3 posts tagged “sarah palin”

So Sarah Palin didn’t do so very badly in the debate last night. Oh sure, she didn’t answer a lot of questions and clearly wasn’t conversant in a number of topics as Joe Biden, but she didn’t come off as that laughingstock that she did in the Couric interviews.

The polls seem to suggest pretty clearly that Biden won the night. Part of the reason is that people can tell from little clues that Palin isn’t really comfortable talking about these topics. They can tell she’s BSing some and trying to remember what she was told to say. There are verbal ticks she has that reveal her. I’m a little bored at work today so I analyzed some word usage in the debate text.

One of the ways that viewers could tell Palin was rambling is that she used the word “and” with far more frequency than Biden. You know how people who are trying to convince you of something but they aren’t really clear in the topic themselves so they keep piling on more and more so they end up using the word “and” over and over, often beginning sentences with the word? Well, I counted the number of times Palin and Biden said “and” (I told you I was bored) and the figures were:

Palin: 324

Biden: 185

That’s a significant difference.

But my favorite word that she overuses is one that I noticed back in the Couric interviews: "also." She tosses it in at odd points that don’t make any sense or are just unnecessary. The count for “also”?

Palin: 48

Biden: 3

That’s 16 times more than Biden. I considered the possibility that Biden just used the word “too” instead and found something that I hadn’t noticed before, another word Palin tosses in at odd points. For “too” the count was:

Palin: 14

Biden: 0

Like I said, I first noticed the “also” tick in her Couric interviews and spotted it again in the debate. About half way into the debate, I said to my husband, “Watch. When she starts to get flustered, she says ‘also’ over and over.” And sure enough, the more difficult the topic was for her, the more likely she was to say “also.” It looks like the YouTuber, Adam Anger, spotted the tick too.

Below are some of my favorites “also” lines from Palin in the debate. Frequently, the sentences (such as they are) would do better without the word and sometimes using “also” makes no sense.

And I've joined this team that is a team of mavericks with John McCain, also, with his track record of reform, where we're known for putting partisan politics aside to just get the job done.

One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again.

That one I find particularly odd. She starts saying “one thing” but then says “also.” If you say “also,” doesn’t that require that there be more than one thing?

That is not so, but because that's just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy ticket, also.

There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.

The pointless and kooky double-also!

And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there, also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace, and that needs to be done, and that will be top of an agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration.

That's not what we're doing there. We're fighting terrorists, and we're securing democracy, and we're building schools for children there so that there is opportunity in that country, also. There will be a big difference there, and we will win in -- in Afghanistan, also.

But as for as Darfur, we can agree on that also, the supported of the no-fly zone, making sure that all options are on the table there also.

Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also.

We have to fight for our freedoms, also, economic and our national security freedoms.

“Freedoms” is already plural and would presumably include economic and national security freedoms (whatever those are???), so what she says here is kind of like saying, “Sarah Palin shoots animals, also deer and moose.” It’s weirdly redundant and gives listeners a clue that the person speaking isn't really comfortable with the topic and is floundering in the discussion.

Anyway, I was wasting some time counting words in the debates, and if you’re read this, I’ve wasted some time of yours ... also.

There are a couple of weird things about this interview that was supposed to make things better but really makes things worse.

First there is this quote from McCain:

Gov. Palin and I agree that you don't announce that you're going to attack another country ...

That’s kind of an odd thing to say if you voted in favor of giving the President authority to attack Iraq. The whole point of that authorization was supposedly to threaten Iraq so it would comply with the UN. Or at least, that’s what we were told. So surely, McCain does believe that there is a time to “announce that you're going to attack another country.” McCain does believe in the declaration of war, doesn’t he? Is he opposed to the Declaration of Independence that announced the American intention to attack the British? To be fair, it is possible that McCain meant that one shouldn’t announce that one is going to attack another ally, which is how he phrased it at the debate.

But even if we assume that he was talking about allies, is he suggesting that the issue of whether or not the US should strike at terrorists across boarders is not something that should be discussed by the voters? This seems like a pretty important topic, and therefore, it seems like voters should be able to ask a Presidential candidate his thoughts on the matter. McCain seems to be suggesting that he would do what Obama says he would do, but he doesn’t want anyone to know he’d do it, as if springing an attack in Pakistan would be a better idea.

But here is where it starts to get really surreal. Palin says this:

Well, as Sen. McCain is suggesting here, also, never would our administration get out there and show our cards to terrorists, in this case, to enemies and let them know what the game plan was, not when that could ultimately adversely affect a plan to keep America secure.

Frankly, I don’t agree that telling terrorists that you will kill them if you get the chance even if they are hiding in Pakistan is going to surprise them greatly. I don’t think it is tipping our hand, and I don’t think it would negatively affect a plan to keep America secure, but apparently, Palin does think this, and yet she still told that guy outside the pizza joint that she would do it. McCain and Palin claim that she was the victim of gotcha journalism, so it seems that we are to believe that Palin can be tricked into risking our national security by sneaky folks lingering around pizza parlors or as Palin calls them, voters.

If this is how she handles the secret plans in the War on Terrorism, I wonder how she’d have handled WWII? It might go something like this:

Katie Couric: Over the weekend, Gov. Palin, you were asked what we should do about the Nazis and you said, “We’re going to invade Normandy on June 6, 1944.” Do you think that’s something you should have said out loud?

Sarah Palin: We had a great discussion with Prime Minster Churchill as we talked about what it is that America can and should be doing together to make sure that the Nazis do not ultimately put themselves in a position of attacking America again or her allies. And we will do what we have to do to secure the United States of America and her allies.

Couric: Is that something you shouldn't say out loud, Sen. McCain?

John McCain: Of course not. But, look, I understand this day and age of "gotcha" journalism. Is that a pizza place? In a conversation with someone who you didn't hear … the question very well, you don't know the context of the conversation, grab a phrase. Gov. Palin and I agree that you don't announce the date that you're going to attack another country …

Couric: Are you sorry you said it?

McCain: … and the fact …

Couric: Governor?

McCain: Wait a minute. Before you say, "is she sorry she said it," this was a "gotcha" sound bite that, look …

Couric: It wasn't a "gotcha." She was talking to a voter.

McCain: No, she was in a conversation with a group of people and talking back and forth. And … I'll let Gov. Palin speak for herself.

Palin: Well, it … in fact, you're absolutely right on. In the context, this was a voter, a constituent, hollering out a question from across an area asking, "What are you gonna do about Germany? You better have an answer to Germany." I said we're gonna do what we have to do to protect the United States of America.

Couric: But you were pretty specific about what you wanted to do, invade Normandy on June 6, 1944…

Palin: Well, as Sen. McCain is suggesting here, also, never would our administration get out there and show our cards to Nazis, in this case, to enemies and let them know what the game plan was, not when that could ultimately adversely affect a plan to keep America secure.

Couric: What did you learn from that experience?

Palin: That this is all about "gotcha" journalism. A lot of it is. But that's okay, too.  And remember that's Normandy on June 6, 1944. Oh, you tricked me into saying it again!

Are kidding me? Seriously, not only is living near a foreign country not foreign policy experience, if you think it is, you clearly do not have any idea what foreign policy is! This would be laughable if it wasn't so very, very dangerous. Does she think she's fooling anyone? If so, that is worse because she doesn't realize how very, very little she knows. If this was satire, it would be farfetched. That it is reality is something beyond absurd, beyond surreal. If someone told me "Scott, clearly you have gone insane because the odds of you having flipped out and hallucinating this are far greater than someone like this actually being a serious Vice Presidential candidate." I'm not sure I could disagree. She has lived in an English-speaking country for her entire life, but she can't string an English sentence together. How the hell has she absorbed knowledge of Russia from across the Bering Straight?