The Hot File

I’m getting a tension headache from all the teeth grinding I’m doing this morning reading EVERY debate post-mortem in what seems EVERY newspaper, blog, etc.  How can ANYONE claim that the debate was a draw?  Or that Palin had actually won?  Why the surprise over Palin’s expectation game win?  Clearly she was going to coast by because these were the boxes she needed to check: use a noun, verb and direct object (in that order) and litter her responses with self-laudatory claims of swiveling maverick moves.  Not hard extemporaneous exercise.  What the heck was everyone watching? Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

My guess it that perhaps those political junkies overdosing on the election have forgotten what’s at stake here.  This is about a candidate’s case to the American public that he or she is ready to take control of the highest office in the land.   This is about a candidate’s ability and preparation to take on two wars–both domestic and foreign on the economy and in Iraq.  Sarah Palin did NOT pass that test last night and not by a mile.  I can’t help but wonder just how low this imaginary bar was set for Sarah Palin.  Was it just above speaking jibberish and stumbling along non-sequiturs.  Is this really the expectation we’ve set for the first woman ever to run for Vice President on the Republican ticket?  And does her reaching that bar really translate into victory?  To be perfectly honest, I find this sort of analysis by the VAST majority of news analysis today to be downright sexist.  Yeah I said it. John McCain and Sarah Palin can slyly accuse the elite media of playing gotcha games with the Governor of Alaska, with faint implications of sexism lying beneath the surface, but I say the real charge of sexism is the media’s glowing coverage of an unequivocally lousy performance.