Thursday, October 2, 2008

VP debate and the facepalm

So, I watched the VP debate today. I was kinda hoping, in a schadenfreude kind of way, that Palin would say something really crazy, like how schoolchildren should be taught that Jesus rode a dinosaur while fighting the Civil War, but no such luck. There was one pretty dumb moment though, and that's when she said that she wanted to do something about climate change but didn't want to argue about what causes it.

Yeah. That's real smart. Problems are usually best solved when you don't examine the causes. Thank goodness that Biden took the opportunity to point out just how patently ridiculous that was.

As for Biden, his answers were the usual politician stuff. He came off as a pretty smart guy, and he always managed to quickly shift his answers to the talking points that he wanted to address. Palin did the same thing, but she doesn't even make a pretense of trying to answer the question. Also, I'm really getting the feeling that with conservatives, things like "facts" don't actually matter. Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth, as Goebbels once said, eh? I mean, in both debates, the Republican said something, only to have the Democrat say, "Hey! That's not true. You can look it up - the truth is ________." Then what happens? The Republican later repeats the lie/distortion.

The thing is though, I feel that many people who already liked Palin are going to say that she won. Why? Because people are stupid, that's why. They're not going to look at things like facts and issues - they're going to be impressed by her folksy attitude, and her mentioning of things like kids playing soccer and "Joe Six Pack." (Is it just me, or is "Joe Six Pack" a name given to somebody who's basically a simpleton? Is this her base that she's referring to?) They're also going to like the fact that she said the word "maverick" over and over again. Again, thankfully Biden called her out on that. I don't know about you, but I'm going to puke lava the next time I hear that word. Also, my head is going to spin around like the little girl in The Exorcist if I hear the Republicans talk about how they're going to be the ones to bring change. I mean, is anybody really stupid enough to believe that? I mean, I can respect it when conservatives say that Obama is going to bring the kind of change that we don't need - but this whole catchphrase is really asinine.

I wonder what conservatives would talk about if they couldn't say the following words/phrases: maverick, activist judges, redistribution of wealth, etc. Not much, I'm guessing.

Shoot, I wish that I was playing Palin Bingo at the time. It would have made it more entertaining at least.

1 comment:

nonmagic said...

We tried watching it during dinner. I lost interest after I was finished eating, but the husband hung in there til the end.

Palin's voice just really started to grind on my nerves after awhile. And that Joe Six Pack thing got to me, too. Of course there are people that are going to fall for the folksy bit. I just find it incredibly dishonest and irritating.