I'm heading out to visit my parents today, and I've got a bunch of errands to run beforehand.
That's precisely why I'm forcing myself to write my take on last night's vice presidential debate now. My editors have suggested that I write a bit shorter for this blog. And I found the whole thing so dang interesting that I could write an entry the length of a Thomas Pynchon novel here if I'm not careful.
I can't help it. I find the whole presentation aspect of politics fascinating. I sometimes think of national politicians as a highly elite cadre of performance artists, who must present themselves as simultaneously tough, competent and likeable while conveying material that most people know they should find interesting but really don't, such as Social Security plans.
And I actually mean that in an admiring way.
Last night's debate was a fascinating case study of contrasting styles.
After the debate, I called three people for their analysis: Tom Hall, a communications professor of York College and former debate coach; Jeff Gay, a local alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention; and John Burkett, a local delegate to the Democratic National Convention. All three gave me some very insightful comments.
I agreed with Hall that by any objective criteria, Joe Biden won. He was confident in his experience, always ready with facts and figures to underscore his points, and forceful without coming across as a bully.
And while Biden was by far the less cuddly of the two candidates, his moment of choking up while recalling a family tragedy is precisely the kind of humanizing touch that endears politicians to the electorate. (By the way, I'm not implying that he did that intentionally.)
Yet, like Hall, I couldn't say that Palin lost, either. She did absolutely nothing that would lose her the instant fan base she acquired after her convention speech.
I thought Burkett made a good point, Since the convention, many observers seemed inclined to dismiss her outright. Yet just about anybody who ever challenged her in Alasksa has warned about underestimating her.
On a number of occasions last night, questions clearly caught her unprepared. She simply deflected them, answering another question. But she did it confidently, unhesitatingly, in marked contrast to Dan Quayle's infamous "I think this goes back to my qualifications ..." fumbling in his debate with Lloyd Bentsen.
For better or for worse, that kind of rhetorical sleight-of-hand can be a powerful tool for a politician if used skillfully.
Another technique she drew on -- an ancient one in the annals of politics, but no less effective because of it -- was to use her lack of experience to emphasize her status as "just one of the people."
"Gosh, I guess I just don't understand the way you sophisticated folks in Washington do stuff, cause back where I come from, we always say that folks gotta take care of each other ...." That kind of thing. Mr. Smith, your plane is leaving for Washington.
Biden, I must say, did an admirable job of holding back. At times, I could feel him just itching to jump in and tear one of her arguments apart.
But in Palin's warm smile, often directed toward Biden, I also sensed a challenge. If verbalized, it would sound something like this:
"Remember me? I'm the friend's mom that used to make fluffernutters for everyone and carry them up on a tray when you were playing in the tree fort -- the mom you had a secret crush on when you were 12. You want to beat the crap out of me in front of the entire country? That's OK, sweetie. You go ahead. I'll still be extra nice to you when you call on Nov. 5 to congratulate me."
Biden, cannily enough, didn't step into that trap.
OK, I said I was going to write short. I really better go visit my parents now.
Cause back in New Jersey where I come from, we got this idea that you have to look after your folks. Maybe those people out in Washington have just got a different way of doing things, because I was raised to believe that a man's gotta .....
AAAAAAH! What's happening to me? Man, I am gonna need a LONG freakin vacation once this election is over!
What I heard during the debate from Sarah Palin was canned, rehearsed pablum. She answered only the questions she chose to answer and ignored the rest which indicates to me that they weren't topics covered in her Arizona coaching and for which she had no answers. The "Gee whiz, golly gee & gosh" that has become her flavor in this campaign reeks of an immature, and silly teenaged school girl. I want to believe this is NOT what Americans are looking for in a vice-president who conceivably could become the president of the United States.