The Lysergic Acid Diethylamidiotic Joe Biden & Sarah Palin VP Presidential Debate thread in the 2 zero zero 8 (2008 party over oops)

v. good.

If Palin turns out to be a Flowers For Algernon type, this would be the best result of them all, just for the general wtf

xp croup - see we can lol now because a lot of Dems WILL worry anyway, even though whatever possible zings and poll bumps Palin/McCain (come on, that's really the ticket, right?) gain, they will decay pretty quickly even well before all those Alaskan death trials to come on Oct 10th.

alternately, I hope Palin totally goes lil Jon.

and U+K lil Jon Palin photoshop kthxby

any word on the physical layout? are they going to be sitting next to each other across a desk from ifill?

Lecterns this time.

I think Palin will do the zingers but she may become emboldened and go just that little bit to far. I think she has more hubris than all the other candidates put together.

(xpost) I think Palin has a win by default, frankly, because she's already more about personality and symbolism than qualifications to people who like her, and people who don't have such abysmal expectations that she can't do much damage. Damage control is the key here.

in any case, biden i think needs to come off like a knowledgable and patient adult, basically treat it like a conversation with gwen ifill, and some other nitwit showed up and decided to say something.

This is pretty OTM. And I think it has to be watched in drinking game mode or it will be too painful.

I usually find Rich Lowry the least repulsive of all the Corner folks, but WTF

Of course, Palin has a lot to bone up on, and there will probably be, even in the best of circumstances, a few things she doesn't know. That's why she needs a straight-forward and/or self-deprecating way to occasionally say, "I don't know." People will be much more forgiving of that than round-about and very transparent attempts to try to talk her way through it, which are much more discrediting. Her potential ace-in-the-hole, of course, is Joe Biden. He'll very likely find a way to be an ass, whether he's confronting her or deferring to her.

it's okay to call the Democratic VP nominee an ass now, guys, FYI

It's only a win for the repubs if they can actually get a bounce, and right now Palin is the least popular of any pres/vp candidate. LEAST. Why do people keep pushing how popular she is? She has a loud fanbase but it's not getting bigger. There is NO REASON to believe more exposure to her will change this. A lack of faith in Biden rocking shit is one thing, but this faith in the repubs to change the game after all that's happened is something can't begin to fathom.

you all are giving the exceeding expectations factor waaay to much credence here. every time palin has opened her mouth shes told a really obvious lie and/or said something undeniably retarded. theres no reason to believe shell be anything other than awful in this debate.

i mean john mccain already "suspended his campaign" just trying to avoid this shit.

"She needs to admit her ignorance!"

Based on all the ph3ar, it seems Biden is going to lose no matter what he does just because he's older and wittier.

I mean what the fuck is wrong with the US? (I know right?)

Also, even when she waffles, Palin has proven to be a very good and subtle liar. This works for Palin on TV, so this is where Biden's performance really matters re: how he will find a way to call her out on her lies. This debate, whether fair or not, is for Biden to lose.

ok what sort of crazy parallel dimension did u just arrive from

She has NOT been a good and subtle liar. Even if you didn't know she was lying when interviewed by Couric, she was shifty, her grammar awful. She sounded like someone caught.

based on how her favorability rating has plummeted from like +30 to -10 since her nomination its likely that she hasnt been doing anything well

I think she has, at base, the non-oily appeal and generator of warm feelings that Mitt Romney has.

Granholm is Palin's stand-in in the debate prep -- and although Granholm is a fairly incompetent governor, I wonder if they will really be able to simulate Palin's dunderheadedness adequately enough to truly prepare Biden.

She's pretty base.

If Granholm just waves the red flag any time he gets near a phrase like "little lady," he'll be fine.

ok what sort of crazy parallel dimension did u just arrive from

There are too many crazy parallel dimensions across the country in this election.

I mean how many "I think McCain's ok, but i REALLY LIKE PALIN OMG!" bursts on TV does it take to get that across? Granted, I don't make it clear which parallel universe POV I speak from disingenuously.

i think you'd feel better if you were paying more attention.

Man, shoulda just gotten Tina Fey to be the stand-in, go for broke.

Palin = Boris Johnson?

I'm pretty confident the Dems have this election, so I'm not all Scanners about this, but don't say I'm not paying attention. There are plenty of people who can outvote me in numbers who are *not* paying attention who are SMITTEN with Palin. This election will likely not be a stampede, even if all polls indicate so.

I'm kinda ignoring polls right now, because polls are less and less accurate as the years go by since they still used the land-line standard.

maybe you should take massive drops in Palin's popularity in polls with a grain of salt rather than ignoring them and freaking out every time you see a fundie wacko yell.

She has a loud fanbase but it's not getting bigger. There is NO REASON to believe more exposure to her will change this.

The concern is not that people will like her more, it's that they will like Biden and hence the Democrats less.

hahaha ned yes

i have faith in biden not flicking his tongue between his fingers at Palin. Which is what it would take for America to like him less than Palin after she's spoken for an hour.

i think we're in an xp helix here, but again, I'm speaking in context of the debate.

I don't think the VP debate will be nearly as exciting or damaging to Palin as most people think. That's all I'm saying. Maybe Palin will melt down. Entirely possible. It's entirely possible Biden will be a total asshole and Palin will shine too.

Who the fuck cares in the end anyway. There isn't much precedent for VP debates changing things.

Palin's popularity is just likely to inch up again, after which a lot of democrats most of which are NOT ON ILX will freak out, that's all I'm claiming.

But that will again be temporary once October gets into gear, when half of the Alaska GOP is thinking about life in a cold dark cell then.

"Shit, Granholm, why didn't you tell him it was bad idea to yell 'LOOK AT DEM PUPPIES!' at her?"

"I thought it was a good tactic. D'oh, we done bad!"

because polls are less and less accurate as the years go by since they still used the land-line standard.

Many but not all:

Riverdale Park, Md.: Which pollsters are being the most creative at tackling the problem of the under-35s being "cell-phone only," and thus hard to reach?

Charles Franklin: A number of pollsters have been including cell only folks for most of the year. Gallup, Pew, CBS/NYT, NBC/WSJ and I think Time. Field in California does as well. It is going to be increasingly common.

(Charles Franklin is with Pollster.com.)

I think election polls will be twittered before they get to the cell-phone stage, frankly.

("just got asked about election. I said I think the erection is alright, lol." - oct 29, 2012)

I like how everyone who is shouting "pay attention!" is conveniently ignoring that Palin did pretty much exactly the same thing in the Alaskan gubernatorial race as she's doing here and that she won that race.

I don't expect her to be particularly impressive or convincing to ME but I've already decided who I'm voting for. Clearly there is still a non-negligible segment of people who aren't convinced by Obama and I don't want a fluffy performance from Palin in the debate to make people feel better about deciding to vote for the crazy old white man.

speaking of crazy old white men

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2005/07/05/stockdale.jpg

haw

if this debate follows the open-ended format of the presidential debate i think palin's going to get away with murder - it's hard to imagine ifill doing couric-style followup questions

and without those followup questions it's not as easy to see clearly the extent to which she avoids the subject

guys Palin is completely incompetent all this hand-wringing is silly

who would you rather have a beer with? i think biden would be a hoot

guys Palin is completely incompetent all this hand-wringing is silly

Yeah because completely incompetent people never get jobs that they can't do. oh WAIT...

Characterizing speculation about what strategy would be most effective against Palin as "hand-wringing" is even sillier, IMO.

biden would be name-dropping second-tier middle eastern arms dealers while getting up out of his big easy chair for another one, fart, and not even laugh about it because he had just worked around to his main point

I thought it had already been pretty well-established what the best strategy for Biden is: remain calm, don't pounce on any of Palin's gaffes, target McCain

i think palin's going to get away with murder

^^^handwringing

I think "don't pounce on any of Palin's gaffes" is a huge huge huge mistake.

Biden doesn't need to, it will just make him look aggressive. The press will do his work for him.

and also yeah this is just a sideshow - no matter what happens it isn't gonna move polls/votes very far either way

if the debate turns out like couric interview itll hurt mccain