More Confused Than Ever

I am going to have to quit watching debates.

Last time, John McCain chewed Obama up and spit him out. Obama lost his composure. He couldn’t land a glove on McCain, and McCain yanked his chain all night. Obama got so angry he blanched over and over again, actually turning grey on camera. He came off as petulant, ignorant, arrogant, spoiled, and immature. And by a slim margin, people thought he won the debate!

This time, Sarah Palin was clearly unprepared. She’s a busy governor. She had five weeks to learn things Biden and Obama and McCain have been studying for years. She also had to maintain a grueling campaign schedule. I’m sure she crammed hard, but let’s face it. Random governors, even smart ones, given five weeks to prepare to debate seasoned Presidential candidates are always going to have problems. We know from her past debates that she has formidable skills, but she didn’t really have a chance to show them tonight. She repeated herself a lot, she wandered off topic so she could find things she felt safe talking about, and she added a lot of filler. And she was light on facts.

And people are acting like she won. Even liberal journalists are complimenting her.

I’ll take it. No complaints here.

Maybe my problem is that I’m fairly smart, and I can actually tell who won a debate. That could be it. Maybe 85% of Americans only care about who seems more likeable.

I give Biden credit. I thought he was a complete fool before the debate, and by the time it was over with, I liked him so much I felt sorry for him for somehow winding up a Democrat and therefore wrong on every issue. He didn’t impress me as a brain, but he seems more sane than I thought, and maybe less of an ambitious and soulless creep than Obama. Maybe age has mellowed him. Or maybe I’m wrong. On IM, someone is telling me Biden has already been caught in a bunch of horrendous lies.

The journalists even liked it when Sarah winked. I thought that was a huge mistake on her part. It seemed contrived. But the public is not bright, and journalists are notoriously dim, and no one seemed to mind.

Ifill did fine. At least I was right about that. She still should have turned down the job. Her willingness to take it proves she has no understanding of basic ethical principles.

I can’t understand it, but if this is what makes the public happy, who am I to complain? Maybe this is exactly what it takes to please swing voters.

Maybe John McCain was smarter than I realized, picking someone who knew how to do well in beauty pageants.