Posted by JumpyPants
No, that's not a Supreme Court case that Sarah Palin read about in her latest John Birch Society periodical. It's me talking about what debates are decided upon in this nation. Does the debater win on points or on personality?
It saddens me to say this, but the fact is, you can win on points and still "lose" the debate: that's what happened to Gore and Kerry in every single debate. There was no question that Gore/Kerry knew more than Bush, no question that they had better answers, no question that they speak English like their mother tongue and have a vocabulary larger than a seven-year old. But Gore/Kerry lost their debates, not on points, but on personality.
And Obama won his debate on personality. I think it was a tie on points (though the barbecued media gave the points to McCain, natch), but the American public chose the affable, plain-talking, no-bullshit-taking, unflappable, forward-looking presidential demeanor of Senator Obama over the twitchy, cranky, lie-spewing, festooning, under-the-breath-cussing, backward looking disgruntled civil servant demeanor of Senator McHorseshit.
After the RNC, Sarah Palin seemed a "personality" win -- hockey mom, moose slayer, gosh-darn-shucks-talker -- how could you not just want her to have the nuclear codes?! But in the ensuing weeks, the view of her personality has dropped like an anvil tied to a boulder, and now every poll has her as more unfavorable than favorable. And that's because all she's going on is personality. And her personality, now that we kind of think about it, isn't so great for someone who would have the nuclear codes.
I'm not trying to game the expectations. I'm just telling it like it is. Sarah Palin can't win on points. But I would also suggest that she really can't win on personality, either. Joe Biden has to know this. Barack Obama certainly knows this. And they, I'm fairly confidant, know how to let Sarah Palin hang herself by her own bootstraps tomorrow night.
Damn, it's good to be supporting people who are really smart not just about policy, but about people.