The chicanery of no expections

Well, what did those of us who expected her to flop out really expect? It's not as if Gov Palin was going to walk out on stage with toilet paper stuck to her heel and tumble down the stairs. She was in fact gracious and in control in the first moments as she strode across the stage and greeted Sen Biden between the podiums. Oddly, her (or both of their) body mike was turned up. Where it was impossible to discern what Barack Obama and John McCain said to each other quickly before their debate last week, her greeting to Biden was fully audible and marked her first success. After introducing herself and saying she was pleased to finally meet him, she asked quickly, "Hey, can I call you Joe?" His response, was inaudible but it surely as an affirmative as she then thanked him. So simple but also perfectly turned - not only did it play to her "folksy" informality but it reminded everyone of what has been passed as a gaffe by Obama from last week's meeting when he repeatedly referred to McCain as "John" while his older opponent stiff-armed him by eschewing similar niceties and called him "Sen Obama" while stating over and over his naivety. Obama ultimately switched to the more formal appelation but it has been characterized as a demonstration of McCain's greater gravitas and authority - or something that offered at least the simple appearance of such. Of course, other than another over-ripe cliched moment where she strung together a mottled twist of words that began with "Say it ain't so Joe" and then largely rambled off into something that reminded me of Bluto's speech from Animal House, she never addressed him in the familiar.

That might have been her high point, though she did demonstrate a dogged ability for staying specifically on point and knew that Israel had at some point negotiated a treaty with Jordan. Nor would she allow anything to stand in her way, early on she simply began disregarding the questions (or not understanding them perhaps), going so far as to note that she "may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear," but that she was "going to talk straight to the American people." Of course, part of that straight talk apparently goes something like "That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism." I only wish that she believed that what the American people craved was intelligible talk, doggone it.
-fp