A Lesson in Winning by not Losing, and Losing by not Winning
Thursday evening I joined about 70,000,000 others to watch the decimation, destruction and ruination of Sarah Palin, John McCain, the Republican ticket and the future of the Republican Party.
What was to be was not. What was not to be was.
Palin won by not losing. Biden lost by not winning.
Debates, like politics, are games of expectation. A candidate expected to lose by a wide margin sometimes gets a second chance by running a close race on the wings of a principled cause. (McGreevey v Whitman, New Jersey, 1997) Candidates expected to win by landslide margins go to the political graveyard when they come up short (Williams v Richards, Texas, 1990).
And so it is with debates. Thanks to lackluster performances in interviews with Katie Couric and Charles Gibson, and incessant pre-debate floggings by the New York Times, Palin was expected to self-destruct on stage. When she more than held her own, she won, earning praise from those often quick to condemn conservatives whose rhetorical skills fall short, including Pat Buchanan and Peggy Noonan.
So good was Palin’s performance that she will likely dance on the national stage in coming years, regardless of what happens to McCain in November. Biden? He suffered from expectations. He was expected to mop the stage with Palin’s ample do. He didn’t. And few believe he really spends his weekends hanging around Home DePot.
New York Times readers who missed the debate and glanced at Friday’s headlines can be excused for wondering why most of the other 70,000,000 viewers liked the Palin they saw.
From Friday’s New York Times: "she (Palin) offered little proof that she is qualified for the post" (link here)...
… "not the bad night that some had feared, but neither was it a turning point for the McCain camp" (link here)...
…“Palin used…scripted talking points.” (link here)
It was not until Friday’s readers dug into David Brooks’ column that they learned what really happened on Thursday night:
“By the end of the debate, most Republicans were not crouching behind the couch, but standing on it…few could have expected as vibrant and tactically clever a performance as the one Sarah Palin turned in Thursday night.”
I now know why I buy this left-wing rag sheet. It is the best laxative around, cheaper and probably healthier than those over the counter medications.
