Not a Big Truck

I am mildly dreading the vice presidential debate scheduled for this Thursday evening.  Not because I fear that my chosen candidate (Biden) will not perform well; on the contrary, I suspect he’ll do just fine.  My sense of unease is because I expect an embarrassingly awkward and incompetent performance by Sarah Palin.  It’s the same sense of dread I felt when I went to a stand-up comedy show where the first comedian was not only not funny at all but also a poor match for the general sensibilities of the audience.  Even though I didn’t have any personal stake in how the guy on stage was doing, watching him struggle made for an awkward and uncomfortable situation for everyone there.  I dislike Palin and her political views but nonetheless I’d rather not have to cringe through an hour and a half of her bumbling responses.

Maybe Palin will perform better than expected, perhaps even well enough that the debate is labeled a “win” for her.  That’s possible, though I doubt it.  But I feel sure that even if she beats the absurdly low expectations, she will commit some notable gaffes.

OK, sorry about so many videos.  But some good stuff to share.

For the moment, let’s assume that the VP debate between Biden and Palin does in fact take place as scheduled next Thursday.  (At this point I wouldn’t be shocked to see the McCain camp trot out some excuse for why it has to be postponed or canceled.)  The conventional wisdom has been that Palin will be a dangerous foe for Biden, because if he’s not careful he will look like a sexist bully.  I don’t think he needs to be very worried about that.  If she can’t learn how to give better answers to questions than the kind of responses she has given to Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric in those embarrassing interviews, Biden won’t need to do anything in the debate except play it safe and stand back from the gunfire as Palin shoots herself in the foot.

My favorite clip:

Watch CBS Videos Online

McCain’s proposal to postpone Friday’s debate, on the grounds that he and Obama should set politics aside and return to Washington to work on the Wall Street bailout, is absurd, a transparent campaign gimmick.  I’m convinced that part of the reason he has proposed a postponement is in order to give Sarah Palin more time to cram for her vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden.  McCain suggested a specific date for the postponed presidential debate: next Thursday, October 2, the date of the VP debate — which would then require the VP debate to be postponed as well.  Palin clearly has a lot of studying to do and I bet that factored into McCain’s thinking.

Incidentally, McCain’s proposal certainly is not winning him any friends in Oxford, Mississippi, where the University of Mississippi has spent 5.5 million dollars on debate preparations and has inconvenienced the student body and citizens of the town with schedule changes and extensive security measures such as closing off major roads days in advance.  University spokesman Andy Mullins stated that the school would probably be unable to accommodate a last-minute schedule change.

James Fallows over at The Atlantic provides a solid analysis of the Palin interview.  The key passage:

A further point. The truly toxic combination of traits GW Bush brought to decision making was:

1) Ignorance
2) Lack of curiosity
3) “Decisiveness”

That is, he was not broadly informed to begin with (point 1). He did not seek out new information (#2); but he nonetheless prided himself (#3) on making broad, bold decisions quickly, and then sticking to them to show resoluteness.

We don’t know for sure about #2 for Palin yet — she could be a sponge-like absorber of information. But we know about #1 and we can guess, from her demeanor about #3.   Most of all we know something about the person who put her in this untenable role.

Let’s take a look at Sarah Palin’s response to Charles Gibson’s inquiry about the Bush Doctrine:

Now, what does this remind me of?

Oh yeah, that’s what.

Michael Kinsley discusses the government spending situation in Alaska.  A key passage:

Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 2 1/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska’s government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.

Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state’s unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can’t afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.

Also, on a related note, from TPM:

Interesting article from the hometown newspaper. 

Sarah Kugler, Anchorage Daily News, writes:

Obama hasn’t asked for any earmarks this year. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $25 for every Illinois resident. Alaska asked this year for earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 for every Alaska citizen.

Palin has cut back on pork project requests, but under her administration, Alaska is still and by far the largest per-capita consumer of federal pet-project spending.

Even The Wall Street Journal (a part of that elitist liberal media?) has an articlechallenging Palin’s claims about the bridge.  It reads:

But Gov. Palin’s claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

I don’t blame Palin for trying to do everything she could to represent her constituents by battling for federal aid. That is a reasonable role for a mayor or governor.  But lying about her record to fit some fictional narrative that more easily applies to a national campaign is a different matter.  Hopefully the media and the Obama campaign will expose the facts.