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“Joe six pack and hockey moms”

She came from Alaska, she winked at the camera, and she talked the talk to Americans at "their kitchen table."

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She came from Alaska and stared down the barrel of the camera to her audience, but Sarah Palin proved a brash communicator in today’s Vice Presidential Debate, showing why she has attracted such media in the US.

Governor Palin addressed her message to “Joe six pack and hockey moms.” She even winked -twice.  She mentioned Alaska so many times you could have thought she was running for Alaska.

But she looked a lot fresher than the greying Joe Biden Jr., whose media skills didn’t seem quite so adept. Palin even managed to come up with firm answers to a cross section of subjects including the financial meltdown, tax, energy, same sex marriage, and wars, several of them.

In capturing local voter frustration, she said people were crying, “Government just get out of my way” and that her Palin / McCain ticket was the answer.

“We’re gonna fight for America,” she added, and she echoed Ronald Reagan and a call to fight for freedom.

When it came to Iraq and Afghanistan, Palin leaned on her running mate, war hero John McCain.

“He knows what evil is,” she said. “He’ll know how to win a war.” She also spoke of leaving Iraq with “victory” close at hand.

Palin had plenty of sound bites that packaged her as a woman of the people.

In contrast, Biden initially traded off his experience but later tried to match her with her everyman talk, inviting her to see how tough the locals were doing it, “come up to Scranton” he said. Borrowing Palin’s descriptive language, he said he understood what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table too, “lookin’ for help.”

Compared to the Obama v McCain debate this event was far more interesting.

By the end of the 90 mins, it was hard not to see Palin as the winner for her charisma …..but will America let her anywhere near the oval office?

32 Responses

  1. I think she’s b-crap, if the best tactic she has is to wink and refer to being a mayor of Alaska so many times. It’s like referring to being a proud owner of a freewebs site.. anyways, I do think she’s a female McCain and younger… she tries and communicate with the viewer well, but with a wink and refering to Alaska?? C’mon! In a recent interview that we can find on youtube, she thinks it’s better for a 15 year old girl raped by her father to NOT have an abortion. She’s a bit too pro-life. She also mentioned somewhere that Biden is too old, but isn’t that ironic with who she’s partnering.

  3. I don’t think she did remarkably well by any standards. Palin is a former news reporter, of course she knows how to get up in front of an audience and give a speech. Her answers felt fairly rehearsed and she often didn’t respond to the question at hand, rather rambling off onto a tangent about something else. In comparison Biden stayed on topic, addressed the questions asked of him and seemed rather human, especially when discussing the personal tragedies that have occurred in life. Palin actually came off as rather nasty at some stages.

    And just to make comment on what some other people have said about this being on a TV website, I actually agree that it does seem out of place (yes, I see the irony after I just gave my comment on it). I had no problem with the initial report, but a play-by-play of the debate does seem a little unnecessary. That being said, the more Tina Fey impression of Palin, the better 😛

  4. I wonder if 7 screened the episode of Family Guy where Lois runs for Mayor the night before on purpose. From what little I’ve seen it stuck me as an funny conincidence. Did Palin mention 911?

  8. Beretbang – these days the american election probably has almost as much significance as the Australian election for us 😛

    I mean, Kevin Rudd can commit to lowering greenhouse emissions, but on a world scale it is the Americans that will make all the difference.

  9. This has been covered by various media today, including our US programing imports so I do think it is newsworthy. If you don’t want to read about it, simply don’t!

  10. Maybe we should take everything that isn’t Australian off TV? This site tracks content that’s ON Australian television, together with news that is likely to reverberate here. The debate was enough for ABC and SBS to alter their programming, and is all over newspaper websites in Oz. Other shows including Insight and Foreign Correspondent have also been covering it, including on location in the US.

    You should expect more to be covered on this site as the event nears, in the same way as other international events on Aussie telly are relevant. Especially if Tina Fey has anything more to say! That said, it’s a balancing act…

  13. Dave said :

    “Matt, we certainly hope not! She’s the last person I’d vote for but I reckon she won that round for her ability to communicate to the viewer.”

    Dave!! Its Australia!! We don’t vote for American Politicians!!!!!
    Why on Earth are we reading about an American Vice President Candidate on an Australian TV Website?
    Why is the Sydney based media and the lesbian/gay media so obsessed with this person? Of course, its gender/sexist based, we will be seeing no pieces on men I can surely bet.
    When will an Australian News/Media outlet actually use there independent brain for a change?

  16. Come on David, you’re sounding like Republican mouth piece. Low expectations helped Palin immensely, but because she didn’t crash and burn she won?
    Puh-lease.

    Let’s see her at a press conference in front of the media before we call winners and losers.

    Could the moderator let her get away with going around the questions and not answering… At least Couric stuck it to her.

    Don’t get me wrong, she did well, but her as a winner. I don’t think so.

  17. I am still yet to see a close up pic of Biden posted anywhere… he is completely overshadowed by Palin in meida covereage terms.

    Have the debates in the past been predictive of who actually wins the election?

  18. I agree with Matt – Biden didn’t quite mop the floor with Palin, but he was the superior debater in the end. Let’s all hope the American voters see past Sarah Palin’s shallowness come election day…

  22. Please,please do not let this fruit loop anywhere near the white house! Someone said she is like a female dubya and they aren’t wrong she is scary stupid.

  25. WTF? Everyone is saying Palin did a good job but all I saw was Mrs Fumble the whole time.. I don’t care who wins either way so I’m not biased but the old dude had it won…well at least I thought he did.

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