(no subject)

[randomness]

I'm going to predict that Sarah Palin does much better in the debate than expected.

It may not have been their intent, but the Republicans have played the expectations game beautifully so far. All she has to do is to go out and speak in complete sentences, and she'll be seen to outperform expectations.

Comments

[kessel.livejournal.com]

I agree with you generally, Leon, but more specifically also with stolen_tea. Watching CNN play the clips of her doing well in the Alaska guber debates, I thought they were playing clips of her doing poorly-- trying to challenge Tony Knowles with a vague question (although context probably would have explained that one) and defusing her inability to weigh in on an issue by making a joke out of not answering. (When the moderator asks her if she has anything to add in the last fifteen seconds, and she says, "No, I'm just glad I'm sitting between these two.") But as long as she stays on the attack, trying to force Biden to gaffe it up, she can come out on top without giving us anything. If Biden says something dumb and she says nothing at all, she wins on a technicality.

Which is why debates should be conducted in reasoned treatises distributed by handbill.