Sarah Palin: Will She 'Win' Just By Showing Up?

By Si Dunn

Republican operatives, deathly worried about Sarah Palin's absence of knowledge and experience in any areas vice presidential, are desperately trying to cram some complete talking points into her head, while also working feverishly to lower the bar for her "debate" against Democratic rival Joe Biden, Oct. 2.

According to some sources, the performance bar is now "on the ground" or "maybe even a couple of inches beneath the surface."

Her handlers will hail her as "The Winner!" immediately after she shows up and opens her mouth, and they will keep drumbeating that message no matter what she actually says in the debate.

The idea, of course, is to ensure hardcore conservative Republican voters continue listening to the drums and not to what their candidate actually is saying--or not managing to say in a coherent fashion.

However, if she does stumble through something about divine intervention and overturning Roe v. Wade as peachy-keen ideas for resurrecting America's economy, watch for Republican operatives to immediately release an edited quote beneath the following banner headline: "Sarah Palin Shows She's the New Spirit of St. Louis!"

Joe Biden will be the actual winner in the debate, of course. But he still won't get much respect, or attention, from his performance. All eyes will remain on Sarah Palin, waiting for something to happen to her hair, her glasses or her lipstick as she recounts how Vladimir Putin gave her important foreign policy experience just by flying over Alaska at 38,000 feet.

For the battered Republicans, their message no longer will have much resonance amid the economic wreckage they will leave the next President. So their new mantra will have to be: "All hail the (former Alaska beauty queen) messenger!"
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My Baggage Can Beat Your Baggage

By Si Dunn

Yawn. Another Democratic “debate.” Another rash of unscientific online polls claiming Obama “won.” More newspaper articles contending Clinton put Obama “on the defensive.” And major television journalists still harping on flag lapel pins, angry pastors and invisible snipers.

One more voice of opinion won’t matter in this cosmically insignificant scale of things. But here it is, anyway-- just another tiny crackle in the rising, roaring, utterly unfocused static of the blogosphere.

In the Philadelphia television event, Sen. Clinton came across as more competent—and advised and rehearsed—particularly on matters of international affairs, while Sen. Obama came across as more genuine but a bit less ready to serve, particularly on matters of international affairs.

Hillary’s main credibility problem is that her face still lights up with a “Gotcha!” little smirk and smile when she gets an opportunity to score a political dig against Obama. It’s at least partially her inability to disconnect from old-style politics that keeps her low in the polls of personal likeability.

Barack’s main problem is that he is still—bottom line--more smooth political style than actual political substance. Of course, in America, style almost always wins over substance, because most people don’t like to pay any attention to details until after something happens that that they don’t like.

Hillary Clinton may yet squeak out a win in Pennsylvania. However, she may not win the nomination unless she learns very quickly how to come down to the level of talking with (not just to) voters directly across a kitchen table, over coffee and cookies, with absolutely nowhere else to go for a few hours on a rainy afternoon.

She does have baggage; she’s right about that. Countless people have rummaged through it, and some are still rummaging through it, desperately looking for any nuggets of undiscovered dirt—or any new clues as to who she really is behind that policy wonk facade.

But we all have baggage that we struggle to deal with or hide or ignore or wish away.

As our potential leader and commander in chief, Hillary Clinton needs to sit down with us now and tell us honestly, in unflinching depth and detail, how her famous baggage has affected her, how she deals with it, and, most importantly, how she will keep dealing with it if she returns to the White House next January.

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