1 post tagged “debates”

I had to write this for a class on Politics and Civil Rights. We were supposed to write "observations" and not "opinions," but as I go to an art school where gen eds are geared toward border-line retards, I figured I'd just been an asshole about it.

Vice-Presidential Debates 2008:  Observations
The Vice Presidential Debates of 2008 were sure to be momentous.  Unlike previous elections, the VP debates gained more attention than ever before, due to the unlikely choosing of the young, inexperienced, female Sarah Palin as Republican VP candidate in an election people are choosing to make a battle of sexism vs. racism.  When pitched against Joe Biden, a talented debater with even more senate experience than Palin’s running-mate, John McCain, millions of Americans tuned in to see what would happen – if Palin’s charisma could compensate for her previous slip-ups with the media.
 
The debates, and the after effects, ended up being largely uninteresting – like the rest of Palin’s time in the spotlight, her supporters were charmed by her inadequacy, and chalked up her ignoring of debate rules in deferring questions and changing subjects as her being stubborn and independently minded. At best, Palin’s performance could be described as unprepared.  “When Gwen Ifill asked a question Palin did not have a notecard answer for--whether she agreed with Vice President Cheney's egregiously overreaching interpretation of the constitutional role of the vice president--the answer was ladled up straight from the Palin linguistic smorgasbord”  (Hirshman). 
 
 I had been looking forward to the debates just as much as anyone else hungry for the downfall of Sarah Palin.  But it’s pretty hard to define a “downfall” when the competitor disregards rules and regulations completely, despite the fact that both the Republican and Democratic camps agreed on a less challenging debate platform for the vice presidential nominees.  Palin at one point blatant stated, “I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you [Joe Biden] want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people” (Times), the pinnacle of her image as a straight-talking fellow American rather than a conventional politician.  Forget the fact that Palin has plenty of time to talk straight to the American people on her own time at rallies, during interviews, etc. – one must cover one’s own ass if she plans on winning, especially when she has no idea how to do anything but spew lines off note cards about energy plans and health care and tax reform. 
 
Palin gets credit where it’s due – she didn’t make herself look like a complete idiot, and her outfit was fit for the red carpet, and apparently to many reputable news sources, that’s enough to make you the declared winner.  What I find disheartening is that many who praise her for her charm on camera are obviously not listening to what she’s actually saying; she actually winked while talking about her track record of reform.  It may have been cute when talking about moose hunting and beauty pageants, but not when trying to set your muddled past straight to the American people.  That’s just plain fishy.
 
I personally find it astonishing and sickening that people are scratching their heads over who the winner of the debate could possibly be, when if this had been a debate team competition in high school, Palin would have been obliterated by her coaches for appearing uninformed about both the subject matter of the debate and disrespectful of the format and the rules.  Perhaps it’s a testament to American audiences – an attractive woman is always more entertaining to watch than a white-haired man getting choked up about his son-away-at-war, but when the attractive woman isn’t parading around stage in a bikini and a crown and is instead trying to argue why she deserves to be a heartbeat away from running the country, one must stop and wonder if this country is even worth saving in the first place.
 
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Works Cited
Hirshman, Linda. "Sarah Palin, Mean Girl." The Nation. 3 Oct. 2008..
Times. "Vice-Presidential Debate Transcripts." 2 Oct. 2008. New York Times. .