Jagger/Richards once penned the lines: "Take me to the station/Put me on a train/I've got no expectations/to pass through here again." They wrote those lyrics before Sarah Palin started elementary school, so they probably didn't have the Palin-Biden debate in mind. But it seems like sentiment straight from the republican playbook: forget about decreasing expectations, we've got no expectations.
Last week McCain performed ingeniously. Leading up to his first debate, he crafts an erratic persona. Call off the debates... suspend the campaign (insert outraged voice of Bonasera the undertaker: "suspenda da campaign?!"). Talk of McCain as unprepared and overwhelmed ensues. Expectations lowered.
Now Sarah Palin hits the big media outlets. It appears she can't name a single newspaper. She can't think of any Supreme Court cases except Roe v Wade. She proudly refuses to answer many of the questions Katie Couric (!) asks. Katie Couric...she's more softball than Jennie Finch.
People...she's playing the expectations game. Hello! At this point, folks have NO EXPECTATIONS for her performance this evening. At this point if she can enunciate the words "New York Times" or "Dred Scott" we're going to be impressed.
3 comments:
you simply remind me of my fav Mad TV gig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMP7n-qv-8c
On the other hand, doesn't a bevvy of political commentators applauding Palin for not screwing up still leave voters with "Palin" and "screw-up" bouncing around their skulls at the same time, irrevocably linked? (I'm thinking of Lakoff's "frames.")
I hope so.
Bonnie: I love those gags too.
Lance: I think the only folks who end up irrevocably linking "Palin" and "screw up" are those who already disliked her and/or her policies. Her supporters seem to attribute the "screw up" frame to a biased media. I.e., folks who love it when she evades a question, gets called out on it, and then says "I'm not going to answer the question the way you want me to, I'm gonna speak to the American people" (raising her hand while saying 'American people').
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