Joe Biden Debate Prep: Cher? Are You There?
In 1999, Thomas Armstrong wrote a book entitled “Seven Kinds of Smart.” He left out one: Mean Girl Intelligence. And that is the exact ‘kind of smart’ that Ms.Palin has: anyone who has ever attended an American public high school knows just how smart Mean Girls can be.* They excel in sarcasm, quips, self-serving ‘disingenuous’ statements, a k a “lies” and, they’re verbally unusually quick. They have antenna when another is speaking for jumping ahead to what mean thing they can make of what is being spoken. Watch out for Mean Girl Smarts: they cannot be underrated.
So, Governor Granholm: if, in your work with Joe Biden, you are not pulling a Cher in “Moonstruck”–stepping over to him once every 20 minutes and slapping him across the face, telling him to “Snap out of it!” – then we need to find Cher and have her join the debate preparations. (To the literalists out there: lighten up!)
Because if there is one thing often overlooked about Joe Biden in all the (amusing) articles recently written of his verbal gaffes, it is that he is a pussycat. Why? He is in love with a nice woman who loves him back. Also, Joe is ecstatic to have been chosen as Barack Obama’s running mate. So, Joe Biden is happy. Too happy for Thursday’s debate, I would argue.
Governor Granholm, it is your job to toughen that happiness right out of him, only temporarily, because he is going up against a person who will surprise everyone: she will not be tripped up by policy, as she was during her 3 interviews, because the only policy she will address will be in the form of memorized lines, or avenues that lead to the memorized lines. She will have, I estimate, at least 20 killer lines ready with which to mop the floor with Barack Obama, even though she is ostensibly debating Biden. (Think of the enormous success, despite its unbelievable presumptuousness...of her 'mayor v community organizer' line.)And Joe, as one loquacious, voluble, opinionated person to another: when the answer calls for it, do not hesitate to expound. Not everything can be said in 10 words or less. Just say what you know and be ready with your own McCain lines. Have at least 5 really good ones: a wealth of opportunity there. Since McCain staffers love to read the threads of this open site, the specifics I leave up to your team. Or maybe not.
All seriousness aside, all anyone debating Palin would have to keep in mind is the deplorably disrespectful, condescending, insulting "debate" style McCain exhibited last Friday against Senator Obama. I am so mad still, I could debate Palin myself, with no preparation whatsoever. It was a racist display and the pundits let McCain get away with language and attitudes that, has they been spoken against Hillary Clinton, would have elicited a HUGE 'hue and cry' -no pun intended.
* Debate Prep. Necessity: Senator Biden, just watch 15 minutes of the flick, “Mean Girls.” Maybe you can get a sense of the nonsense you will be dealing with: NOT ON THE LEVEL is what anyone with any sense could call Palin. But, she will, nonetheless, do shockingly well. Or plan to. Your job is to stop her. Think of being a (polite) bulldozer: the policy is well-articulated on the Obama/Biden website. Send viewers there. This debate will not be primarily about policy. Altho, "the mission" in Iraq, God, her daugher's privacy v. every other woman in America's reproductive choices have to be aired. Think this week's Omnibus spending bill. Um, can you tell America which state is scheduled to get the most pork? Hint: Its Governor is a woman, and not named Granholm.
