#1
Posted: 10/4/08 at 11:50am
October 4, 2008
NY Times Op-Ed Columnist Charles M. Blow
THE JOE BIDEN SHOW
I expected Sarah Palin to perform well in Thursday’s debate, so I wanted to watch it with the most conservative crowd I could find. (In truth, after her horrendous performance with Katie Couric, anything short of her head spinning around and spewing vomit would have been considered an improvement.)
I went to the unlikely Jake’s Saloon in Chelsea in Manhattan where the New York Young Republican Club was gathering to watch (on Fox).
It was packed and festive. Fresh young faces (and a surprising number of old ones) swigged beer and sipped cocktails. People passed around hand-painted “NY ♥ Palin” posters. A man hawked Palin-as-Rosie the Riveter T-shirts from a shopping bag.
I knew that I had chosen the right place when I overheard the conversation of a couple next to me. The young man, pointing to his nametag, said, “my grandmother would have a heart attack if she saw me with this on.” A young woman across the table asked why. “Because she’s an old pinko socialist. She grew up on the Upper West Side,” he said. Nice. Right place.
I settled into the corner as the noise lowered and the debate started.
Palin launched into her charm offensive — winking, smiling, dodging questions and speaking in her signature Sarah-phonics , a mash up of sentence fragments and colloquialisms glued together with misplaced also’s and there’s — gibberish really. Everyone in the bar lapped it up. It was The Sarah Palin Show.
As it became clear that she wasn’t going to implode, I started to see the debate instead as The Joe Biden Show. And, it was good.
Through the booing and hissing, I saw a strong, authoritative, confident and sensitive candidate emerge. On the whole, he came across as intelligent and relatable; a real person. That’s a quality that often eludes Barack Obama.
Biden’s job in many ways was to reintroduce himself to Americans. Palin had stolen the spotlight, and he was campaigning in the shadows. The media was ignoring him. Voters didn’t know him. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 32 percent of Democrats, 38 percent of independents and 41 percent of Republicans said they didn’t know or had no answer when asked to say what they most liked about Biden.
That night he reintroduced himself with panache and probably further strengthened an already strengthening Democratic ticket.
Joe, you done good. Hey, can I call you Joe?
The Joe Biden Show
"Be on your guard! Jerks on the loose!"
http://www.roches.com/television/ss83kod.html
**********
"If any relationship involves a flow chart, get out of it...FAST!"
~ Best12Bars
NY Times Op-Ed Columnist Charles M. Blow
THE JOE BIDEN SHOW
I expected Sarah Palin to perform well in Thursday’s debate, so I wanted to watch it with the most conservative crowd I could find. (In truth, after her horrendous performance with Katie Couric, anything short of her head spinning around and spewing vomit would have been considered an improvement.)
I went to the unlikely Jake’s Saloon in Chelsea in Manhattan where the New York Young Republican Club was gathering to watch (on Fox).
It was packed and festive. Fresh young faces (and a surprising number of old ones) swigged beer and sipped cocktails. People passed around hand-painted “NY ♥ Palin” posters. A man hawked Palin-as-Rosie the Riveter T-shirts from a shopping bag.
I knew that I had chosen the right place when I overheard the conversation of a couple next to me. The young man, pointing to his nametag, said, “my grandmother would have a heart attack if she saw me with this on.” A young woman across the table asked why. “Because she’s an old pinko socialist. She grew up on the Upper West Side,” he said. Nice. Right place.
I settled into the corner as the noise lowered and the debate started.
Palin launched into her charm offensive — winking, smiling, dodging questions and speaking in her signature Sarah-phonics , a mash up of sentence fragments and colloquialisms glued together with misplaced also’s and there’s — gibberish really. Everyone in the bar lapped it up. It was The Sarah Palin Show.
As it became clear that she wasn’t going to implode, I started to see the debate instead as The Joe Biden Show. And, it was good.
Through the booing and hissing, I saw a strong, authoritative, confident and sensitive candidate emerge. On the whole, he came across as intelligent and relatable; a real person. That’s a quality that often eludes Barack Obama.
Biden’s job in many ways was to reintroduce himself to Americans. Palin had stolen the spotlight, and he was campaigning in the shadows. The media was ignoring him. Voters didn’t know him. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 32 percent of Democrats, 38 percent of independents and 41 percent of Republicans said they didn’t know or had no answer when asked to say what they most liked about Biden.
That night he reintroduced himself with panache and probably further strengthened an already strengthening Democratic ticket.
Joe, you done good. Hey, can I call you Joe?
The Joe Biden Show
http://www.roches.com/television/ss83kod.html
**********
"If any relationship involves a flow chart, get out of it...FAST!"
~ Best12Bars
