Fish out of water.

[icarus]

Typed as I watched Palin's speech:

Welcome to amateur hour. She's totally out of her league. She's not used to being on camera and keeps twitching her hands in a weak sort of hammer motion. Her voice is nasal and strangled. She's not very dramatic as a speaker and has the pedantic manner of a first grade teacher. Her hair is in her eyes. She keeps smirking at her own jokes.

She can deliver a cutting remark. But falls apart when it's supposed to be inspiring. How is she able to kill a section on McCain's torture and survival?

A well-written, should-be-stirring, but poorly delivered speech. She knows it's dying. Her manner is scared and growing dispirited. She's not able to hide it either, she just doesn't have the experience. The audience seems more professional than her.

Ah. They've trotted out her family. That works. What a cute baby.

McCain just came out. Oh, what a relief to see him. Here is a pro who belongs at this level.

Palin is a fish out of water, more like a city council member than a governor. I guess Alaska is pretty low-key and local. There's no way this woman could handle beltway politics.


ETA: Republican bloggers say that she seemed off-balance because her teleprompter broke. That story is bullcrap.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Debating with her's going to be tricky because you don't want to come off as mean. Kerry took the gloves off in his third debate with Bush in 2004, and Bush kept losing his train of thought. I watched, shaking my head, that Bush couldn't think in a straight line. But people felt like Kerry had bullied poor Bush and Bush came out on top.

There are so many more qualified female candidates, especially when you look to state governors, the house.... The only reason I can see for them to pick her is her ties to the religious right.

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

She has that following sewn up. It was a concern for the McCain ticket...he's not really very popular with the religious right. I find her views some what scary, but then I find most political stands scary.

[elf]

She has 'em sewn up unless she makes some major mistake. Which is possible, given her lack of experience on the national scene; being in touch with rural middle-class values of the fundamentalist right is not the same as being in touch with urban upper-mid-class values of the same religious group.

What she considers "too important for compromise," and what she considers "negotiable," may clash with some of her current followers. I think she's trying very hard to say, "look at me, just like you--solid family that's been through a few rough spots but sticks together," without discussing what she actually believes about anything.

She likes being a vocal attention-grabber. I think the McCain handlers will work hard trying to keep her blue-collar small-town "quaintness" from being too visible.

Her supporters will continue to be vocal. Those she loses, will probably just mention quietly to their friends, "well, I just can't vote for her. Not voting for Obama, of course, but I may just stay home. Or vote for [write-in of choice]."

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

being in touch with rural middle-class values of the fundamentalist right is not the same as being in touch with urban upper-mid-class values of the same religious group

True.

You know what I find telling? That the Republican party is rushing to defend her. Shouldn't Palin be able to defend herself?

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

Some of the media is now reporting that the wrong speach was loaded on the teleprompter, and when the right one finally was loaded it was behind where she was speaking from her notes. In the interest of fairness, that could explain some of her discomfiture.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm not inclined to believe them, but her poor performance last night doesn't matter in the face of her poor performance in Alaska.

She left Wasilla deeply in debt, spending money on big ticket showpieces (a park, a stadium) when they needed a sewer system. Instead of steadily building roads over a five year period, which would have required no borrowing, she borrowed heavily and put the small city into debt. She had the city build on land the city technically didn't own, and that's now been in litigation for seven years, draining Wasilla of funds. She left most of the daily work running Wasilla in the hands of an admistrator.

She has consistantly abused her power persuing petty grudges: first when she was mayor, she went after the librarian's job because the librarian refused to ban books. There was an outcry in the town and Palin was stopped.

She's currently enmeshed in a scandal as governor where she demanded a state trooper (who'd divorced a family member of hers be fired). She claimed she had nothing to do with that, but now it's been proved that there were two dozen contacts demanding the trooper's firing. She then fired Alaska's top cop for standing up against her. Her recommendation for his replacement was a man with a charge of sexual harrassment. He was withdrawn after a public outcry.

She's known to be vengeful and speaking out against her in small town rural Alaska is guaranteed to be met with reprisals.

Her vaunted "maverick" and "warrior against corruption" is based solely on her quitting an oil commission job. But she has a long history with earmarks. Locals say she just hated the job and the commute, and found an excuse to quit.

Her level of experience is so very low, and her performance has been poor at every level.

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

For someone that the McCain camp supposedly "completely vetted", it would seem that she brings a lot of unpleasant baggage with her that can only harm a presidential run. Why, when there has to be other women (if that was the aim) with right-wing/evangelical (if that was the aim) affiliations with a less problematic past did they choose her?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. And I think they're bonkers.

Apparently that adorable baby of hers has Downs syndrome. My aunt Marianne had a mentally disabled child -- taking care of him was time-consuming. What is Palin going to do as VP? Dump him on a nanny?

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

I would imagine she already has them built in...she has lots of older children and a husband. It's not like he's going to be an oil worker once they're living in Washington. I wonder how those conversations go over at the dinner table. I can't imagine most men being very happy with that sort of spot light on their family dynamics.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yep. I was right to doubt it.

The teleprompter story is bullcrap (http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/The_teleprompter_did_not_break.html). It scrolled a little fast but that's normal for teleprompters.

[elf]

I suppose a possible debate tactic would be to come off as sympathetic... "Mrs Palin, given the great deal of energy your new son is going to take in the coming year, how will you find time to do the research necessary to understand the issues involved in international trade law?"

Or since Biden would be answering a lot of questions without directly speaking to her, play up that he has the resources to devote his full attention to the job. "That's a very complicated issue, and while I've worked on it in my years in the Senate, I know that I'd need more study to address all the aspects I'd be facing as VP. To that end, I would of course put in extra hours in the days before meeting; skipping a bit of sleep to keep up with changes doesn't bother me."

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Did you know that adorable little baby has Downs syndrome? I just found out. My cousin is mentally disabled and my aunt... it took all her time to care for him. Any baby takes a lot of time but a Downs baby-- multiply that by five. How is this "family first" candidate supposed to take care of him when she's vice president?

[winterthunder.livejournal.com]

Why would a "family first" candidate even take the job offer knowing damn well the scrutiny it would bring to her oldest daughter for the remainder of her pregnancy. If I were that girl, I'd be so pissed at Mommy right now...

[elf]

Yep. It was one of her big press release points--she knew it had Downs and didn't abort; doesn't that make her the coolest pro-life person on the planet?! She stuck to her principles in the face of adversity!

Of course, now she's fobbing off childcare on... who knows? She's got a baby that desperately needs stability and constant attention from a person (or more, but at least one) whom he can count on, and Mom's not going to be that primary caregiver. Dad's working full time, so it's not him either. I suspect that Bristol is getting crash-course in parenting, which is going to result in Trig feeling horribly abandoned when she has her own and he doesn't get to be the center of attention anymore.

All of which should be private family gossip, not for public consideration--except that she's running on a "family values" ticket. I really do want to know where Trig gets placed in those values.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

The primary caretakers for the baby are....

...hold on...

...the pregnant teenager and Palin's mother-in-law.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're kidding.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Alas, no. Evidently poor Bristol was yanked from school sometime during the winter due to mono (which sparked the initial "the kid had the baby, not the mother" rumors) and was deemed fit to care for her baby brother despite being ill. Todd Palin's mother was the kid's other caretaker, despite being pro-choice and thus denied her daughter-in-law's backing for mayor of Wasilla.

So now the mother-in-law is out of sight, Bristol is pregnant AND seemingly still caring for her brother (at least until she's pregnant enough that they can't hide her belly behind her brother's receiving blanket), and Caribou Barbie is off to the races...even though she will give no live press conferences because the McCain campaign is spending all its free time coaching her on public speaking because her delivery is so bad.

Nice, no?

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Oh, one more thing...if one counts backwards, it turns out that Bristol Palin became pregnant at almost exactly the same time her youngest brother was born. So much for Gov. Palin being able simultaneously to give birth, run the state, and supervise her teenage daughter.