As you can hear by clicking the NPR “News & Notes” link I provided in the previous blog, I predicted that I would laugh out loud while viewing the vice presidential debate Thursday night. My prediction was accurate. When Sarah Palin refused to answer the moderator’s questions, when she winked like the former beauty queen she is in an attempt to charm both male and female viewers, when she employed forced folksiosty to deflect attention away from her ignorance regarding key issues, I laughed.
Thing is, it’s really not funny.
That fact became clear in the days following the debate, as pundit after pundit ranked her performance level high – contradicting the majority of polled Americans, who voted Biden the hands-on winner. It became even clearer as I saw groups of Republicans who had gathered together to watch the historic debate cheer when Palin slipped in terms like “hockey mom” and when she suggested that Global Warming might somehow be a natural phenomenon (and so, as Tina Fey spoofed on Saturday Night Live, subtly hinted that the most alarming environmental crisis facing humanity could perhaps be God’s Will).
What’s not funny is that some aren’t laughing. Too many folk are taking Palin seriously, and that suggests that the persistent mediocrity plaguing so many levels of American society has, over the past 8 years, also taken a firm hold on the White House.
For the record: Joe Six-Pack has no place in the Oval Office. Neither do I, neither do you, and neither, for that matter, do the majority of elected officials.
It takes exceptional leadership, grace, diplomacy, and – yes – smarts to run the free world. Running the free world requires a working knowledge of the Bush Doctrine (the Executive Branch),key Supreme Court decisions (the Judicial Branch), and her own running mate’s record of voting for deregulation on Wall Street (the Legislative Branch). Running the free world demands that you read the flippin’ papers.
I doubt Palin’s performance will appeal to the key undecideds and Independent Party voters who are already changing the electoral map and shifting McCain’s campaign focus. However, her appeal to the base alarms me. The crafty maneuverings of the GOP have paid off exponentially. Reaganomics in the 1980s and inadequate funding of No Child Left Behind have sufficiently depleted the resources of the public schools. Gen Y might be the first generation of Americans to test exceptionally well with regard to personal self-esteem yet simultaneously test frighteningly low on standardized tests, especially when compared with the rising literacy, math, and science skills rates of the rest of the world. Like Palin, they and their parents are not reading the papers, as watching VH1 and the CW, Lifetime and Spike TV takes up so much of their time. Creating a dumbed-down electorate enables character attacks like Palin’s recent lie that Obama is “palling around with terrorists.” People who rely on O’Reilly for information will simply take this deceit as truth – and then vote.
And because fewer and fewer American schools teach science beyond what appears on those tests, Palin can insist that the answer to the oil crisis is a simplistic “drill, baby, drill” approach that completely misses the golden opportunity to jump start the American economy by investing in green technology. After all, too few Americans know the history of government investment in emerging technology. Instead, Americans are urged to blame the new immigrants, brown people from around the world who are smarter and thus more successful than they. The critical thinking that is developed by studying higher level math is never developed in too many of us, and so we accept as substantive the circular logic and evasive sound-byte responses offered by a woman who would be dangerously close to the presidency. Too few of us know how to construct a complete sentence, so we care very little that the woman who would speak through an interpreter to non-English speaking world leaders is unable to effectively communicate.
The GOP gotcha.
They’ve gotcha broke, with inadequate health coverage, struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck. They’ve gotcha stuck on style over substance. They’ve gotcha willing to consider another 4 to 8 years of mediocrity despite the failures of the past 8. They’ve gotcha willing to go from the worst president in American history to what would be the country’s worst vice-president. They’ve gotcha even though the stakes this election year could not be higher.
When Palin winked and preened, she gotcha.
Comment(s)
Watching Palin during the debates, I had the distinct impression that I was watching a person in Junior High participating in a school debate. The folksy Fargo “Os”…”There you goooo again Joe…”. The snippy little tag phrases manufactured to avoid any substantive questioning. Unfortunately there are Americans who dig this kind crap. The pronunciations nuke ya ler, and I ran and I raq seem to be some kind of code for “I’m a moron” The sad thing, is the people the Republicans are trying to reach with this fifth grade rhetoric are being lied to about this ticket’s true intentions. The true intention of the M/P ticket is to maintain the status quo, and prevent any redistribution of resources from the large corporations who are running this economy into the ground.
Comment(s)
the problem of being educated and sounding intelligent seemed to be an issue that was only in the black community. blacks who “spoke correct english,” got good grades, or went on to higher education institutions were branded as “trying to be white” or “uppity.” but more and more this is not just a problem in the black community . . . it is a problem in this country and it has been largely perpertrated by white folks in the media and government. it is the dumbing down of america. we are actually being encouraged to vote for our leaders based off of if we would have a beer with them or hang out with them a a bar-b-que. i’ve never wanted to do either with any elected official be it the mayor, governor, or president. we elect them to be leaders not friends! and there is nothing wrong with our leaders being intelligent, level-headed, and articulate.
i pray to God that people will wake up and see the mccain/palin ticket for exactly what it is – more of the same in an extra dumbed down version. obama inspires people to dream, to hope, to accomplish!!! as a society we need that!! we need to be creators, inventors, educators, and educated. and if those folks don’t want to wake up because they fear a black man being president will be a nightmare, they should step aside or get rolled on by those of us that will make that dream a reality!
Comment(s)
She’s on the ticket merely b/c Barack didn’t capitalize on the bizarre Hillary bump; my strategy is win first, worry about the Clintons later. Hillary should be the VP candidate. Biden can be Sec. of State. Moreover, Palin’s job is to keep the crazy GOP fringe happy: the disgruntled redneck ignoramuses who by all notions of self interest should be voting Democrat, the bloggers, the wingnut pastors, etc. It is a cynical move. frankly, Mike Huckabee could have filled this role. He’s a populist and anti big business, however.
We can rail all we want but unless Barack boldly addresses this rather than try to float above it, it will not end.