Bodes Well for the VP Debate
I recommend everyone read this Washington Post chat with Anchorage Daily News editor Gregg Erikson. His basic point seems to be that Palin is popular with Alaskans, but among journalists and legislators, her support is “down in the teens or twenties.” Her lack of popularity with people who work in or follow politics seems to come from a basic lack of seriousness about actually governing. She’s a charming and effective campaigner, but it’s not clear if she’s really much of a Governor. Just look at Erikson’s answer for her three strengths and three weaknesses:
Gregg Erickson: She is smart, vivacious and energetic; she tends to oversimplify complex issues, has had difficulty delegating authorit [sic], asnd clearly has some difficulty distinguishing the line between her public responsibilities and private wishes.
“Smart, vivacious and energetic.” That’s what you say about a bright, cute five year old, not a vice president. Her three negatives, on the other hand, are all directly related to her being an elected official. I think we all wouldn’t mind if our politicians were a bit less “vivacious and energetic” and were better at delegating authority and didn’t oversimplify complex issues.
The second revealing answer is Erikson’s preview of her debate performance:
Gregg Erickson: I expect her to stick with simple truths. When asked about continued American troop presence in Iraq she said she knows only one thing about that (I paraphrase): no one has attacked the American homeland since George Bush took the war to Iraq.
Wow, if that’s really what we have to expect from her on the national security front, then Biden is going to Steve-Buscemi-in-Fargo her during the VP debate. The McCain’s campaign raison d’être is the Surge and national security, and this is their VP pick?
Sure, her “experience” is somewhat comparable to Obama’s*, but even in 2004, when Obama was just an Illinois state senator, he could speak about foreign policy issues intelligently, Palin can’t.
