UPDATE: Good discussion in the comments. I think we can say with assurance it all will depend on which Sarah Palin shows up Thursday night: the one who has been less than impressive in the mainstream media interviews, or this one. I will admit, not being able to name which newspapers you read is the very definition of stifled.
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It was made evident in the first debate that John McCain revealed Barack Obama’s understanding of international relations to be puerile at best, yet Obama seems to have been judged winner according to the early polls (polls towards the end of this week will be more instructive). What this tells us is the general public is not looking for facts but rather presentation.
More specifically, authenticity.
Barack Obama can say he visited 57 states and would sit down face to face with the leaders of Iran and North Korea, and the public gives him a pass because he says it mellifluously. The bar is not set too high.
So with regard to Sarah Palin’s apparent current task to memorize a host of McCain talking points, I suggest two adjustments which will give her more room to operate and free her of the burden to be a Chatty-Kathy doll for the McCain campaign.
1) Be able to say what she thinks, and if it diverges from the talking points, respond “John and I are almost on the same page but I will try to bring him over to my point of view.” She has done this well on the topic of ANWR.
2) If asked something she doesn’t know about, say “I never took statistics but I learned to have excellent statisticians on staff for the information I need to make a decision” or some such.
Barack Obama clearly will need to be blanketed with knowledgeable experts in order to make decisions above the pay grade of a community organizer.
Sarah Palin, who presumably will have the opportunity afforded every vice president for some on the job observation (men apparently assumed by the mainstream media to be more adept at this than women), would not be immediately stripped of her Cabinet if John McCain became disabled. So she and Obama would be on equal footing.
Oh, and there is also
3) Hey McCain campaign: Ease up on the force-fed talking points. You are falling in the polls, (after Sept 30 that link will be meaningless so don’t click) so might as well allow your VP nominee to say whatever the hell she wants. Let her go off the reservation. Let her contradict you completely. She connects with the voters in a way that you don’t.
We’ve seen how the “schooling Sarah” strategy has worked. It diminished a key asset of your campaign. Screw the McCain platform. Let the woman talk and even be a renegade VP.
Like it or not, this is “American Idol” America: Thus we have Barack Obama.
The McCain campaign needs some style points and I respectfully submit that John McCain ain’t gonna deliver the goods. Sarah could deliver the goods in an avalanche if you take the blinders and shackles off her. Let her go off the reservation. It’s the only way she can do what you brought her on board for.
Plenty of Americans who won’t vote for John McCain will vote for Sarah Palin.
