Anchorage, Alaska - When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full.
I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.
On paper, of course, the debate appears to be a mismatch.
In 2000, Palin was the mayor of an Alaskan town of 5,500 people, while Biden was serving his 28th year as a United States senator. Her major public policy concern was building a local ice rink and sports center. His major public policy concern was the State Department's decision to grant an export license to allow sales of heavy-lift helicopters to Turkey, during tense UN-sponsored Cyprus peace talks.
On paper, the difference in experience on both domestic and foreign policy is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing a bullet. Unfortunately for Biden, if recent history is an indicator, experience or a grasp of the issues won't matter when it comes to debating Palin.
On April 17, 2006, Palin and I participated in a debate at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks on agriculture issues. The next day, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner published this excerpt:
"Andrew Halcro, a declared independent candidate from Anchorage, came armed with statistics on agricultural productivity. Sarah Palin, a Republican from Wasilla, said the Matanuska Valley provides a positive example for other communities interested in agriculture to study."
On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment tha t highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against.
"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.
While policy wonks such as Biden might cringe, it seemed to me that Palin was simply vocalizing her strength without realizing it. During the campaign, Palin's knowledge on public policy issues never matured - because it didn't have to. Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on populism instead of policy.
Palin is a master of the nonanswer. She can turn a 60-second response to a query about her specific solutions to healthcare challenges into a folksy story about how she's met people on the campaign trail who face healthcare challenges. All without uttering a word about her public-policy solutions to healthcare challenges.
In one debate, a moderator asked the candidates to name a bill the legislature had recently passed that we didn't like. I named one. Democratic candidate Tony Knowles named one. But Sarah Palin instead used her allotted time to criticize the incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. Asked to name a bill we did like, the same pattern emerged: Palin didn't name a bill.
And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has a canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level. For example, asked to name a major issue that had been ignored during the campaign, I discussed the health of local communities, Mr. Knowles talked about affordable healthcare, and Palin talked about ... the need to protect hunting and fishing rights.
So what does that mean for Biden? With shorter question-and-answer times and limited interaction between the two, he should simply ignore Palin in a resp! ectful manner on the stage and answer the questions as though he were alone. Any attempt to flex his public-policy knowledge and show Palin is not ready for prime time will inevitably cast him in the role of the bully.
On the other side of the stage, if Palin is to be successful, she needs to do what she does best: fill the room with her presence and stick to the scripted sound bites.
* Andrew Halcro served two terms as a Republican member of the Alaska State House of Representatives. He ran for governor as an Independent in 2006, debating Sarah Palin more than two dozen times. He blogs atwww.andrewhalcro.com.
Well the non-answer may be okay for the people in Alaska, and based on their willingness to put Ted Stevens back in office that seems about right. However, rest comfortably that throughout much of the vast reaches of the US, that approach is not going to fly. I can assure you the press and blogosphere will be all over her responses should she try to replace cute and folksy with knowledgeable and intelligent answers to questions tomorrow night.
by
Peter Wedlund (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 183 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 11:42:10 AM
this is an excellent insight; I hope you are correct, but:
after so many decades of Americans being dumbed down by TV and 8 years of Bushies/Neocons/Blackwater/Halliburton, etc., any depths of ignorance AND racism maybe in play here, like it or not...things are looking good in quite a few surprising states, ones previously conceded to the R's!
I hope readers will see beyond the obvious ease of PREACHING TO THE CHOIR, and take the time to write some letters to the editor; if you live in a really red state, write the letters to the editor to Battleground states, where they might make a profound difference. Every Newspaper in the US seems to be listed at : united states newspaper list or usnpl.com, then add the state, or if that is too complicated, just put in NEWSPAPERS MINNESOTA, for example, and you will go right to it!!!
Talk is cheap. Letters to the Editor are extremely effective, and we have time for them to make a huge difference. The editorial page editors are the ones who are going to be writing the paper's endorsement, really soon, so that is another ancillary effect of you taking the time to write a letter to the editor!
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Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 440 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 11:54:41 AM
Maureen Dowd just got the boot from McCain's jet. So much for the First Amendment? Getting a taste of how McCain/Palin would run things? This disgraces the term United States Senator, and we should be writing letters to the editor in support of Maureen Dowd, one of the most objective and level headed columnists in the United States! Disgusting!!!! Printed in RED, to remind you of ELECTION DAY!
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Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 440 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 2:31:09 PM
This is an interesting article, but I think answering questions as a VP candidate will be a lot different than answering questions for a smattering of Alaskan citizens. I don't think "folksy stories" are going to cut it with the wider American audience. At least I hope not! If Palin's pathetic interviews are any indication, I don't think Biden has anything to worry about.
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Paula Ehler (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 4:24:54 PM
As I said earlier: I hope Americans are smart enough
for what you say to be not only true, but proven in a massive mandate for Obama, in a little over a month....Personally, I think this one is in the bag for Obama, but have I been wrong before? Yes, twice in the past 8 years!!!!
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Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 440 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 4:34:18 PM
That makes me think about what Bill Maher has said...
I don't believe I can say here what Bill has said many times on his show and in interviews that people in the US are just ___ing stupid. I used to think that sounded so rude, but I do believe he's right. I mean, look what has happened in the recent past. Hopefully enough of them have wised up to get the outcome we need.
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Janis Kay (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 3:01:55 AM
Great Insight from the guy who LOST to Sarah Palin. Say that aloud a couple of times, he may have an axe to grind. Obama is going to win, vice presidential debates do not matter.
by
sbaker (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 136 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 4:53:26 PM
to posit a questioning of his motives, but I think that is a mistake that totally misreads the sincerity of where this guy is coming from. He is saying she is inconsequential and avoids all the real substance in the debate forum, dealing in pleasant generalities. That may work in Alaska, but everyone knows that it won't in the entire US. I sensed a great sincerity in this fellow Halcros impetus for writing this, and I sensed even more from his enthusiastically granting me permission to post it here and at mbo.com, so no, sorry: I don't believe at all that he may, as you put it, "have an axe to grind."
Tony Knowles, former Governor of Alaska, who lost to Murkowski and lost to Palin should have a real axe to grind, but we haven't heard a peep from him on this issue or any other issues involving or affected by Sarah Palin.
I do of course share your view that Obama is going to win, and part of it will result from Thursday night when lots of Americans see what a dismal choice McCain made in picking her: Pawlenty, Romney, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia Snow: those would have been formidable and excellent choices, but Johnny just screwed up, and will lose partially because of this, a minor reason yes, but still a reason....
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Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 440 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 10:00:22 PM
I still don't understand John McCain's picking Sarah Palin. I find myself embarrassed for her every time she opens her mouth because nothing pertinent to the questions are ever answered.
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Janis Kay (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 2:32:33 AM
McCain has been stumping this new 'theory of Sarah' suggesting that she has more experience coming into the Executive Branch than did California governor, Ronald Reagan - yes, he uttered this conservative blasphemy - and Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton. Beyond being ludicrous, McCain's assertions and demeanor get scarier daily; he has become delusional.
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Amanda Lang (23 articles, 13845 quicklinks, 431 diaries, 593 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 6:04:47 PM
very insightful, Amanda. sometimes this entire election....
seems deranged and totally delusional, starting with McCain's pick of Madame Mooseburger, as if the ruling party formerly in power has totally lost its marbles, making the USA itself look out to lunch....
After watching early on one of those videos on aerial wolf hunting and her support thereof, I didn't like her at all, and everything since has not only damned my perception of her, but really called into question McCain's sensibility/coherence and his sanity, both in picking her!
Thanks to Amanda, the Managing Editor of OpEdNews.com!!!!!
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Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 440 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 6:40:08 PM
Alaska's a small state, filled with corruption by dollars. Ted Stevens is a prime example, after 36 years in the Senate. Palin can't get quite far away from that stink, as well as hide from the fact that she aided and abetted any and all oil interests, environment be damed.
In view of the fact that no one in the USA, except for former Rep. Halcro and former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, has ever debated, using the term very loosely, with Sarah Palin. Recently on CBS for her talk with Katie Couric, she manifested what a debacle she would be as President when she dragged a network TV crew out to film her pregnant daughter. Nothing but photo ops, at their worst.
We need a government that gets rid of corruption at state and federal levels, not more of the same constitent deficiencies that have put us where we are....
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Eliot Gould (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 134 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 10:18:59 PM
When I first read them last night, sent to me by a member of the Obama Rapid Response Team, as I recall , I was immediately struck by the fact that former Alaska State Representative Andrew Halcro's insights are invaluable, and it is amazing that more national media have not picked up on it, and kudos and appreciation to Rob Kall for recognizing this as important....thousands of Obama supporters have read this story at mybarackobama.com and at opednews.com. It will, for them, provide an excellent background in watching this bimbo in the so-called "debate."
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Stephen Fox (79 articles, 2 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 440 comments)
on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 10:27:05 PM
Someone should send her home until she does her homework
I saw somewhere on a talking heads show about her being like that girl in "Legally Blonde" - good movie, and if people would remember, one of the teachers humiliated her in front of her class mates and made her leave class for coming unprepared. I think that's what should be done with Sarah Palin. If she's going to play in the major leagues, she needs to come prepared and be on topic, or not come at all.
by
EisforEverything (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 4 comments)
on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 12:28:48 AM
Pass the Citizenship exam - you know, the one they give to immigrants and that too many of us can't pass our own selves when we graduate high school .... which is bad enough. But then when someone tries to run for office of civil service (such as U.S. President, Vice President, Governor, etc ...) shouldn't they know the fundamentals behind the government in which they are proposing to work?
by
EisforEverything (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 4 comments)
on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 12:40:15 AM
There should have been some type of qualifications for John to select Sarah. Oh, yes, a proper vetting process would have helped huh?Go figure. (sarcasm directed at McCain).
After hearing some of the ill informed people commenting on other boards and groups and on TV, I really think people also need to pass a test to even be allowed to vote. Too often people vote based on lies and propaganda and I believe that is almost as dangerous as an unqualified VP that could be our President.
by
Janis Kay (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 2:41:35 AM
We need as many different voices out there as possible, who speak from experience, talking about the capacity of potential leaders. Thanks for sharing this perspective.
by
Evon Peter (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 11:27:03 PM
21 comments
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