Palin Will be Attack Dog at Debate

The McCain campaign knows Palin won't be able to hold her own during the debate. They know they can't cram years of knowledge and experience into her pea-brain during a two and a half day "debate camp". They can't cancel or pull her out without looking like total incompetents, so what is left?

Here is my prediction. When she is asked a question, no matter the subject, she will give a brief memorized response then go into attack mode against Obama/Biden/Democrats. She will be insulting and sarcastic; depending on how much rope Rove is giving her she might cross over to vicious. But they don't want her to be seen as a total cold-hearted bitch, so every so often she will tell a charming anecdote about her family. :puke:

I'll betcha anything this is their strategy.

She doesn't know enough to fill up the air time with knowledge of the subject matter. So to fill up the air time she'll have to go on the attack. But there won't be the back and forth give and take we saw between her and Charlie Gibson. She'll get her 2 minutes or whatever for a question and Ifill won't interrupt, so she'll get away with whatever crap she's spewing. Just like she did at the GOP convention. People will analyze her words after the debate going into the weekend but by then it may be too late. The debate could turn out to be a hit and run on Biden with millions of idiots buying into the crap. It might work for Palin to go on the attack.

If the rules ban notes, maybe Biden should offer to waive that rule. When she is reading from notes, her brain seems to be completely disconnected.

and he says all Biden has to do is ignore her, debate like she isn't there. He had an article in yesterday's daily news (http://www.adn.com/opinion/comment/story/539459.html) Get it to Biden if you can, anyone. Andrew knows her inside and out.

Hopefully Gwen will crack the whip on Miss wanna-be Alaska.

Both are PBS and I thought Lehrer was unbelievably polite and deferential in the first debate. He never cut to the core and just gently, GENTLY prodded the candidates to focus. As if McCain's lack of focus was some innocent sort of thing and not a series of ploys, evasions and planned attacks. Ifil and Lehrer have worked for years together on the PBS Newshour.

I once read that Lehrer actually doesn't vote. He has said that he wants his role in society to be completely impartial. An asteroid could be hitting Montana. People could be dying in the street of a plague. But Lehrer won't come off of his MR. PLACID IMPARTIAL PERCH to take a stand. And of course, in the Gingrich era there was a huge attempt to take away PBS's public funding. I once saw some PBS executive during that time come on PBS and APOLOGIZE for being non-profit and say desperately that they were TRYING to start making a profit!

We're not greedy. FORGIVE US!!!

I think these people were chosen as moderators because they can be expected to all hide under the desk no matter how much the GOP candidate hits below the belt.

That helps them stand out in a field of mediocrity.

And beautiful talented intelligent well-informed and incisive Gwen Eyeful flirts with millions weekly.

Joe doesn't have to play nice. Sounds good to me! All the stupid shit she has said can be thrown in her face.

The more "impartial" Ifil is, the more Biden has to do the heavy lifting in reacting negatively to what Palin dishes out. I am worried that Palin will get away with bloody murder in the debate unless Biden really lets loose, but then he will look negative and it will cost him. Palin will "make love to the camera" with charming winks and sideways glances and sassy rolls of her lower lip and she may be able to go far more negative than Biden and get away with it.

Certainly a reasonable prediction NightOwl.
I think she and the McCain camp knows she'll only do well if she stays far far away from details. It'll all be the broadest of strategies:
1) National Security: She'll talk up the 'without preconditions' line.
2) Economy: She'll talk up McCain the maverick stopping his campaign.
3) Family/Community: She'll allude to the fact is more patriotic to be a hockey mom than a Harvard dad.
4) She'll talk up Country First (an insult in two words if you ask me).
5) Maybe she'll go back to change/careers little line.

I really can't see her challenging Biden on any real policy.
She won't mention any bridge or any sight of Putin's overly large cranium on the horizon!
Cheers

BK

Keep in mind that there is also someone else in this race who stays far from details. John McCain. He has spent his whole career far from details and facts and look how far it's gotten him. Palin is surrounded by hardened Rovian aparatchiks who are coaching her and there may be only a narrow window of opportunity before Palin "gets with the program" Rove-wise and manages to kick ass by obfuscating the issues etc. That window of opportunity to nail her may already have passed. She may have her act together in the debate if they have fed her enough verbal and issue dirty tricks and ploys. She can also bring up GOP boilerplate that hasn't yet gotten mentioned in the post-convention period and you could have a lot of dumb spits out there saying, "Dang!" and voting for her.

She will have to appear to at least attempt to answer the questions, or viewers will quickly write her off.

... written her off. I think people will be surprised if she's able to say her name.
Talk about the battle of expectations before the debate itself... I was looking at an old copy of newsweek yesterday which suggested Joe would have to be careful with Palin... can't be too aggressive or challenge her worldview. Wow, how old that looks now, post Putingate, Kissingergate, I'll-get-back-to-you-on-McCain's-Maverick-Policies-Gate.
Cheers

as far as I can tell will be the roughly 49% with a brain (i.e. people who didn't vote for Bush)

The other 51% will be too busy being charmed by her "adorableness" and being mesmerized watching her udders bouncing around under her blouse.

You say, "She will have to appear to at least attempt to answer the questions." But the issue isn't even whether most people think she did well in the debate. Do you know anybody who isn't brain dead who is still undecided? At this stage of the election it is the total idiots who are undecided. THOSE are the people who have to be won over in the final stretch. So who says Palin has to "at least attempt to answer the questions"? If she succeeds in snowing the snowable, she might "lose" the debate even, with most voters, and yet you might still see right after the debate that McCain-Palin's support could go up. The final stretch is dominated by the tyranny of the dumb spits from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

but given how viewers reacted to McCain's non-stop attacks on Obama on Friday, I'm not sure that will win the night for them. Especially if Ifill asks a question for which she is not prepared.

or lipstick-wearing pitbulls

we have seen in election after election that as much as people don't like attack dogs, they still do what the attack dogs tell them to do eventually. Richard Nixon once said that "After you have repeated something so many times that you are ready to puke, that is the first time people will listen to you." The GOP knows how to go on the attack much better than Democrats and they know how to make it work.

Let me paraphrase Nixon:

"After the GOP has attacked so many times that you are ready to puke, that is the first time Democrats will realize that it worked."

What if Palin throws Biden a curve ball, something so totally out of left (or right) field that nobody was expecting it at all because it was just too ridiculous to even imagine? And then suddenly Biden is on the defensive, flustered, and maybe making gaffes in frustration. The lipstick on a pig shtick was itself an example of this. Who could possibly have imagined that attacking Obama for saying "lipstick on a pig" could possibly be a serious attack? And yet for days it waylaid the Democratic campaign which had to circle the wagons for days in defense.

Same with the GOP convention. Out of nowhere they manufactured a diatribe against the media, falsely accusing them of attacking Palin. Suddenly everyone began treating Palin with kid gloves, which lasted quite a few days. The GOP attacks bought weeks of "halo treatment" for "Saint Palin." It was all preemptive strike, something Democrats don't know how to do. Suddenly, both Obama and Biden couldn't be found saying a negative word about Palin. Everything negative on her was relegated to behind the scenes off-the-record criticism or very remote surrogates including the blogosphere. With what seemed like an absurd attack the GOP bought weeks of coddling of "Saint Palin."

The GOP knows how to go for the jugular better than the Democrats.

So if Palin goes on the attack, who says it won't work?

it's one of her strategies.
'well I'll find some Katie, and I'll bring ;em to yaaa."
remember your flat 'A's'

keep on droppiing the 'g' sound sarah

seein ya do that is makin' me crazy, ya darn little flirt.

She'll make love to the camera. Which will help her get away with more negativity. Dumb spits out there will think, "She doesn't have hate! She has LOVE!!!" This helps her get away with bloody murder.

I listened to Palin's speech at the GOP convention. Then I read comments posted on a Washington Post article. Lots of people, lots of women, said Palin seemed really nasty. I thought, oh, people reacted negatively to Palin. But I was wrong. Only INTELLIGENT people, the sorts of people who might read the Washington Post, reacted negatively. Lots of other people went "Dang! She's a biker who kin shoot a moose!"

Palin can't string two sentences together and make sense. This will be fun.

... as I imagine the volume will be down.

Of course, she will bite your ankles and yap like crazy.

If you drop kick her across the room, YOU will be the bad guy.

Every so often, especially when others are looking, she will appear to be sweet as pie (and Oh so cute!).

Let me put it this way. The GOP has mastered the art of what I call "testosterone politics" and Democrats don't know how to defend against it. The GOP doesn't HAVE to appeal to people's intelligence because they know how to appeal to their ANIMAL INSTINCTS. This is why Bush appeared at a NASCAR event and declared, "Gentlemen start yer engines!" This is why his father used to tell people he ate pork rinds. It's all visceral. They had the media jumping up and down on their high chairs screaming that the Democrat was more of a Grey Poupon sorta guy (or something like that).

For the GOP it's all insinct and gut feeling stuff. They don't care if you are intelligent because their strategy is to PREVENT you from thinking regardless. That's why McCain's constant "tough guy" foreign policy stuff works even if a lot of it is deficient as policy. Instead of getting men to consider the actual merits of a given policy, his "bomb everyone" sends to men a subliminal cue that he's a tough guy, therefore, trust him to know what to do in foreign policy. One of the polls after the Obama-McCain debate said that men thought McCain had won the debate over Obama by 46% to 43%. That sounds almost even. But here's the rub. We know from other polls that African Americans support Obama by something like 95%. So we can surmise that among that 46-43 among men, nearly all the African American men were for Obama. By default that means that among WHITE men McCain won by much better than 46-43. In other words, WHITE MEN are mostly going for McCain in droves, like mindless drones crazed out on some mind-altering drug.

That drug is testosterone.

Consider hypnosis. It doesn't work by capturing your will through the medium of your intellect, rational thought. It DULLS your intellect to take over from there. You are getting sleepy......... The GOP brainwashes people by subverting their intellect with advertising agency tricks like sex. This car is sexy, this shaving cream is sexy, this cigarette is sexy, this boat is sexy. This mop is sexy. This trash can is sexy because it's being held by a sexy woman.

The GOP knows how to "sell the sizzle, not the steak."

Some years ago there was a pain reliever commercial, Excedrin maybe. It didn't tell you why it was a better pain reliever or anything like that. Instead it had a series of subliminal cues that got under the intellectual radar to go straight to the emotions. It had a kid screaming at her mother, a clock ticking painfully, a glass smashing on the floor, stuff like that, full of all sorts of symbolism to push people's buttons. Then the mother, stressed out, screams, "Stop it! Stop it!" The announcer comes on and says, "Sure you're tense. Sure you're irritable. But THAT'S no reason why you have to take it out on THEM. Take Excedrin." All sizzle, all appealing to the gut, to instinct, below the mediating factor of rational thought, all under the radar.

In my view, Palin is a stroke of political genius as a choice, even if she's an idiot, because her selection attempts to mooch the Hillary supporters and women and even if it doesn't get most of them, her selection also simultaneously appeals to MEN. Even if it only mooches a few women, it's still a double wammy because of what it does to men.

Remember the Rosie O'Donnell show? Rosie kept showing pictures of Tom Cruise. Every show. It was obsessive. She drooled over him. And she had all her female viewers' estrogen pumping full blast which helped keep her ratings up.

The GOP does this with men. The biker angle, the shooting moose, the gun nut angle, is all testosterone-pumping. Don't think! Feeeeeeeeeel! Be a man! Support offshore oil drilling and you can get behind the wheel and FLOOR that gas peddle, man an' boy! Varoom! Varoom! If Palin were a man she could still use the moose hunting etc. to win male votes. The fact that she is a flirtatious WOMAN doing those things is a double wammy. She's got the men going "Dang! Guns fer everybody!" AND --- her having a flirtatious, lip-curling, sideways-glancing sexual act with the camera pumps up men's testosterone even more. Palin could win votes on Thursday night even if she flubs her words because instead of men thinking with their heads she's got men "THINKING BETWEEN THEIR LEGS."

This dear deer puts up a good fight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67FDuCvObBM

I could watch that redneck fuck get the shit beat out of him nonstop. Redneck shitheads are constantly worrying about their right to bear arms. I'm all for the right to arm bears!

who will also moderate the VP debates this year. i haven't looked through it yet but maybe it will give an idea of what type of questions Ifill may ask. and what type of moderator she will be. i'm sure there are videos on youtube and elsewhere also.

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004b.html

She asked John Edwards: "Ten men and women have been nominated for the Vice Presidency since 1976. You have less govenmental experience than any of them. What qualifies you to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?"

Let's hope for a repeat of that question Thursday.

(Of course, Ifill also botched the question badly by asking Dick Cheney to rebut Edwards' qualifications for the position, effectively asking one candidate to dismiss the other candidate's life experience. Stupid! And Cheney called her on it.)

(Incidentally, reading through the transcript, Ifill screwed up a lot. She lost track of whose turn it was to lead off in the questioning, then she lost track of the topics, then she lost track of the time. Her insipid, pointless "2 minutes for you, then 90-seconds for you, then 30-seconds for you" format was crap.)

And, finally, I think much of the worry on this thread is unfounded. Contrary to what a lot of you seem to have heard (?), FOX and other outlets are actually playing up Palin's skills and RAISING expectations for her. Nothing she has done so far merits that. This is not up for argument -- it is true and we all have seen it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears. Plus, most of the comments on this thread suppose that Palin will somehow fluster Biden. I disagree. It is pretty apparent that Palin, not Biden, gets easily flustered, and when she does watch out! If Biden derails her even a little (hell, if IFILL does) then Palin is going to sink like a stone.

Even if Palin sticks just to mealy-mouthed generalities, she will still make too many mistakes to recover.

She'll be bending over backwards to try and be 'deferential' to Palin.

Look for Ifill to be a BIG disgrace to all the demographics she supposedly represents.

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/29/uselections2008.sarahpalin>

"Women voters have determined the outcome of every US election for the last 40 years."

Thats just article-writing nonsense.

"women voters have influenced electoral outcomes for more than eight decades, deciding on presidents and precedents in a way that has shaped public policy directly and dramatically.

Women tend to favor incumbents, especially for president, preferring to stick with a trusted brand already on the shelf rather than trying something new and unknown. In fact, the last three presidents who won reelection increased their support among women in their second bids. Women are also reliably pro-incumbent in congressional elections, evidencing more consistency in their voting patterns than men. Ironically, this natural bias toward reelecting incumbents is one reason many women who run for office as challengers are unsuccessful.
"


from:

<http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/1007/ijde/conway.htm>

I think the article should have used your sources! lol
Did you notice the CNN graphs how when Obama spoke, when he mentioned health care, taxes, mortgages (home stuff dare I say it but not trying to be sexist) that the women's graph left up and kept up there until he finished. Also the stats, McCain apparently won men 46/45 but women I can't remember something like 59/41 to Obama.
Anyway...

If "Women voters have determined the outcome of every US election for the last 40 years" why is it that until recently the GOP, which has more male than female supporters, controlled the House, Senate, White House, Supreme Court, and the MSM?

The men's concentration, that is. She gives flirty little sideways glances, heavy winks, sultry curls of her lower lip. And of course, she shows plenty of leg. Compare this to Democratic women in Congress, who don't do these things. I mean, Palin could say the moon is made of Worcestershire sauce and say it with a wink and there would be men out there saying, "Dang straight! Yeeehah!"

and say, "This aint no disco, Mofos!" After that,
the debate wont matter because everybody will be
talking about her entrance. Forget the other shit.

I've been talking to a lot of guys about politics--neighbors, friendly coworkers--and they don't seem to find her particularly attractive. Some of them are Republicans, too.

& a few other subjects, too

So we used her accent and answered everything with completely inane non-answers. ("Oh YEAH, SHUR! I can get to Russia in a JIF!") I wore my glasses and did my hair up in a little beehive do (we're a family of dorks) and after just one hour, my husband was all "OKAY STOP, I HATE THAT VOICE."

Hee. That's one guy who certainly doesn't find her attractive at all.

Flyer: You can see the debate from my house!!!!

You can see the moon from my house! I'm an astronaut! Oh yeah, you betcha!!!

politicians in America. Yeah, that'll work.

Palin may be able to level the playing field with one-liner quips and a "kitchen sink" array of attacks. Artillery can be very confusion-producing even though it's scatter shot. I think Palin will definitely hit hard and it may carry the day for her. Mark Twain said that "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes." Palin can be an idiot but if she throws the kitchen sink of lies at Biden, that can be disorienting to even a good debater, because the task for Biden won't be just to answer all the lies but to do so with brevity to accommodate the format, and carefully choose which lies to respond to in the limited time, and in a way that still summarizes and covers all bases as a rebuttal. That can actually be hard to do if you are intelligent and know a lot and therefore have a lot to say. It's hard for a knowledgeable person to condense because he has so much to condense. It's one thing to stand on the Senate floor and give a great speech. It's another to pack all the rebuttals to a truckload of quick and easy lies into two minutes. It's like that old Mad Magazine joke about the tomato paste brand advertising that "We put 8 great tomatoes in this itty bitty little can." And the Mad spoof shows a man with a sledge hammer trying to smash tomatoes into a little can and it isn't working, tomatoes are splattering all over the room.

Let's say someone says, "Jezus rode on dinosaurs!"

That's four words.

Now try REBUTTING that in four words! You CAN'T.

A clear, knowledgeable mind like Biden's can be waylaid by a kitchen sink of lies thrown at him by Palin.

I couldn't agree with you more.

:hi:

She will be scared as hell!

and screech that Democrats are degenerate etc. This is one of the problems with attacking Palin. The GOP are masters of twisting things around to claim that what you did was offensive and shocking and self-discrediting. They would immediately say Democrats are witches, and this proves it! Obama said lipstick and look at how they twisted it around and tied him in knots for days. I think Palin will be more formidable in the debate than a lot of people think. The GOP has the whole attack dog thing down cold. My bet is that in absence of experience and knowledge, the one thing the GOP handlers CAN do is teach Palin a series of canned attacks. And it will be disorienting to even the best debater.

debate ever catch McCain on a smear, unfair attack or lie? Why then would Gwen? Their piece of the PBS world is too rarified for either Lehrer or Ifil to get down in the mud. I predict that Ifil will not come to Biden's aid.

Perhaps one of McCain's other "razzle dazzle" moves has been having Palin "play dumb?" Could be, though I seriously doubt it.

I think she's going to be blown away and exposed as the very bad pick that she was/is come Thursday night, assuming she's still on the ticket by then. There's a sense in conservative circles (the Kathleen Parker column over the weekend calling for her to step down was a trial balloon of sorts, methinks) that she is, in fact, in over her head.

I would not be surprised at all to see the VP debate canceled or rescheduled, with Palin bowing out as early as tomorrow and someone like Lieberman or perhaps Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas stepping in. McCain is kind of damned-if-he-keeps-her, damned-if-he-dumps her now, but bringing another female onto the ticket (especially one like Hutchinson who is far more qualified) might be his best hope for still pulling this thing out. Even so, dumping Palin would anger the Evangelicals he needs to win, so he is really, really on thin ice here. Palin would have to totally school Joe Biden in order for this to turn out well, and that is not going to happen. She might be able to goad Biden into doing or saying something stupid, but that too is highly doubtful.

For my part, I see in Palin a woman who is very scared and fearful and also more than a little pissed off. My guess is she has no way of expressing it, or at least not the ways she was accustomed to in Alaska when there weren't so many cameras around. She is totally out of her element and is not handling it well, at least not yet. Welcome to the Lower 48, SLP.

She is not at all the same woman who patronizingly zinged Obama and the Dems in her acceptance speech; that was the easy part. Now she has to live up to the hype, and she can't do it. Or I should say she hasn't thus far. If she comes out Thursday and makes no major gaffes and doesn't sound like a Valley Girl who recently moved to Mankato the way she did in describing the Alaska-Russia relationship to Katie Couric, then maybe she might find her footing again and rally the non-Evangelical conservatives who initially supported her but are now turning away.

Judging from what I've seen of her, though, there's not much of a chance of that happening. Likeothers have predicted, look for her to try and rattle Biden with ad hominem attacks and variations on standard McCain campaign talking points. But I still say she'll be hard-pressed to do even a passable job without a rabid crowd of savior-seeking, Obama-hating Republicans cheering her on.

If things go too poorly for Palin in the debate, I predict she'll be off the ticket before the next Obama-McCain debate, currently scheduled for Oct. 7.

Just my two ditties' worth...

punditty
http://www.allvoices.com/users/Punditty

It was doubtful she would have even taken it way back before it was offered to Palin. Now? No way in hell she'd touch this ticket with a ten foot pole. She has her own political future to look out for and the word is she's eyeballing the governor's mansion in Austin, not being on a ticket with a feeble old loser.

You said, "She is not at all the same woman who patronizingly zinged Obama and the Dems in her acceptance speech."

Of course she is.

Vice presidential running mates are supposed to zing the other side's PRESIDENTIAL nominees, not vice presidential nominees. They serve as the attack dog to keep their presidential running mate relatively clean. The veep nominee does more of the attacking.

Remember Dan Quayle? In his veep debate he kept saying, "You're pulling a Clitton!" (Notably leaving out the first "N" --- more sexual politics.) This is what veep nominees do. They attack the other side's presidential nominee.

I think Palin will go straight after Obama so McCain doesn't have to as much. (Or to add to McCain's hits on Obama.)

If Dan Quayle could attack Bill Clinton's "clitoris" (or imply that Bill Clinton is chasing after one) Sarah Palin can attack Obama on whatever they want. In the era of Rove, things have only gone down hill in terms of standards. Expect Palin to hit Obama and Biden all out.

him during the first debate, so maybe they should think twice about debating from the gutter.

Then again, they've got nothing else.

She's got charm and sex appeal. So she can get away with more attacks. Look at how the McCain campaign used her at the convention. Right out of the starting gate she was the designated attack dog, hitting Obama right in her convention speech. And she did it with charm and a smile. And it gave McCain a convention bounce.

An ability to read and make snarky comments doesn't qualify a person to be VP.

targeting at the debate. What worked there won't automatically work in the debate.

and Undecideds, and that's not a good thing. Biden will look smart, knowledgeable and vice presidential. She'll just look like the nasty sarcastic angry woman she is.

To the independent and undecided voter, the words "loud-mouthed bitch" will be the first ones that leap to mind. It would be better for her to be viewed as a genial dimwit that a nasty dimwit.

A few talking points drilled into her, but also armed with some nasty snarky insults.

And be prepared for the media saying that because of that, she'll come off as "better than expected".

Regardless of the facts being debated, they will give her good grades for "holding her own" against the "experienced debater" Biden. They will give her the win GENERICALLY --- for fighting. The new meme will be that "she PROVED herself" and that Biden's a "wimp." Some of the talking heads will even say, "This lays to rest suspicions that she's not ready!"

come off as too scripted. Hillary had a couple of those types of scripted lines and they didn't work so well for her, because they looked too scripted. I don't know if Palin will be able to pull it off, especially without any substance to back her up.

Those people hated Hillary from the get go. The same right wing media LOVE McCain, spent years being palsy-walsy with him and really want to overlook his faults, like his VP choice. If Palin looks scripted a lot of the media will overlook it.

so as not to wake the sleeping monster. There are a few key phrases Biden could utter that would upset the apple cart. "Rape kit" comes to mind. I'm certain Biden will be cool, calm and polite unless she starts throwing mindless attacks. Then, all bets are off.

You have to have some confidence to have that kind of composure. She's lost it. Even if they give her the questions in advance, Joe will eviscerate her on the details.

She **must** have canned responses coupled with attacks. There is no other option. If she is presented with a question she cannot answer, she'll have to use one of a few generic statements about supporting the troops, free market principles, conservative values, and then follow up with trash.

The McCain campaign is neck deep. This isn't going to work. Not with Biden.

will just leave them alone? When did the GOP ever think THAT way? For sure Palin will come out swinging and the Rovebots in McCain's camp won't even care how bloody she gets as long as she bloodies Obama.

with her mouth shut. At this point the woman is a punch line, not a VP candidate to be taken seriously. Should she come on strong to Biden - and I agree that is a distinct possibility - and he responds the way he would against a "normal" opponent, Biden is going to be depicted as a big, mean, nasty, sexist pig going after the lone woman in the race. The Republican spinners will be wiping tears from their cheeks.

A few days ago, I expected Palin would come out and be all vicious and snarky and win on the kinds of points that the pundits love (like her nasty speech). Her base loves that mean-girl approach, even from its men. However, I got to thinking and now I personally believe that the economic crisis has changed everything. I really do think that suddenly people are realizing these are SERIOUS times that call for a SERIOUS president. No longer are they comfortable enough to want the guy they want to have a beer with. And now, especially if there's no applause allowed for Palin's canned mean lines, I do wonder if people are gravitating fast to the "serious" candidates. I think Obama came across as the serious one Friday night - fascinating that the young guy had more gravitas than the old-timer. And I think while Palin's nasty, funny and even "adorable" comebacks worked wonders on the trail and at the convention, I expect they could easily go bust Thursday night. Biden will seem to have the serious knowledge needed in these scary times.

That's my hope. I really do hope this crisis woke people up. I guess we'll see soon enough!

By Thursday the word will be that the tension in the markets has passed. BUT --- the new theme will be that the "Pork Barrel Democrats" just gave away $700 billion, only the GOP can protect your money etc. etc. On Capitol Hill Democrats are being such eager beavers to give away this $700 billion regardless of the stipulations and strings attached that they even risk losing Congress. The whole country is against the bailout, but the Democratic leadership is oblivious to their concerns about it and they're pushing forward with the bailout, even though it's Bush's bailout. The GOP will be screaming that THEY opposed a Bush plan while it's the DEMOCRATS, not McCain, who are in lockstep with Bush. It looks like a huge trap is closing on the Democratic Party even as we speak here.

will have a couple choices to make at that point and I have every confidence the Obama people have thought this all out in advance and Joe will be well prepared.

Every single thing these thugs and losers have done has backfired so far - this debate with Palin will be no different.

Keeping my fingers crossed anyway - it's never hurt :)

...that song just started going through me head.

I'd love to know when it dawned on her that she's no longer a 'big fish in a little pond'. As for the VP debate, it's going to be a disaster if she tries to recreate her Convention speech; we already know there's no power or knowledge to back up her vitriol.

a lying bitch. Because, just like her grand-dad McSame, she will spit them out with regularity.

www.wearableartnow.com

I think she will look like the ignorant ex-beauty queen that she is. If she acts like a rethug attack dog, its even better.

Look at the results of McCain's sullen, angry performance at the presidential debate. Obama has been climbing up the polls since then. Americans ain't buying that shit from rethugs anymore.

Maybe she could club a few baby seals to death on stage. That would impress her base voters for sure!

She won't be in a lovefest like the GOP convention. Gwen wants her head. Joe is just going to sit back and watch the fireworks.

My impression is that Gwen and Lehrer are two PBS peas in a pod, gentile and trying to be impartial. They work together and Gwen is almost Lehrer's understudy sort of. So consider the Obama-McCain debate. Did Lehrer want McCain's head? Lehrer was all gentleness and placidity. Since when did Gwen want Palin's head? Evidence?

Talking to Republicans after the debate showed me that they want policy and issues in the debates. They want to know what each will do on the given subject. If Palin goes on an all red meat offensive, she will turn everybody off, be mocked by the media as an idiot and Obama/Biden's numbers will soar as they will be seen as the only ones taking the Presidency seriously.

If Palin uses her two minutes to attack, they will lose.

All McCain and Palin need to do is "rough up" Obama. Raise doubts. The 527s will be relied on to finish him off. So I don't see the McCain camp having any qualms about bashing Obama. And their 527s may make that bashing work.

That's about the only thing they COULD plan to do, however, whether that actually works or not will remain to be seen. (Or whether she's even allowed to go off on an attack tangent with every question also remains to be seen---she might get away with it a few times at the beginning, but I dunno about every single time....after a while even the dopiest person will see she isn't addressing the issues at ALL.)

Who is going to stop her? Since when are GOP attacks against the law?

That WILL NOT play well with independents/undecideds. Biden will ignore her and speak directly to the American people (as Obama did; looking right at the camera). He will ignore her petty tactics - she's not worth engaging at any level.

little "convention" people don't like that. Well, the "base" loves it, but the base has been won long ago. These debates aren't FOR the base.

I'd love it if she were totally sarcastic and nasty because then she'd lose any sympathy points she might have gotten AND people will get pissed off at her to boot!

In my view Democrats take polls to find out what people think.

Republicans take polls to find out how to force down people's throats what the GOP thinks. "The world is flat. You don't believe it? What if we told it to you this way? NOW what would you say?!"

Palin's handlers can probably order Palin around easier than they can McCain. They can tell her HOW to go negative so she can get AWAY with it better. Don't be so sure her attacks won't work. All she has to do is draw blood. The 527s will finish off the job.

Given her figure they can probably hide the transmitter in her.....

open the door to a firm but respectful Biden smackdown. Biden will not hesitate to deliver one and he knows
how to do it deftly, having been around strong women all his life (that includes the Senate).

Biden knows John McCain better than anyone but McCain himself. Joe needs to make Palin explain McCain's policies and stand up for McCain the candidate. He need not ever even address Palin.

If I were Palin's advisors, I would be training her to ONLY talk about her family, Alaska, and what she, personally, did as mayor and governor, as it relates to the questions Ifill might ask.

If, however, Biden does the right thing and focuses on McCain, thereby hopefully forcing Palin to have to engage with McCain's stances and defend them, then she will quickly go down in flames.

Expect this: Palin will attack. She will attack on many fronts. Just like the shotguns she lets people use to hunt wolves from airplanes. Many of the attacks will seem ridiculous. Biden will ignore too many of them and fail to fend them all off. Every Democrat will think Palin merely hurt herself. The next day the media will all be saying Palin scored a lot of points, didn't get answered, wounded Biden and Obama, scored without return volleys, she's "feisty," she proved that she's "ready," etc. etc.

It won't take much to get her flustered.

He knows what he is talking about, she doesn't.

Palin can do whatever she likes. Most Americans, it seems, have made up their minds about her. There will be another person on that stage, Joe Biden, and he can handle this debate in his sleep. Nonetheless, he is practicing against Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and she has said she plans to go after him, needle him, and altogether act like as big of a jackass as Sarah Palin is. I don't think enough of us on this thread have given Obama-Biden any credit for the fact that Thursday's debate is NOT all about Sarah Palin. It isn't The Palin Show. There will be a moderator, an opponent, and rules. And, also, a woefully unprepared Sarah Palin.

Let that sink in a little. Then reconsider the assessment that Palin is going to "win" with empty, stupid little attacks and flirty gestures.

I mean, that's a joke.

The best she can hope for is that some major disaster will shield her from view before Thursday, just as similar events have minimally obscured McCain's crap performances so far.

But since when have "rules" stopped the GOP from telling lies? The GOP tells so many lies it's hard to keep up. And a lie of four words might require dozens or hundreds of words to properly rebut. Again, the attacks only need to "soften up" Obama and Biden because the GOP 527s will then finish them off.

And you said of Palin, "The best she can hope for is that some major disaster will shield her." Isn't that happening even as we speak? Democrats will pass the rescue bailout. Then the GOP will scream that the Democrats gave away $700 billion in pork barrel spending and they will screech and scream that the real economic villains are the Democrats, not Bush and McCain. It looks as if the bailout will pass the House today and the Senate Wednesday.

What is she going to do? Gum Him to death? I've got more teeth than she has and I am over 75.

:rofl:

Joe walks on stage smiling. He will be labeled a sexist, as his smile made her uncomfortable. After all she has fired people for that sort of behavior... Hello, How are you today? is a sexist and demeaning comment to conservative feminists.

I do agree it will be a Debate of distraction, it will be up to Joe Biden to keep it on Track and to Give her only enough rope to hang herself with. While avoiding the mine field of her accusations of sexism, and flat out repeated lies.

Part one of their strategy is the attack. Part two will be the post-debate spin. They will use any innocuous comment or a seemingly innocent gesture as evidence of his rude, sexist and condescending attitude. No matter the reality, the McCain camp will spin it as proof Biden is a big bad meanie who has no respect for women.

glove." Palin will use charm to try to make her attacks seem less venomous. The venom will be in the words. Then when Biden responds, she or the GOP spin doctors will spin Biden's most innocent words or gestures, and not to mention mannerisms, glances, you name it, as "proof" that he is, as you put it, "rude, sexist and condescending." A chauvinist pig. These GOP hatchet men have been targets of such characterizations for years. They will see this as their opportunity to finally get even. They are already salivating.

They've probably got some GOP head shrink sitting there right now instructing Palin in how to employ "passive aggression" for alibi purposes.

All Biden has to do is give the slightest indication that Palin was acting in any way impulsively in her attacks and Palin can instantly say Biden was making a sexist suggestion of female "hysteria." If she doesn't make that suggestion, her campaign spin doctors will after the debate.

if Biden and the people preparing him are worth their paychecks, they already know this. A simple response by Biden would be along the lines of "Unfortunately, Gov. Palin failed to answer your question, so let me try."

he's gotta do it without seeming like a prick though. It may also be a good idea for Biden to have a pre-planned one liner similar to "there she goes again". Something the networks can play repeatedly.

LIE her ass off for 2 minutes so Joe has to spend 1 minute and 30 seconds corecting the lies before he can discuss an issue for 30 wholefreaking seconds- pretty much what Barak had to do.

Again, as Mark Twain said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

I think it's their only option. I'm glad you posted this. I was trying to preempt my rage by predicting their MO in advance.

We'll just have to see if Biden has the armory to handle the bs.

It's not easy even for a good speaker to avoid a gaffe or two while someone is sh*tting in your face for 90 straight minutes. Imagine being in a debate with Ann Coulter, a person who attacks with snotty egotism and has absolutely no moral restraint in debate whatever. I could see Palin rattling Biden to the point of making a gaffe.

It will only backfire on her. If she doesn't know the answers, Joe Biden will pick up on it and adjust his responses accordingly. If she attacks from a position where she isn't prepared, she'll look shrill and hysterical. Let her go on the attack, let her be Sarah Barracuda, and let her anger be the rope that hangs her.

Machiavelli wrote in "The Prince" (chapter 18) ---

"Be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves."

Biden is an aggressive speaker and debater. For sure Palin's handlers know this and they are laying traps for him.

Have you been watching the news for the last three weeks?
You werite like nothuing has happened since the Repub convention bounce.
Palin is finished, kaput, over, ding!
It doesnt matter what she does or says at that debate,
Palin will be nothing but comedy relief.
Biden will chivalrously wipe the floor with her.
I believe you may be doing unintentional parody.
Although I know that delusion every once and a while can be relaxing.

These Machiavellian plans are all good in theory (and you are right to warn against them), but I suspect that when she gets up in front of that audience, and is set under those white hot lights, and doesn't have a tele-prompter to read from... she'll have to rely on the policy knowledge she has crammed into her head and what her instincts tell her. You can coach and coach, but tacticle preformance under pressure can only be coached so much - the rest is left to skill. And as we have seen in her interviews, skill in conveying solid plausible (if not coherent) answers to basic questions on policy is not her strong suit.

Ah, the smell of delusion in the morning.

Probably the same for Biden (attacks Bush-McCain). Whether she takes an order of magnitude higher is the question. It would be a blustery way to attempt to cover her lack of knowledge and it would be another hail mary. OTOH polling from McCains last debate was not good. Plus Palin doesn't have the gravitas to hit our guys hard and often on policy matters.

...

he tried to stay on message regardless of what the question was. In other words, she won't play by the rules which is the only way repukes know how to play. And I hope Biden calls her on it.

Every F*CKIN' thing.

Like so:

Gwen Ifil: Ms. Palin, what is your answer to the financial crisis?

Palin: Well, Gwen, AS YOU KNOW, Democrat tax increases have starved the markets for capital. The failure to drill for more oil has kept energy prices high, and so high inflation, which has kept interest rates high.

Gwen Ifil: And what will you do about the Russians, Ms. Palin?

Palin: I'm glad you asked me that, Gwen. The Russians are trying to prevent alternative access to Asian oil through Georgia. And Democrat tax increases are preventing our economy from growing, without which we won't have enough money for the military.

Gwen Ifil: The environment?

Palin: Tax cuts and oil drilling, Gwen. Did you know that in order for people to obey car pooling rules in California they actually have to find someone to accompany them in their car? That adds weight to the car, increasing fuel consumption. If we would just cut taxes and let the oil industry do their thing, we would soon solve all the environmental problems.

Gwen Ifil: The falling dollar?

Palin: Tax cuts and oil drilling, Gwen.

Gwen Ifil: Should we land a man on Mars?

Palin: Tax cuts and oil drilling, Gwen.

Gwen Ifil: Sewer maintenance?

Palin: Tax cuts and oil drilling, Gwen.

Everyone knows she's a doofus, if she comes out swinging, it will look horrible. Except to the fundies, of course.

Were I a betting man, I'd say Team McCain is simply hoping she doesn't look *too* bad, and call it "All Good" after that.

Attack dogs don't have the "deer-in-the-headlights" look she herself displays every time she's asked a question about policy.

I think he has to make sure to have some snappy comebacks in order to give the impression that he is not getting pwned. Because knowing the sheer idiocy that unfortunately exists in our country, as well as the instinct we have to want our politicians to engage in smackdown tactics (for instance, even Obama supporters who thought he did well on Friday, may have wished for a few snarky utterances to escape his lips), makes it difficult for Biden to remain above the fray and still appear to be winning the debate.

CNN has a poll that says people see both Biden and Palin as skilled.This keeps the Republicans
and the RW Hacks from using the lowed Expections.We know Pundits will likely praise her as they
did Mccain.The Public saw through them with Firday's debate.It will be the same Thursday If they
let her debate.

The Minute Palin starts attacking Obama this gives Biden the opening.Biden needs to treat her with
respect while he attacks her.When she lies call her out on It.

It's easy to make charges on the stump but In a debate you are challenged and have to respond.This Is a big reason Mccain lost the first debate.

I think she will try to throw Biden off with snide remarks so that he will begin answering to her remarks and not really get into answering the questions which she knows nothing about.

you can't fix stupid.

But I'm sure she'll be wearing some stylin' red shoes on that stage.

She is gonna be dishing out red meat faster than it blew off of those wolves she shot while in a helicopter.

Today's events are likely to insure economic questions in a greater proportion to most VP debates. This could work to our favor.

expose this stupid , incompetent , lying , unqualified woman

...and hope the pinheads don't notice the fail part.