October 13, 2008
by Robert Fantina
The long-anticipated debate between Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice-president, and his Republican opponent, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, is now, thankfully, history. Many people tuned in waiting to see either Mr. Biden somehow manage to put his foot in his mouth, something he is somewhat renowned for doing, or to see Mrs. Palin blunder her way through the debate. While neither happened, and the debate was a non-issue (as might be expected of any debate between vice-presidential candidates), a few observations are worth noting.
While many pundits have commented on Mrs. Palin's surprising debating skills, what seems to have been missed is the fact that she did not answer significant questions. For example, after Senator Biden focused on Republican presidential nominee John McCain's continued opposition to regulation, and a comment Mr. McCain had recently made about deregulating the health care industry, the governor was asked directly if she wanted to respond to this comment. "Governor, please, do you want to respond to what he said about Sen. McCain's comment about health care?" asked moderator Gwen Ifill. "I'd like to respond about the tax increases," was Mrs. Palin's response. Obviously, the topic of tax increases was one she was briefed on during her several days of preparation in Arizona. Either her handlers forgot to discuss health care, or she simply had no defense against what Mr. Biden said. Either way, she often used this technique, if such avoidance can be called that, to revert to areas she was comfortable discussing. When asked a question, simply answer something else.
In 2004, the public was often told that, given a choice, they would certainly rather sit down and have a beer with ?good ol' boy' George Bush rather than his opponent, Senator John Kerry. Far too many Americans felt more comfortable with Mr. Bush, and he was elected president (one hesitates to use the term ?reelected' in this context, since Mr. Bush was appointed president in 2000). Mrs. Palin seems to wish to portray herself as the female equivalent of the person the average citizen can ?kick back' with and enjoy those beers. During the debate, she continually dropped her ?g's' (?Sen. McCain and I will be changin' things in Washington'), spoke of ?Soccer Moms' and ?Joe Six Packs,' and if all the people she invites to sit around her kitchen table ever show up at the same time, hers will be one crowded kitchen. She did her utmost to portray herself as the down home, soccer mom next door who just happens to want to be vice-president.
Although the questions that were asked by Ms. Ifill covered numerous significant topics facing the U.S. today, some specific areas were not addressed. Mrs. Palin's entire foreign policy experience seems to be a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who could certainly be charged with war crimes if any Congress during the last forty years had any backbone, and a meeting within the last week with some foreign leaders at the United Nations. The embarrassingly painful statement that she can deal with the complexities of U.S. - Russian relations because on a clear day one can see Russia from part of Alaska, and her equally stunning ignorance about the Bush doctrine of preemption were avoided; Mrs. Palin was not called upon to humiliate herself again with those topics.
But perhaps today we are not to look too closely at the Republican vice-presidential nominee. When political commentator James Carville expressed his amazement at Mr. McCain's selection of Governor Palin as his running mate, Republican representative Michelle Bachmann (MN) was quick to come, unnecessarily one might add, to her defense. Said she: "You know, Larry (King, who was interviewing both Mr. Carville and Ms. Bachmann), I find those comments from James Carville actually offensive ? and especially offensive to American women. There are a lot of very competent American women. Sarah Palin easily is a competent woman. She's proved herself in business. She's proved herself in politics. She has come up from nowhere to be somebody. And she's someone we can all be very proud of. She is one competent tough cookie and I think the American people are going to love her."
Mr. Carville was quick to point out that he had endorsed and worked for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. Apparently the fact that he questioned how anyone in their first term as governor of a state with a population of less than 1,000,000, whose previous political experience was as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, with a population of less than 6,000, should merit being selected as the running mate of the man who, if elected, would be the oldest president in U.S. history, was unacceptable because the governor is a woman. Ms. Bachmann felt the need to point out to Mr. Carville, despite his earlier endorsement of Sen. Clinton for president, that "there are a lot of very competent American women." Such comments lead one to suspect that perhaps Ms. Bachmann herself is not numbered among them.
But there we have it. Mrs. Palin, it seems, is to be acceptable simply because she is a woman. This seems to be the mindset that Mr. McCain had when he selected her; he seemed to believe that the 18,000,000 people who had voted for Sen. Clinton in the presidential primaries would flock to the Republican ticket because there was a woman on it. Oddly, this did not seem to work in reverse: one cannot find any evidence that Ms. Bachmann ever endorsed Sen. Clinton.
Perhaps we are being unjust by suggesting that Ms. Bachmann supports Mrs. Palin simply because she is a woman. Perhaps she had other reasons for not supporting Senator Clinton. Let's see, a former first lady who had her hands, for better or worse, in all aspects of government when her husband was president; who travelled the world over and met nearly every world leader; a woman in her second term in the U.S. senate representing a state with a population of over 19,000,000; a woman who announced her candidacy nearly two years prior to the election and campaigned across the country; the first woman who had a real chance at the presidency. Compare that resume to Gov. Palin's, and one really has to wonder if Ms. Bachmann is not being more than a little partisan.
The media, too, seems to have bought into this bizarre idea that it is unfair to question Gov. Palin's credentials. One does not want to appear to be bullying her, although why it is acceptable to bully a male candidate, or Sen. Clinton for that matter, but not Gov. Palin, has not been clearly explained.
One's time is better spent not waiting for an explanation. Mr. McCain's campaign, never very strong, appears now to be in serious trouble, and this is a good thing for the U.S. and the world. The mainstream press will continue to treat Gov. Palin with kid gloves, and allow Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live and the alternative press to do their work for them. As they did not question President Bush's assertions about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction; as they have let the U.S. torture political prisoners with less a whimper than the victims themselves emit, and as they have all but ignored the firing scandal surrounding former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, they will give Gov. Palin as close to a free pass as possible. She and Mr. McCain will be left to destroy their own candidacies. Fortunately, that appears to be happening, yet an investigative press would certainly be fulfilling its obligation by helping it along. This need not be done in any devious manner. Simply exploring the issues, the experience of the candidates and their plans for the future would suffice. We wait in vain to see this happen.
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Robert Fantina [send him email] is a long-time activist for peace and social justice. He has worked with the Coalition for Peace Action in New Jersey. Following the 2004 presidential election, he moved to Canada, where he now resides. Robert is the author of Desertion and the American Solder: 1776-2006.
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