McCain's VP:

I'm not worried about Biden. Keith Olberman asked him the other night if he was going to put on the soft gloves for Palin. Biden said no, that he would not condescend in that way, and that he would be addressing the moderator and public, not her since that is how the vp debate is set up.

Go Joe.

I do think that was part of why Biden talked about how McCain was condescending after the McCain/ Obama debate. That it was true in and of itself but also setting up a frame for the Biden/Palin debate. ("I won't be condescending" vs. "he was mean to me.")

I think revel has some good points and I agree that this isn't necessarily a slam dunk for Biden. He's going to have to be very, very careful. I think he's capable of pulling it off though.

I'm mostly worried about an unforced error from him -- a forehead-slapper of a gaffe.

We'll see...!

Yep - thats exactly what Ive been thinking.


Thing is, if Obama had chosen Hillary, McCain would never have chosen Palin in the first place. He'd have chosen someone else, and you'd now be saying, "in hindsight Obama should have picked [Biden/Kaine/Sebelius/Whoever], because (s)he wouldnt have had the handicaps Hillary has". It's McCain's advantage of choosing last..

Oh, I'm not worried about Biden making a gaffe. If he makes one it won't be earth-shattering, and it will only prove he's human. Biden doesn't take himself all that seriously, and he can deal with a faux pas with humor. Bottom line is that Biden knows his stuff, and he can present himself as knowledgable and fully prepared to do the job of VP. A gaffe or two will not obliterate his obvious qualifications to do the job.

Palin, on the other hand, has thus far been all gaffes in her three major interviews, with no evidence of any substance beneath the gaffes. She's got to prove that she can go beyond incoherently organized talking points and actually think. She's got to prove she can, at the very least, demonstrate a passable level of intellectual mediocrity, and communicate intelligibly, if she hasn't got a script in front of her. As low as the bar is being set for her, she might still trip over it.

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Calls rise among Republicans for Sarah Palin to step down from GOP ticket
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK and DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, September 27th 2008, 7:59 PM

Sarah Palin faces the biggest test of her month-old candidacy with this Thursday's vice presidential debate, but many Republicans are already convinced the Alaska governor is not ready for prime time - and may never be.

"It was fun while it lasted," conservative National Review columnist Kathleen Parker regretfully concluded last week. "But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick."

Those "circumstances," Parker and others are now saying, include not just the Wall Street meltdown - a crisis that seems to cry out for seasoned leadership - but also Palin's choppy, tenuous, even unintelligible answers to the few questions she has fielded on her own.

Palin's interview last week with CBS' Katie Couric is Exhibit A - a frightening glimpse, say fans and critics alike, into what happens when Palin is allowed to speak without a script.

"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia," she told Couric in explaining why being able to see Russia from Alaska should count as foreign policy experience on her résumé. "It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state."

On the Wall Street meltdown and polls showing Republican nominee John McCain slipping, she added, "What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it."

It made some GOP veterans yearn for Dan Quayle.

"You needed the Jaws of Life to pry a coherent sentence out," moaned one Republican operative.

Palin's uneven answers may help to explain why her handlers have let her grant only a handful of media interviews so far.

It may also explain why her poll numbers have started to slip, as in a Fox News poll last week that showed her favorable ratings dipping to 47% from 54%.

Republican guru Ed Rollins believes Team McCain did Palin a disservice by keeping her so walled off from the press.

Palin was thrust straight into the big leagues with ABC's Charlie Gibson and Couric (and a softball toss with conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity).

"They put her in storage," said Rollins, "and it broke her confidence."

[email protected]

From firefly's article:

At least some republicans are questioning McCain's choice of Palin, but the polls still show most conservatives haven't picked up the same warning signals.

Palin's approval ratings, as per the Daily Kos/ Research 2000 polls (nimh has said he doesn't really trust this poll -- I'm not a fan of Kos [the person or the site] but I don't know much about the validity of the poll) :



At any rate, it shows a loss of about 26 pts since 9/11. Her favorable ratings were about 16 pts higher than her unfavorable ratings as of then; now her favorable ratings are 10 pts LOWER than her unfavorable ratings. ("About" because the graph is small enough that the first number could be 16 or 17, I'm not sure, and I can't find the original numbers. For the most recent numbers, it was 40 percent favorable, 50 percent unfavorable, and 10 percent no opinion.)

http://www.dailykos.com/dailypoll/2008/09/28

soz, The one or two percent doesn't matter much, it's the trend that counts. Thanks for sharing that graph with us.

Two interesting points on the graph; 1) Palin had a more favorable rating then McCain at the beginning, and 2) both McCain and Palin favorable rating is negative when combined towards the end.

This lady has no concept of conflict of interest. Just like Keating 5 McCain.

Sarah Palin has made yet another boo-boo. She was caught agreeing with Obama on Pakistan. (And the best part is, I don't think she even realized it.)

http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=796418

McCain, who appeared on This Week with George Stephanopolous this morning, was unable to defend her statements.

Palin's recent interview with Katie Couric was disasterous. She was stumped about her own qualifications on foreign policy, unable to give one example of John McCain working for the people, and stumbled badly over describing the bailout's positive points.

She was clearly looking at her notes as she babbled incoherently about trade, job creation, and health care, none of which have anything to do with the bailout.

A few Republican pundits have openly called on Palin to resign and recuse herself from the campaign, but this would turn a losing candidacy into a complete disaster for the Republican Party up and down the ticket.

All this has got to be embarrasing for McCain. And next up is the VP debate.

Joe Biden has given over 80 interviews and press conferences since being chosen as a candidate; Palin has given three interviews and no press conferences.

Her only hope is that Biden will be such a jerk to her that she can claim sexism. But it's unlikely that the seasoned Biden would fall into that trap. Plus, the debate will be hosted by respected journalist Gwen Ifill. Having a female moderator would make it more difficult to lodge a sexism charge.

Good luck, Sarah. You're going to need it.

Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to the VP debate. I wouldn't miss it for anything! Hee!

Good pull, JTT! Fareed Zakaria is yet another one who has called on her to resign and stated that she is unqualified.

The problem is those conservatives who still believe in Palin can't see why other conservatives are calling for her resignation.

in the book "the 48 laws of power" Robert Greene says that any outrageous act that does not work out can be covered up by an even more outrageous act. It is the bread and butter of the rogue. Given that McCain is has shown repeadidly over the last year that this is what he has become, Palin could well be headed out the door.

Even top republicans are calling her to quit: http://forwardliberally.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/palin-resignation-watch-when-will-she-throw-in-the-towel/

Also http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=18&f=1717&t=3076701

Yeah, even the pro-Palin republicans who were calling her a "game-changer" a few weeks ago are now saying that "Palin no longer matters."

Given how badly Washington has been run by all the experts up until now, I think if we elected the village idiot, we would have a better chance at straightening things out. Palin can't be any worse than what we have in Washington, with the den of thieves up there, both in Congress and the bureaucrats.

You are so right, Okie. The Congress is filled with racists and anti-immigrant sentiment. Just look at the pitiful group---Lieberman, McConnell, Shelby, Kyl.

They will go down in flames in November!

The days are numbered for the ultra religious right fanatics in Washington, that take their marching orders from Jerry Falwell and the people that follow him, and people like him.

The only votes that McCain will get will obviously be by a bunch of right wing fanatic racists that still believe man walked the earth with dinosaurs just a few short years ago. But not to worry, there will not be enough of these voters to outnumber the enlightened young generation that has finally seen hope for the world in one great young leader, Barack Obama.

Here we see Wolf Blitzer at CNN laughing it up while comparing Tina Fey and Palin clips.

Wolf--"That was the first time I've ever heard the parody on SNL actually use exactly what was said..."

Obama should simply play clips from that interview in his campaign spots... followed by a giant

Bill, I would love to take Obama's every word in some interviews, and have somebody imitate him. That would be just as hilarious, if not moreso. The uh, uh, uh's would be frosting on the cake.