The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations.

To be honest, I don’t have all that much to say about last night’s lone vice-presidential debate in St. Louis, as I think the event speaks for itself. The general consensus congealing today is that Joe Biden won the debate, which he obviously did, but that Sarah Palin performed better than expected. Well, I guess she did, given that everyone was pretty much expecting another embarrassing and hard-to-watch Couric-style meltdown. But, remove that exceedingly low bar, and we still find ourselves confronted with a fundamentally unqualified and frighteningly obtuse candidate for the vice-presidency, one who has no business getting anywhere near the Oval Office, let alone only the heartbeat of a 72-year-old cancer survivor away.

Biden was Biden — a bit wonky and/or self-aggrandizing at times, but clearly knowledgable about the issues and cognizant of the struggles that working people in America face, both as a result of the daily vagaries of the Dubya economy and of awful, unforeseen circumstances that can loom at a moment’s notice. (Imho, his emotion-filled nod to the tragedy in his past was a far more authentic moment than any of the “Aw shucks, I’m just a Wasilla hockey mom” patter emanating from Gov. Palin over the course of the evening.) If anything, I think Biden might’ve erred slightly on the side of gallantry, since Palin seemingly held no qualms about regurgitating easily refutable lies (Obama raised taxes on the poor, Obama voted against funding the troops, Biden supports McCain’s Iraq position — all hooey) throughout the evening. But, all in all, BIden definitely did himself and the ticket credit last night, and I expect he helped to solidify further Obama’s lead in the polls among independents.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, had the immediately recognizable air of the student who fills the air with digressions, non-sequiturs, and the occasional remembered idea in order to deflect attention from the fact that he or she didn’t really do the reading and doesn’t really understand the concepts being discussed. Even with Biden and moderator Gwen Ifill letting Palin slide on all sorts of evasiveness, the Governor often seemed scarily out of her depth whenever anything but energy policy was being discussed. (Her discussion of the Constitution and the vice-presidency was particularly galling.) As Paul Begala noted on CNN during the postgame, we already tried the whole “elevating the average Joe” thing with eight years of Dubya, and it’s turned out to be a miserable failure. And, while excellence may sadly be a rare commodity among our elected officials, I don’t think we the people are asking for too much when we expect basic competence from our leaders. Take away the memories of the Couric implosion, and Gov. Palin still failed to hurdle even that depressingly low threshold last night. Simply put, she wouldn’t be qualified to lead this nation even in the best of times. At it is, she’s a risk we can’t afford to take.

6 thoughts on “The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations.”

  1. I agree. Palin wasn’t the absolute train wreck I was hoping for, and Biden came across as informed and experienced, as well as a nice, personable guy. I liked his hard line on global warming and the constitutional role of a VP, but I was very disappointed with his and Obama’s stance against gay marriage.

  2. I would hardly call a commitment to ensuring equal constitutional rights for all couples a stance against gay marriage, just because it doesn’t (semantically) go as far as it could. However, I’ll admit that the fact that Palin was able to say essentially the same thing as Biden on the topic, while clearly meaning something completely different, points out the inherent wishy-washyness of that position.

  3. Your description of Palin was spot on -I kept on thinking, couldn’t a halfway decent member of a high school debate team perform at least as well as she is? …especially after three days of sequestered coaching at McCain’s Sedona ranch.

  4. Eric, I was hoping for an answer like “I support gay marriage and would vote against or veto any legislation designed to deny the rights of a specific group of Americans.”

    But not everyone can be Ted Kennedy…sigh.

  5. Palin seemingly held no qualms about regurgitating easily refutable lies…

    What are the odds that she even knows or cares that they’re lies? Does anyone honestly believe she knows any more about those issues than the attack lines her prep team helped her memorize? An Authority told her they’re true, and that’s all an Authoritarian needs to know.

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