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Sarah Palin is trying to turn the presidential race into a popularity contest with no holds barred. She has decided to practice political mudslinging, something that many voters despise. She is keeping business as usual. I don’t blame her; her argumentation skills are pale in comparison to her opponent.
One substantial issue concerning vice-presidential debates nagging at the public consciousness is about the ethics of running campaigns devoid of usual derogation that continues to plague partisan politics. The fundamental change begins at the debate level where respect is maintained; where things are above board; and where slander and debauchery are left at the front door.
During the Biden and Palin debate; Palin lacked substance in many of her responses to poignant questions asked. It’s very apparent that she is a fast learner; a good copycat and a parrot of sorts able to digest information and spill it back out under pressure. However, when she hasn’t memorized her assignment and has not been schooled properly, she freezes and resorts to avoidance.
In debates, when a debater has no retort, diversion becomes the game. How can I take the audience off track? Using her small town linguistic idiosyncrasies and rural folklore has become her bailiwick. She has become a victim of her own delusional thinking; either that or she has watched too much of the spin zone on the O’Reilly factor.
Her mentors were convinced that bases had been covered during rehearsal. Remember, no one was privy to the questions. Advisors could only guess at what was going to be asked and prepare their candidates accordingly. Palin’s rehearsal didn’t cover the unintended questions critical journalists seemingly transformed into language police can muster up as they listen for verbal blunders, logical inconsistency and minute gaffes.
Palin’s use of rural nomenclature and colloquialism is appealing to rural folks and Alaskan natives. I respect that; but imagine if anyone in the Obama camp were to resort to the use of streetwise language. Journalists would take them to town if someone in his camp were to appear in front of an audience and say, ‘Whas Up?’
Palin has resorted to name calling, characteristic of male bullying. She is now calling Obama a terrorist. His affiliation with “radicals” is detraction run amok. She has no experience to draw from regarding international politics except her survival tactics, diversion and avoidance.
With all due respect, I give Palin credit. As a new kid on the block, she does have guts. She is not afraid to mix it up, taking off the boxing gloves and resorting to junkyard dog tactics. She’s challenged Obama’s camp to get out of the ring and duke it out in an alley. The problem is that if he or Biden were to step down to her level, they would be called bullies. Media referees would call a foul.
At the risk of being shunned by my sisters, I think that Palin is doing what males have always been accused of doing, taking the fight into the streets. I know women have been oppressed in societies all over the world. I know women have the intelligence, skill and ability to compete with men in any and all endeavors, including running a government in one of the strongest nations in the world. But they can also fall prey to unsavory political games. No one is immune to that. Condoleezza Rice can attest to that as she blatantly supports President Bush’s long term strategy in Iraq.
America’s future vice-presidents are supposed to espouse what presidential candidates propose as a roadmap for the future of America. Obama is proposing hope for building a new and better world, a devolution process, where a common person can effectively participate. This struggling biracial kid attended Harvard University; but he has not forgotten where his roots lay. Biden was able to articulate to voters that Obama has an open door policy for in put. McCain is using scare tactics to make people paranoid so that American troops can continue to occupy Iraq in perpetuity; oh yeah, and so his cronies can make mas dinero. Although Palin doesn’t lay claim to carrying a rubber stamp, she inconclusively is following the public policy agenda that has Americans in consternation. What is the game plan? Bush hands off to McCain who then hands off to Palin, with no change. Palin talks folksy but can’t translate her war mongering partner’s language into taxicab driver terms.
The first debate was no contest. It was Palin Comparison.
Dr. Ramon Del Castillo
Independent Journalist
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