Miscellaneous

Last Night's Best Moment

I'll just say this about the debate, because it looks like the bailout will dominate the political scene today, and Palin and Biden will likely be complete non-factors for the rest of the election: I wasn't nearly as surprised that Palin didn't drool over herself and fling feces as I was that Joe Biden didn't fuck it up. I wasn't nearly as worried about Palin overperforming as I was Biden underperforming, and Biden was ... well, he was better than Obama was in the first debate. He had what I thought was an impossible task, and he had more restraint than seemed possible. There were moments when I would've walked across the stage, grabbed her by the shoulders, and begged her to answer the goddamn question she was asked. Just once, lady. And every time she started talking about Alaska, it sounded like a woman who was using her experience as a babysitter in a job interview for a forklift operator.

I'm also pretty annoyed that, because of the expectations game, the pundits talked more about the ways that Palin did not fuck up than the many more ways in which she did. Did anyone listen to her talk about climate change? She just kept repeating the word "impact" and "tapped" while giving that goddamn wink of hers. I bet there were a lot of middle-American housewives looking over at their husbands and asking, "What the hell are you smiling at, Joe Six Pack." Still, I'm less bothered by her rambling incoherence than I was that she wouldn't answer the fucking questions.

It's good to know she supports the Democrats position on same-sex benefits, though.

The best perspective I've read, actually, comes from a Pajiba reader in The Netherlands, who wrote on her blog, after Palin refused to answer the question on her Achilles heel (not sure she knows what it means):

Now how is that answering the question in any way, shape or form? It's not! But the problem is her job tonight was not to answer the questions to the best of her abilities, as is a reasonable expectation from a potential vice president. Her job was not to embarrass herself too much (as she has done over the past few weeks) and especially not to think for herself. The bar was lowered considerably for her, and as I'm watching the post debate discourse, she is being judged on that level. It's infuriating! Any reasonable mind would find Joe Biden the uncontested winner of this debate, but that is not what counts. Because this election is not going to be decided by reasonable minds, it's going to be decided by people who 'feel' that Palin is genuine (a laughable thought, I haven't seen a shark this big since I went cage diving in South Africa), who 'feel' (shiver) that she is just like them. There is nothing more I can add to that discussion because many have stated my point earlier, more eloquent than I would have, and ad nauseum, so let me just say that it scares the bejeezus out of me.

Well fucking said.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on October 03, 2008 (boomark / email).