Sarah Palin’s Katie Couric interviews have made her look like a goofball, but maybe that was the idea. Noodling around with the media certainly has depressed expectations for her performance tomorrow night in the debate with Joe Biden, but perhaps the campaign was hoping to downplay the fact that the former TV sportscaster, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a damn good debater. During the Alaska gubernatorial debates in 2006, Palin trounced her opponents with her folksy nature, which trumped her utter lack of specific policy knowledge. The Journal says:
“her métier was projecting winsomeness — making a virtue of not knowing as much about the minutiae of state government because, for most of her adulthood, she was immersed in small-town life and raising a family. The candidates she squared off against, and the reporters who posed questions in several debates, recall that she related high gas prices to the difficulties her family had buying a car. She explained that she was in tune with environmentalists because she named a daughter, Bristol, for Alaska’s Bristol Bay. She demonstrated her affinity for Native American culture by citing the teachings of her husband’s Yu’pik Eskimo grandparent. ”
The old guys at the table didn’t have a chance. You can watch the video clips here and decide whether Biden is in big trouble.
