The following description of the vice presidential debate will focus primarily on the argumentative style and professional disposition of its female master debater, Governor Palin.
Style and attitude account for much with regard to rhetoric, or the art of speaking. In addition to such style, but not as important in determining the overall perception of the success or failure of the debate, is supporting arguments with facts, answering the posed question, and avoiding ambiguity.
Regardless of party affiliation and platform preference, voters ought to recognize that Palin performed poorly in all these categories. She portrays the professional posture and political presence of a pissed-off mom at a soccer game on one-too-many cups of coffee.
She is armed with haughty stares, a patronizing attitude, and a confounding ability to make any empty utterance appear meaningful by drenching it in tones of indignation and pretense.
Her voice itself betrayed the sort of nervousness, temerity and aggression that indicate the stubborn realization of unpreparedness in the face of a more articulate, coherent and professional opponent.
More specifically, Palin’s use of repetitively evasive responses made it clear that she was only capable of attacking Biden-Obama, talking about her maternity and middle-classness, and asserting the maverick-ness of her running mate and their shared righteousness over issues she could describe only elementarily.
For instance, in response to being asked if she had a clear Iraqi exit plan, Palin, while never describing any exit, alludes to the success of attack surges, the need to win, the need to grow our military, and being closer to victory.
Also, instead of just admitting, “No, we don’t have an exit strategy because we’re myopically obsessed with winning this Iraqi debacle no matter what the human or fiscal cost,” she attempts to chastise Biden-Obama by telling the audience that Obama voted against funding troops.
Unfortunately, in her excitement she must have forgotten that McCain did, too. Whoops. Biden pointed that out, after he pointed out that Palin had failed to answer the question, and shortly before he gave his and Obama’s relatively detailed exit plan with clear goals, details enumerating how to achieve those goals, and a timeline.
Let us turn quickly to the question where candidates were asked to describe their Achilles’ heel. Palin almost immediately began talking about her great character and how her life has prepared her well for the office she is seeking.
That’s cool, but Achilles is off laughing somewhere at Palin’s ignorance of his heel and its role in one of the most epic and possibly earliest written works in Greek literature.
Finally, make sure you check out Palin’s closing statements. I cannot get over how she boasted that “[she liked] being able to answer these tough questions.” When I heard her make that poorly chosen claim, I laughed exactly as hard as when I read the final diary entry of the captain of the Titanic, which read “Thank the Lord I totally dodged that huge iceberg like a pro.”
Palin’s final message is that freedom is not found in the bloodstream and could go extinct in one generation. She says this means we could, “find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children about a time in America back in the day when men and women were free.”
Now, I don’t know which messed-up greeting cards she pieced together that last melodramatic message with, but if I find out, I’ll have them destroyed.
