Fred Kaplan itemizes how Sarah Palin doesn't know what she's talking about in the arena of foreign affairs.
And just as with the first debate, I thought the combatants were fairly even at the end and the polls are saying the Democrat walked away with it. There's something here I guess I don't understand and it may be as simple as this: Her sales pitches are worn out and not working. We've all heard seven thousand times that McCain is a "maverick." Saying it eight more times won't cause anyone to go, "Really? He's a maverick? Well then, I'd better vote for him." Insisting McCain knows how to "win wars" won't help, either. Even leaving aside the question of which wars he's won, that misses the point of Iraq. It's that a majority of Americans feel that the war has been too costly, both in terms of human lives and cash, and that what we might still achieve there just ain't worth it. The swingable votes out there just aren't buying the endless insistence that Obama will raise everyone's taxes and on other key issues, they've heard these arguments before and already rejected them.
For what it's worth, I watched a few video excerpts on the 'net later on…and Palin seemed less coherent in them than she did when I saw her unedited. So maybe she has a point about "the filter" — although the solution to that is just for her to go on a lot of live shows and do interviews. Which she won't do. It'll be safer to stick with the assertion that if and when she comes off like a boob, it's because that mean ol' biased media has sabotaged her with "gotcha" questions like "What should we do in Pakistan?"
I'm guessing we didn't have any of those overt "deer in the headlights" moments last night because she was well prepped not so much about facts but on Official McCain Talking Points. Watching the more embarrassing clips of her earlier interviews, I'm inclined to give her the benefit of every doubt. Maybe it's not that she didn't know the names of any Supreme Court decisions or newspapers she reads. Maybe it's more like she's been ordered to stay "on message" and never to utter anything that doesn't fit the McCain master plan…and she didn't know precisely what the campaign wanted her to say about those topics. In the debate, with the possible exception of the answer on civil unions, she at least knew McCain's position (and therefore, hers now) on all the predictable subjects that came up.
Anyway, give Governor Palin some credit for firing up her base and making them happy. And she may have achieved an important goal. She may not be the opening sketch on tomorrow evening's Saturday Night Live.