she did nothing to make most people feel better about her being “a heartbeat away” from a 72-year-old cancer survivor’s presidency. According to a CBS/CNN poll of undecided voters, 48% felt that Joe Biden “won” the debate, while only 21% felt that Sarah Palin did. And for those of us who know that being President and Vice-President entails more than memorization, winks, and “I’ll get back to ya’s”, Sarah Palin is still not qualified. Of the four candidates, only Governor Palin has government “executive experience”, but being mayor of a town of less than 7,000 people, and governor of a state with a total population smaller than Richmond, Virginia does not qualify her to be Leader of the Free World.

Breaking News: John McCain has conceded the State of Michigan, a very important battleground state with 17 electoral college votes, to the Democrats; the first time in Presidential politics that a candidate has conceded in such a way. On Thursday, McCain shut down his Michigan campaign, pulling all ads and moving staff to other states he thinks he can win, like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. I’ve got news for “Big John”: if you and your “Straight Talk” campaign cannot overcome the economy in Michigan, you can’t overcome the economy in those other states, either.

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