Sarah Palin: She Beat The Street's Expectations!

I get my television news coverage from MSNBC. I don't particularly like them; I just cannot stand CNN or Fox, so MSNBC is the least of the triumverate of evils (to me). All day yesterday the coverage on MSNBC centered around the Palin - Biden debate. This televised circus was touted as being the most important vice-presidential debate in US history. Since the vice-presidential debates don't have as long a history (they've only been in existence since 1984) as the presidential debates (the first was held in 1960), to say this debate is the most important debate is a little bit like looking at a storm cloud and deciding the sky is falling. Hyperbole. It's all about the hyperbole. And the media is just loaded with it.

The debate itself was somewhat anticlimactic. As long as Palin didn't spit on the carpet or have a total mental breakdown on national tv, she was going to be judged as having "passed the test". Expectations for her were set THAT low. Occasionally someone would mention that Biden could be a loose cannon with unbelievably stupid, rambling sound bites, but that was done with a "Joe will be Joe" kind of evaluation. I've watched Biden in action for years and concluded long ago that he's a blithering idiot. He is far more impressed with the sound of his own voice than he is with any of the positions he's held in Congress, and when I consider that the guy plagiarized his own past history... well, Joe is only qualified to lead the rats out of Hamelin (or is that Washington, DC) rather than to be vice-president, and a heartbeat away from president, of the US. The media, however, only mentions Joe's incompetence in passing, and it's always with that, "We all know how Joe is but ain't he just so lovable," connotation.

Now the debate is over, and I'm disgusted with the media's take on it. Oh sure, they begrudgingly note that Palin didn't self-destruct, but the sarcasm and exaggerations of her mannerisms has become stronger. Meanwhile, Joe, who told us at the Democratic convention that when he was a child his mother had to repeatedly send him back outside when he came home whupped by the neighborhood bullies with the instruction to "go bloody their noses, Joey", was the one who almost, but not quite, had the on stage meltdown. And it's not the first time he's done this either.

When Joey couldn't think of a way to top Palin's assertion that she understands Main Street with its problems of budget, health care, single parent family situations, and the challenges of raising a special needs child, know what Joey did? He cried. Yep. Got himself all choked up so that it was touch and go there for a moment as to whether he'd even be able to talk, and he raised those puppy dog eyes to the camera to stare down Main Street and assure them that no one needs to tell him what it's like to be a single parent WHILE he tried very hard to manufacture just one lonely tear slowly making its way down his botoxed cheek. He waffled on squeezing out that tear, but he did his all-choked-up routine better than last time he pulled it out of his bag of tricks for the staff on a committee he had to give up because he's now running for vice-prez. THAT time the crowd didn't understand that he was pretending to be overcome with emotion, so they didn't respond the way they should have to his shameless and pathetic grandstanding. Now, can you just imagine if Sarah Palin had done one of those teary, emotional not-quite-but-almost breakdown moments? She'd have been crucified no matter what the context of the little performance. The question most certainly would have been raised whether this was the kind of behavior we expect from our veep. I saw one mention of this intimate Joey moment on MSNBC, and it was explained as the point at which Joey turned the debate to his favor. Apparently up to that point Palin was doing better than Biden, but he almost, but not quite, squeezes out a tear, and that makes him justified to holler, "Never fear, Underdog is here." Puhleeeze. That phoney moment the media fell for hook, line, and sinker was, to me, a get-the-barf-bag time stopper. If only Palin had thought to bring some Kleenex with her so she could offer Joey a tissue along with some gentle advice to pull himself together.

I was interested in what the media would have to say after the debates, and their responses were pretty predictable as was the poll result aired on MSNBC. Joe Q 6-Pack believes Biden won the debate although 33% of respondents to the poll believe it was a tie. Since we have no idea who responded to the poll question of who won, it's impossible to know how reliable those results are. And given the hatchet job the media has been doing on Palin since McCain announced her name as his running mate, is it any wonder she didn't get the public confidence vote stating she won. I think she did win based on what I know of politics and what I have learned to distrust about Biden's footloose and fancy play with statistics and the facts. When Joey told me that 95% of all small businesses in the US earn under $250,000 a year, I knew he was off and running into fantasy land. I didn't expect the media to point that out. But what I also did not expect was the blase way in which MSNBC was willing to write off the debate the day after as totally irrelevant. Joe Scarborough couldn't wait to point out that vice-presidential debates do not elect presidents. That's Scarborough for you -- another firm grasp of the obvious from a guy who seems to want us to believe that he's never been a Republican. EVER. Since Joe served as a Republican Congressman from Florida, he's got some heavy 'splainin' to do about his party affiliation confusion.

So, yesterday that veep debate was THE most important event in political history. Today it's become a meaningless event barely worth the mention. This is according to the media. The place I'm supposed to trust to keep me informed on the latest breaking news and give me accurate details about what's going on in the world. Yeah right. There are two reasons why I cannot vote for Barack Obama. I want to thank Joe Biden for so resoundingly cementing my conviction that he is firmly in place as my second reason.