Comedy gold.
But 1) does it create a backlash among working class white women who identify with Palin and 2) does it set expectations for this week’s debates so low that a string of coherent sentences become a triumph. Keep in mind that this woman beat an incumbent establishment Republican in her gubernatorial primary and beat an established Democrat to become governor. She had to have done something right in her debates to get there.
Comments 2
amy — September 30, 2008
Note that a frightening number of people in Alaska politics are under indictment or investigation for something (including Palin).
From Wikipedia:
Alaska political corruption probe refers to a widespread investigation from 2004 to the present by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service into political corruption of lawmakers in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaskan Congressional delegation, focusing in particular on lawmakers' official actions in relation to the oil industry, fisheries, and private corrections industry. As of August, 2008 the investigation has resulted in indictments against five current and former Alaska state legislators on corruption charges, as well as the indictment of US Senator Ted Stevens. In addition, there have been guilty pleas by two executives of the oilfield services company VECO Corporation to charges of bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service. A number of Alaska businessmen, lobbyists and others have also been either indicted, convicted or otherwise implicated.
When you're running in this type of climate, it's not difficult to win.
jose — September 30, 2008
Good point. Out of curiosity, I went back and looked at Palin's Gubernatorial debate with Tony Knolwes. It seemed like the moderator was obsessed with questions on abortion, stem cell research and civil unions. These don't seem like particularly complex political issues. You can get away with saying "I am for life" and not have to get into the intricacies of the stem cell issue. Not sure she can pull that off if she gets a question on the bank bailout. We'll see