I took this picture of a friend of mine (who happens to be in a wheelchair) because I thought it was an interesting composition. It has nothing to do with what I'm about to write.
Palin proved one thing last night: that she's a good contestant. If she can anticipate every question and rehearse to death every answer, she is a competent spokesmodel who can keep the base excited. But aiming for this was a crucial miscalculation on the part of the McCain camp. They don't need the base. They've got the base. They are the 30% who still approve of Bush, the true believers who don't understand why America circa 1955 is a place we ever should have left and can't go back to.
Neither could Palin win over the 47% that would rather be drawn and quartered than vote Republican. She needed to reach half of that middle 20%, in a few battleground states who are going to determine this election, and they would have been swayed not by more attack, but by conciliation. She should have been the one telling Joe Biden he was right, over and over. She should have pulled the ultimate maverick move, and bucked her own candidate. She should have admitted to being underinformed but willing to learn because at heart she wanted to serve, and she genuinely felt her side had the best approach to the issues, but was open to being wrong. She should have said she'd lobby McCain to appoint Hillary Clinton his chief of staff. (Fortunately for us, McCain and his advisers don't have enough imagination. And Palin has none at all.)
I thought Ifill really dropped the ball by asking no questions Palin couldn't have anticipated. So what if she would have been accused of practicing 'gotcha journalism?" When is the media going to stop caring so much how the right characterizes them?
I thought Joe Biden was very effective. If you were wavering, a member of the fearful middle-class who he addressed so directly, he said nothing to alienate and a helluvalot that made sense. He was like the kindly Uncle sent to bail you out of jail but who made clear how the road ahead would be tough. The guy you just didn't want to disappoint.
I'm really starting to see Obama as the new F.D.R., potentially, and the right may vote for McCain like they voted for Hoover, but they better hope their guy loses. If McCain wins, prepare to see a polarization that will make 2000 look like a love-fest. I know that I will swing way farther left, revolution or secession will start to look like sane alternatives. And I can see the right swinging farther right in reaction--we could be looking at the American equivalent of the Spanish Civil War and I'm not kidding.
The one happy bipartisan note I can sound is how far the cultural center has shifted when even an evangelical like Palin takes pains to claim tolerance in regard to gay people, and when Joe Biden doesn't have to worry about losing votes by advocating forcefully for domestic partnerships to have the full weight of marriage. That represents a real change.
MCO 2008
P.S. To the readers from AOL, (which closed down their journals) I'm told you have trouble commenting. So visit me instead at http://makemarc.blogspot.com/ where I am duplicating all these entries.
Not to comment on pointless stuff, but did you notice how many times Palin winked at the camera during the debate? What the hell was that all about? Its like some broad flirting with a guy she has no interest in, just to try and manipulate him to get what she wants.
Not pointless at all...the winking is part and parcel of her get intimate with the voter/folksy strategy... Tyler, you need to read you some www.huffingtonpost.com