Gotcha Journalism

I don't know what kind of vice president or president Palin will make (although I have an idea), but I do like her catchy phrases:

"If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," Palin told the voter during the exchange, which was captured on video.

Except McCain chided Obama during Friday's presidential debate for saying publicly that he supports striking terrorist targets inside Pakistan if the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to do so.

McCain, who sat with Palin, said in Monday's interview that he understands "the day and age of 'gotcha' journalism. ... 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 that you're going to attack another country."

Palin added that "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."

Asked what she learned from the experience, Palin said: "That this is all about "gotcha" journalism. A lot of it is. But that's OK, too."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080930/ap_on_el_pr/palin_pakistan

 

"As Alaskans, it was our job when we woke up in the morning to look outside and see if we saw any Russians walking around. Then we would go up to 'em and say 'Whatcha doin here?' and if they couldn't answer we would saw 'Shooo, get out of here.' "

-Pop

 

She's in over her head right now and the press smells blood in the water, and blood in the water for them means ratings.

Does she have the chops to take advice from experts and arrive at the optimal decision? Perhaps. Does she know much herself? Not really, but she seems to have a good gut for what's right and wrong. Reagan led that way, and it worked. Bush 43 led that way, and the results were mixed.

 

That's true on both sides.

 

By the same token, the Republicans made a better choice in McCain than Obama if we're talking experience. And isn't the top of the ticket more important?

 

She scared the crap out of me when she was picked and hasn't done anything yet to change my mind.

 

Do you believe Joe Biden is much smarter than Sarah Palin? I think if you put Sarah Palin in the Senate for 36 years she probably is a better candidate than Biden.

 

There's a difference between being well-spoken and intelligent. Most people are fooled.

 

Keywords that signal you have just screwed up and are trying to hide it:
Gotcha journalism
Blame game
Now is not the time
Mistakes were made

I think Mrs. Palin needs to decide soon that she needs to spend more time with her family. (That, by the way, is my all-time favorite political euphemism. Whenever a politician says that, I always wonder, "How does your family feel about that?")

 

I don't suspect that's necessary. The die has been struck, and Obama is going to win this election. All he has to do is play defense. He's won the spin game. There is nothing that can be done by McCain to change the dynamic of this election; he lost his last chance when he didn't take posession of solving this crisis.

It will be interesting to see what the populace does in 2010 after two years of a completely aligned Legislative and Executive branch on the Left.

 

Joe Biden is extremely well-spoken. His errors have to do with his ideas, not his phrasing.

 

Yup, Obama has moved into a position where it looks like we may have an electoral slaughtering of McCain at this point. He's ahead by 5-10 points depending on which tracker you look at. McCain and Palin both have negative favorabilities.

The only problem with Palin dropping out is that it's admitting surrender.

From 538

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