VP Debate

Well, I guess I'll be the first to admit that Sarah Palin was not a total trainwreck. However, does that really mean that she did such a bang-up job of the debate...Not quite. First of all, she seems to have a problem getting her subject-verb agreement correct, which is a basic form of grammar we all learn in school rather early. Also, she isn't very good at answering questions, as on more than one occasion she completely avoided answering the questions put to her. So I certainly wouldn't say she was a shining example of a great political debater.
Interestingly enough, of course the die-hard Republicans are claiming that she did such an awesome job because, quite frankly, they needed her to not make a total ass of herself. The fact remains that no one really CARED about McCain's candidacy until he nominated her (conveniently waiting of course to make sure the Dems wouldn't put Hillary on the ticket, thereby making sure he had the only female), and then as soon as she was chosen there was a ton of interest in his campaign. Good ole Sarah made a total fool of herself in her interview with Katie Couric (big surprise), and so off to debate camp. They have spent weeks prepping her for this debate, so of course she was going to repeat the things she was told to say. On that score, she did okay. She certainly wasn't a total mess in the debates last night for sure, but let's not fool ourselves: The bar was already set so low that all she had to do was get through it without any major mistakes in order to claim it as a victory. But, as the polls seem to be showing this morning, she did nothing to change the minds of people who were undecided. In fact, it seems that for the most part, all she did was further shore up the people who were going to vote Republican no matter who was in her spot. AND PLEASE GOD do we have to have ANOTHER politician who can't say the word "nuclear" correctly? CAN SOMEONE tell the Republicans that there is only ONE "U" in that word? Sarah Palin, much like her buddy Bushy Boy, mispronounced the word numerous times last night.
Isn't it sad that our expectations of our politicians are so low that all Sarah Palin had to do was not be a total trainwreck in order to be successful? Shouldn't we have somewhat higher expectations of them? I mean sure it's nice when you have politicians who can appeal to the "average Joe," but personally I do like to feel that the people running my country are a little bit smarter than me (or hell, at least a little more knowledgeable about the world). As someone else said to me, "She may be a hockey mom, but is that truly who I want in the Situation Room if the President is unavailable?"