England for Obama

A very interesting article by Roger Ebert, of Siskel and Ebert fame.

Two insights which particularly stood out for me as being absolutely spot-on: that it was as if Palin “was being asked to defend her doctoral thesis without having written it”; and the comparison to an actor speaking Shakespeare without knowing what they’re actually saying, because they’re on autopilot.

The latter point explains my gut feeling about Palin’s performance: that she was stringing words together without any true depth of thought or reason behind them. Style, not substance. As opposed to Biden who, as Ebert says, “basically just stood there and said what he thought”. If you haven’t watched the debate, I urge you to do so - and you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.

OK, so I’ve just watched it in full, and I think my ears are bleeding.

The headlines as far as I’m concerned - and I’m going into issues of delivery, style and manner here rather than content (mainly because you can take it as read that I don’t agree with anything Sarah Palin and John McCain say, and do agree with just about everything Joe Biden and Barack Obama say):

- Sarah Palin seemed totally and utterly coached. Honestly, you or I could have done just as well as her if we’d dabbled in a bit of local politics and then been trained on the issues by leading politicians and campaign advisors for the past five weeks. There was nothing behind her eyes. It was slick - and god knows, she barely stopped for breath - but there was no substance behind her style. She wasn’t a total trainwreck as she has been in her TV interviews so far - and there weren’t any ‘gotcha’ moments - but then she wasn’t anyone to be scared of, either. Joe Biden won the debate; there was no contest.

- Biden was completely calm, reasonable and gentlemanly, and even flashed his killer smile at her several times. He could have so easily attacked her viciously - especially when she was talking such swooning, utter crap about John McCain - but he didn’t. He did attack McCain, often, and forcefully - but he never laid into Palin herself once.

- And talking of smiling: Palin had a slight smile even when she talked about the war in Iraq. And after Biden had just choked up talking about his two sons, and the death of his wife and daughter, the baton was handed over to Palin… who didn’t acknowledge what had just happened at all, and instead smilingly talked about how John McCain was “the consummate maaaverick”. No empathy. No acknowledgment. For truly, she is hard-hearted Hannah, the vamp of Savannah Alaska.

- Just 10 minutes into the debate, Palin used her ‘get out of jail free’ card, which had clearly been prepared for whenever she found herself in a slightly sticky situation. Promptly turning  the subject of deregulation around to energy taxes, she told Biden: “I may not answer the questions the way that either you or the moderator may want to hear…” . And sure enough, she didn’t. She quite merrily changed the subject and avoided the questions as it suited her. And then she’d yabber on and on that you’d forget what the original question was anyway.

- Palin was all generalisations and platitudes; Biden was about specifics. He backed up many of his answers with figures. Palin’s inability or unwillingness to do so served only to enhance my first point: that she seemed like an empty vessel, coached in what to say but not having the knowledge, experience or even passionate opinion to back it up.

- Her language was, as people have said, folksy. All that droppin’ of the g’s. Lots of “betchas” and talk of “Joe Six Pack” and telling us that diplomacy is about “having your friends and allies ready to back yer up thur”.  For someone who has a journalism degree and who professes to care about language, she mangles it to death, speaking in unfeasibly long sentences and seeming to think that saying “also” and “so chose to” as much as possible makes her sound like some sort of heavyweight.

- Biden was just as I’ve seen him before - although apparently people are saying this was possibly his best debate performance ever. He clearly is a heavyweight - but at no point did he come across as too dull, or wonky, or aloof. He absolutely came across as a man of the people; not just a Washington drone.

- Palin’s inexperience was palpable. Next to Biden, she seemed like such a small fish. He would talk about his role in Bosnia, his trip to Chad to examine the Dafur crisis… while she talked about all the things she did as governor of Alaska.  I swear that in her closing remarks - when she thanked the debate commission and said “This is such an honour for me” - she completely came across as a schoolkid who’d won a local newspaper competition.

- If I hear the word “maverick” one more time - especially when said with a slight smile and a wink in one’s eye - I swear I will hit someone.

Here ya go (as Sarah might say):

And here’s the Huffington Post’s round-up of the pundits’ views.

I didn’t stay up to watch the debate, and haven’t watched it in full or read the analysis yet - but I thought I’d get it up for you and do a quick scan of the headlines (which I was almost too scared to view).

And they show that: while a confident, folksy Sarah Palin was considered by many conservative commentators to have “knocked it out of the park”, the public favoured Biden (who choked up at one point when talking about raising his children without his wife). The CNN vote of debate watchers came out at Biden 51, Palin 36; the CBS poll of undecideds: Biden 46, Palin 21.

Here’s the full 90-minute debate. More updates later:

Compare and contrast. I do believe this is what Sarah Palin called ‘verbiage’:

Watch CBS Videos Online

I heart Joe Biden. And I think he’s going to do just fine tonight. I don’t think Sarah Palin’s going to have the monopoly on straight-talking, emotionally ‘connecting’ responses. In fact, I think Joe Biden does much better than her on that front - because while he has the intellect and knowledge to back it up (*coughs*), he’s also utterly charming and disarming.

He also breaks up his answers into actual sentences.

(Incidentally, that Jefferson quote about “underestimating the wisdom of the people”? He never said it.)

I take it back: I’m now thinking that Joe Biden should go on the attack against Sarah Palin in the vice presidential debate. Be a pitbull sans lipstick, as it were.

James Moore gets it:

“I’m a bit taken aback by all the analysts and the consultants who are suggesting [Joe Biden] needs to be careful and cautious. I think he needs to use his intellect and his experience and his range and his depth to sort of beat her about her diminutive brain and let the world know that she’s not up to this job - so that when that debate is over, everybody who’s watching it is asking the question: ‘My god, what was John McCain thinking?!’”

Jed Lewison over on HuffPo has written a piece on Sarah Palin’s debating skills and compiled this video of some of her answers during gubernatorial (new favourite American word) debates in Alaska:

The press is full of compliments about Palin’s debating skills right now; and Lewison similarly argues that on Sarah’s past form, he expects she “will do just fine”.

And while I don’t doubt for a second that Palin will excel at what Lewison calls “values-oriented language” tomorrow night, I do doubt that she will do well based on those Alaskan debates. Because while one may or may not agree with her stances in the footage above, say, she clearly knows what she’s talking about in terms of Alaskan issues and politics.

All her interviews thus far, however, have shown that she has no clue when it comes to big national issues and international affairs. Despite, y’know, reading all those papers that are put in front of her. “All of ‘em”.

If the VP debate focuses on these two big issues, I think Biden will do just fine - and Palin will hopefully come across as the clueless no-hoper she is. And if she goes on the attack, and Biden keeps cool and generous (as Obama did in the face of McCain’s sneers and body language), then hopefully she’ll receive as negative a public reaction as McCain did. And either way: if she just keeps talking for her 90 seconds without pausing for breath - as she seems to do above - then maybe America will just be sick to death of the sound of her voice by the end of the debate, and be unable to contemplate four more years of it? (In simple oratorial, cadence tones, McCain and Palin are an utter nightmare compared to the voices of Obama and Biden).

Ah well. Not that any of the above matters, really - because I doubt Sarah Palin’s performance one way or the other will have much of an effect on actual votes. People needed to see and hear Obama to be turned on to him - and many were. Most people, however, have made up their minds - very strongly - one way or the other about Sarah Palin. And tomorrow night, as they say: I’m sure that people who like that sort of thing, will find that they like that sort of thing.