Friday, September 26, 2008

Gaffe Avoidance

I think Fallows probably had the best early take on Palin here ... the punchline:

"Let's assume that Sarah Palin is exactly as smart and disciplined as Barack Obama. But instead of the year and a half of nonstop campaigning he has behind him, and Joe Biden's even longer toughening-up process, she comes into the most intense period of the highest stakes campaign with absolutely zero warmup or preparation ... The smartest person in the world could not prepare quickly enough to know the pitfalls, ... So the prediction is: unavoidable gaffes."
and he comes back today riding the vindication train:

"My for-the-sake-of-argument assumption was unwarranted. She is not as smart or disciplined as Barack Obama. If she were, she would sound better than she does at this point. And the McCain team has done absolutely nothing to defuse these problems -- nor, to be honest, has Palin herself apparently learned the first thing about successfully finessing questions she is not ready to handle."

The only issue I take with this is that Palin's biggest sin isn't really the "gaffe." In fact, she may have mastered the only way to avoid constant gaffes: saying absolutely NOTHING, even when she's talking.

-Education Dude

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