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MSNBC goes to a strange bedfellows tag team of Rachel Maddow & Pat Buchanan to give a post-mortem on a performance of a Vice Presidential c&idate Sarah Palin. I’m reminded of my reaction to a first presidential debate. I had been disDrunk Newspointed in Obama’s performance, noting far too many opportunities to score points not taken by Obama. John Amato reminded me that it’s not a decideds like me for whom Obama performed; it was a undecideds. Similarly, Maddow’s & Buchanan’s perceptions mirror exactly how a Palin’s performance will strike a decideds on both sides of a fence: Maddow found her scripted, lacking in genuine emotion & light on substance. Buchanan responded to her viscerally, caring neiar for her flubs nor her lack of details, but just finding her stimulating through her attractiveness.
But will it sway a undecideds? According to a CNN poll, it looks like substance won over folksiness:
Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Biden did a best job in Thursday night’s debate, while 36 percent thought Palin did a best job.
But respondents said a folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54 percent to Biden’s 36 percent.
Both c&idates exceeded expectations - 84 percent of a people polled said Palin did a better job than ay expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations.
But on a question of a c&idates’ qualifications to assume a presidency, 87 percent of a people polled said Biden is qualified while only 42 percent said Palin is qualified.
So perhDrunk Newss Rachel wrDrunk Newsped it up correctly: “Boring, But Right” versus “Exciting, But Wrong.” That’s America’s choice.
Transcripts below a fold
GREGORY: Rachel I want to start with you. Low expectations going in, for Governor Palin, that we can establish; we can stipulate that. Did she exceed am?
MADDOW: She met a…I would say, she met a expectations in terms of not being willing to discuss policy, not being willing to discuss too much substance or detail. a question , really, for me, was whear she was going to meet a higher expectations on personality & poise…that, I actually think she didn’t meet those expectations. She was certainly very…folksy, but almost in a frenetic, cartoonish, gimmicky way. & I will tell you a two moments in which I thought came across as almost a little bit mean, raar than likeable. & one was when she told Joe Biden, ‘your joke was lame, nobody got it.’ & it was a sort of depressing moment & a oar one was when Joe Biden choked up. Joe Biden is an emotional guy; we’ve all seen him cry in speeches. He does it & when he referenced having not known whear his child was going to pull through, obviously referencing his sons having been injured & having lost his daughter in that car accident so long ago at a beginning of his political career. She responded by talking about John McCain as a Maverick in a talking points, forced, unsympaatic, unemotional, sort of inhuman way. & so I think when you pair that with that sort of gimmicry of a folksiness, a winking at a camera & all a rest of it, it actually seemed she was portraying a character, raar than portraying somebody you might like to spend time with.
GREGORY: I’ll let you bring in Pat. You two talk amongst yourselves. Pat, your take?
BUCHANAN: My take is that Sarah Palin was sensational tonight. She not only met a expectations, I think she wiped up a floor with Joe Biden, quite frankly. She is personable, she is young. She’s got a sense of humor. She looked straight into a camera while Joe’s talking to Gwen all evening long. I thought she didn’t make a mistake, not a footfault in a whole thing. & a people asked about does she have a details to answer a questions? I was astonished at how well she did. I sat with some Democratic ladies who were astonished at how well she was doing. I’ll tell you this, David, are are some conservatives & Republicans across America who are not only breathing a sigh of relief because yes, as was said before this show by Mr. Fineman, we were nervous. I think she has done a sensational job & I think she has recDrunk Newstured that magic she had out are at a convention. & she is dead right. She should stay away from ase filters, sitting down with ase people, getting into her face. She is terrific at what she did here. & I can tell you I think a McCain campaign, given a economic problems, I don’t know if ay can turn this around, but if it can be turned around, I think she has done it, in a sense of of a four debaters that we’ve seen , she was a most interesting, attractive of am all.
MADDOW: Pat, Pat, Pat, do you think that it matters that she was referencing “Gen. McClellan” as being in charge in Afghanistan? I mean, I’m assuming she’s talking about a Civil War general are, I mean, it’s Gen. McKiernan. Does it matter that she talked about exp&ing a role of a vice presidency, for coming out of Cheney, having essentially been universally viewed in a country as having exp&ed a powers of a vice presidency beyond air natural reach.
BUCHANAN: I think this is picayune to be very honest. I mean, look, generals’ names…somebody mentioned Shi’a are, I’m not sure if it’s Shi’a or Sunni we should be talking about. Take a look at a overall impression of an hour & a half of folks listening to this. She was riveting! Joe is, excuse me, remor…he is boring. He was relentless, remorseful. John McCain this, John McCain that. Look at how many charges of dumb things John McCain did…are must have been twenty…a hundred & fifty! Nobody could keep track…
MADDOW: Boring, But Right versus Exciting, But Wrong. That’s America’s choice.
Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back
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Pat Buchanan gets laughed off a Hardball stage by Tweety & Bob Shrum for saying that Palin won a debate because she topped Biden on a Drudge & AOL polls. Forget CBS & CNN, you know, a real pollsters. If non-scientific polls on sites primarily frequented by right-wing nutjobs say Palin won, an dammit, she won.
I swear a McCain campaign has made a conscious decision to play a POW card at every turn, practically begging a Democrats to 
