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    People who channel 16-year-olds think Palin won

    By Michael Wolraich on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:09am | Politics

    I spent the debate blogging as a 16-year-old, and I have to disagree with the assessment of a Biden win. The experience was, to be honest, very weird. Writing as SarahPalinGrrrrl in previous posts did not require me to get into her head. She and I maintained a respectful distance from one another. But during the live blogging, there was no time for that. I had to be SarahPalinGrrrrl. OMG. As a result, I listened to the debate the way a 16-year-old might have, or at least how I imagine that a 16-year-old might have. And that meant that I wasn't really listening to the debate at all. I watched the candidates' expressions, measured their confidence, and reacted at a gut level to what they were saying without questioning it or thinking about it very hard. Biden looked knowledgeable but cranky, cold, and abstruse. As SarahPalinGrrrl, I often had no idea what he was going on about. Palin was warm, confident, and spoke simply in a way that evoked emotion.

    So who cares what a 36-year-old pretending to be 16 thinks? Others wrote that "Biden was the adult in the room tonight." Certainly, Biden appealed more to him on a rationale level. But there's a 16-year-old in all of us. When it suits our purposes, we can suppress that inner teenager, but we can also let it out. I know that at times during this election season, I've surrendered my critical faculties and let Obama's powerful rhetoric charge me up like a hormone-hyped adolescent--a throwback to when I used to ride my 10-speed in furious circles around a parking lot singing "Eye of the Tiger."

    There is a strong temptation, when reacting to someone charismatic, to let that inner adolescent out. Sarah Palin is charismatic, and many people will react in that way to her. Biden, I'm sorry to say, is not. I think that we will see tomorrow the reverse of the McCain-Obama result. Everyone will talk about how comfortable Palin seemed in her skin and about how Biden grimaced and didn't make eye contact.

    So I predict that the Palin slide has been halted for now. She did about as well as she could have done tonight. Style-wise, she is the best debater of the four, at least when it comes to the bizarre measures of political debating which have to do with voter appeal rather than expert performance. But in the end, she's still only a VP candidate, and as such, she will neither save nor sink John McCain. From here on in, it's McCain versus Obama.

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    I just heard Chris Matthews ask a fairly insightful question: Who beat the spread in tonight's debate? And I think it's true Palin beat the spread. There won't be any easy Katie Couric-type parodying of her performance - but I still say she lost the debate in a pretty big way. Yeah, Biden's smile is kinda creepy, and he didn't look at the camera, but he destroyed her on foreign policy topics and he drove home the point the Obama campaign is trying to drill, baby, drill home: A McCain presidency would be a third term for W.


    by Deadman on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:18am

    Certainly, McCain = Bush was the most important message that he had to convey. He did that forcefully and compellingly in a couple of answers. I would have liked to see him do it more. We'll see what the papers say tomorrow.


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:25am

    btw, great job on the live blogging. hilarious!

    and a great point about how most people watch these debates. reading your liveblogging, i really did get a sense of you mindmelding with SPG, and i could see how regular folks (16 YOs or no) could feel like palin was speaking to them not at them. i can't stand her folksiness because i'm blinded by her ideology, but i can see most Americans digging it.


    by Deadman on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:40am

    Thanks. It was really tough actually. Not to write something but to write good satire. I kept having to fall back on low humor b/c it was hard to write that fast.

    As for the folksiness, G.W.'s bothers me even more than Palin's, but it sure worked for a lot of voters.


    by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 12:50am

    I just wrote a long comment here which this computer lost....  assuming it doesn't show up still somehow, here's another version.... First of all, I was very impressed and slightly confused (and delirious with exhaustion at the time) with your portrayal of a 16 year old.  And without a tv to watch gossip girl!  By the way, when have you "surrendered your critical faculties"?

    I think you assessment here of her debate performance is important but not entirely correct. I would conclude that Palin stirs up the inner adolescent in all of us.  For some 16 year olds, and for me, that can be negative as well. An anti Palin meangrrrrl.  When I watch her I tend to find myself whining at the tv and making unrealistic statements about how bad she is doing and how everyone must be thinking she is stupid.  That is very adolescent of me, but just another kind of adolescent. Of course, you are right, there is the other side... the actual and inner adolescents who are impressed by the "warmth and confidence" they see.  While I see a woman who is nervous and out of her depth, and exactly NOT warm in the way she repeats herself as if reading a script, I know very well that she is coming across differently to others.  Partially it depends on whose side you are on to begin with... it also has to do with what leadership style you appreciate.  Do you want someone who "doesn't blink" or someone who thinks things through if they have some time?  Do you want someone who uses simple language to prove they are ordinary, or do you want someone extaordinary?  I don't think I can agree that her "style" is the best. Her style though, is fantastic for someone who has nothing to back up that style, and it is fantastic for those people she is trying to appeal to.  I admire her ability to compensate for her flaws.  I don't think this was a debate with a winner or loser.  I am waiting up for the next one here.... (AM who thinks she needs to change her Dagblog screen name).


    by AM on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 8:30pm

    AM, maybe you should just change your screenname when you get back into THIS country...

    Anyway, there were at least a few moments in the debate where Palin made me feel like a 16-year old.  And it wasn't a good thing.  All the sudden I was transported back to high school, or maybe even junior high, listening to that girl who's very sweet and friendly until you find out she's been saying horrid things about you to all your friends behind your back.  You know, that girl. 


    by CaliforniaPaige on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 2:45am